Holy Bible - World English Bible

1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

²Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God's Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.

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

⁴God saw the light, and saw that it was good. God divided the light from the darkness.

⁵God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. There was evening and there was morning, one day.

⁶God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."

⁷God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse, and it was so.

⁸God called the expanse sky. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.

⁹God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear," and it was so.

¹⁰God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas. God saw that it was good.

¹¹God said, "Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with its seed in it, on the earth," and it was so.

¹²The earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with its seed in it, after their kind: and God saw that it was good.

¹³There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

¹⁴God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;

¹⁵and let them be for lights in the expanse of sky to give light on the earth," and it was so.

¹⁶God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars.

¹⁷God set them in the expanse of sky to give light to the earth,

¹⁸and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good.

¹⁹There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

²⁰God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of sky."

²¹God created the large sea creatures, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.

²²God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."

²³There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

²⁴God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind," and it was so.

²⁵God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.

²⁶God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

²⁷God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them.

²⁸God blessed them. God said to them, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

²⁹God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.

³⁰To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food." And it was so.

³¹God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

2The heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

²On the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

³God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work which he had created and made.

⁴This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made earth and the heavens.

⁵No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground,

⁶but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground.

⁷Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

⁸Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

⁹Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁰A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became four heads.

¹¹The name of the first is Pishon: this is the one which flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

¹²and the gold of that land is good. There is aromatic resin and the onyx stone.

¹³The name of the second river is Gihon: the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.

¹⁴The name of the third river is Hiddekel: this is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

¹⁶Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat:

¹⁷but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die."

¹⁸Yahweh God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."

¹⁹Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

²⁰The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper suitable for him.

²¹Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.

²²He made the rib, which Yahweh God had taken from the man, into a woman, and brought her to the man.

²³The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

²⁴Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.

²⁵They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

3Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, "Yes, has God said, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?'"

²The woman said to the serpent, "Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat,

³but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"

⁴The serpent said to the woman, "You won't surely die,

⁵for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as God, knowing good and evil."

⁶When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit of it, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.

⁷Both of their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

⁸They heard the voice of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.

⁹Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"

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

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

¹²The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate."

¹³Yahweh God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

¹⁴Yahweh God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above every animal of the field. On your belly shall you go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel."

¹⁶To the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

¹⁷To Adam he said, "Because you have listened to your wife's voice, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

¹⁸Thorns also and thistles will it bring forth to you; and you will eat the herb of the field.

¹⁹By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

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

²¹Yahweh God made coats of skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.

²²Yahweh God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he put forth his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever..."

²³Therefore Yahweh God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

²⁴So he drove out the man; and he placed Cherubs at the east of the garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

4The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, "I have gotten a man with Yahweh's help."

²Again she gave birth, to Cain's brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

³As time passed, it happened that Cain brought an offering to Yahweh from the fruit of the ground.

⁴Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and of the fat of it. Yahweh respected Abel and his offering,

⁵but he didn't respect Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and the expression on his face fell.

⁶Yahweh said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen?

⁷If you do well, will it not be lifted up? If you don't do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it."

⁸Cain said to Abel, his brother, "Let's go into the field." It happened, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

⁹Yahweh said to Cain, "Where is Abel, your brother?" He said, "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?"

¹⁰Yahweh said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground.

¹¹Now you are cursed because of the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

¹²From now on, when you till the ground, it won't yield its strength to you. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth."

¹³Cain said to Yahweh, "My punishment is greater than I can bear.

¹⁴Behold, you have driven me out this day from the surface of the ground. I will be hidden from your face, and I will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. It will happen that whoever finds me will kill me."

¹⁵Yahweh said to him, "Therefore whoever slays Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold." Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain, lest any finding him should strike him.

¹⁶Cain went out from Yahweh's presence, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

¹⁷Cain knew his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Enoch. He built a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

¹⁸To Enoch was born Irad. Irad became the father of Mehujael. Mehujael became the father of Methushael. Methushael became the father of Lamech.

¹⁹Lamech took two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

²⁰Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the father of those who dwell in tents and have cattle.

²¹His brother's name was Jubal, who was the father of all who handle the harp and pipe.

²²Zillah also gave birth to Tubal-Cain, the forger of every cutting instrument of brass and iron. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.

²³Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice, You wives of Lamech, listen to my speech, For I have slain a man for wounding me, A young man for bruising me.

²⁴If Cain will be avenged seven times, Truly Lamech seventy-seven times.

²⁵Adam knew his wife again. She gave birth to a son, and named him Seth. For, she said, "God has appointed me another child instead of Abel, for Cain killed him."

²⁶There was also born a son to Seth, and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on Yahweh's name.

5This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in God's likeness.

²He created them male and female, and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

³Adam lived one hundred thirty years, and became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

⁴The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he became the father of sons and daughters.

⁵All the days that Adam lived were nine hundred thirty years, then he died.

⁶Seth lived one hundred five years, and became the father of Enosh.

⁷Seth lived after he became the father of Enosh eight hundred seven years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

⁸All the days of Seth were nine hundred twelve years, then he died.

⁹Enosh lived ninety years, and became the father of Kenan.

¹⁰Enosh lived after he became the father of Kenan, eight hundred fifteen years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

¹¹All the days of Enosh were nine hundred five years, then he died.

¹²Kenan lived seventy years, and became the father of Mahalalel.

¹³Kenan lived after he became the father of Mahalalel eight hundred forty years, and became the father of sons and daughters

¹⁴and all the days of Kenan were nine hundred ten years, then he died.

¹⁵Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Jared.

¹⁶Mahalalel lived after he became the father of Jared eight hundred thirty years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

¹⁷All the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred ninety-five years, then he died.

¹⁸Jared lived one hundred sixty-two years, and became the father of Enoch.

¹⁹Jared lived after he became the father of Enoch eight hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

²⁰All the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty-two years, then he died.

²¹Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah.

²²Enoch walked with God after he became the father of Methuselah three hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

²³all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years.

²⁴Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

²⁵Methuselah lived one hundred eighty-seven years, and became the father of Lamech.

²⁶Methuselah lived after he became the father of Lamech seven hundred eighty-two years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

²⁷All the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty-nine years, then he died.

²⁸Lamech lived one hundred eighty-two years, and became the father of a son,

²⁹and he named him Noah, saying, "This same will comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, because of the ground which Yahweh has cursed."

³⁰Lamech lived after he became the father of Noah five hundred ninety-five years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

³¹All the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy-seven years, then he died.

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

6It happened, when men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them,

²that God's sons saw that men's daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose.

³Yahweh said, "My spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; yet will his days be one hundred twenty years."

⁴The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God's sons came to men's daughters. They bore children to them: the same were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

⁵Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

⁶Yahweh was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.

⁷Yahweh said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground; man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."

⁸But Noah found favor in Yahweh's eyes.

⁹This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.

¹⁰Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

¹²God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

¹³God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

¹⁴Make an ark of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ark, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.

¹⁵This is how you shall make it. The length of the ark will be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.

¹⁶You shall make a roof in the ark, and to a cubit shall you finish it upward. You shall set the door of the ark in the side of it. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.

¹⁷I, even, I do bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.

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

¹⁹Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.

²⁰Of the birds after their kind, of the cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort shall come to you, to keep them alive.

²¹Take with you of all food that is eaten, and gather it to you; and it will be for food for you, and for them.

²²Thus Noah did. According to all that God commanded him, so he did.

7Yahweh said to Noah, "Come with all of your household into the ark, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.

²You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female.

³Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth.

⁴In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. Every living thing that I have made, I will destroy from the surface of the ground."

⁵Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.

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

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

⁸Clean animals, animals that are not clean, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground

⁹went by pairs to Noah into the ark, male and female, as God commanded Noah.

¹⁰It happened after the seven days, that the waters of the flood came on the earth.

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep were burst open, and the sky's windows were opened.

¹²The rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ark;

¹⁴they, and every animal after its kind, all the cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.

¹⁵They went to Noah into the ark, by pairs of all flesh with the breath of life in them.

¹⁶Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; and Yahweh shut him in.

¹⁷The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth.

¹⁸The waters prevailed, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.

¹⁹The waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered.

²⁰The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered.

²¹All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, cattle, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.

²²All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, of all that was on the dry land, died.

²³Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, cattle, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.

²⁴The waters prevailed on the earth one hundred fifty days.

8God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.

²The deep's fountains and the sky's windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

³The waters receded from off the earth continually. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters decreased.

⁴The ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat's mountains.

⁵The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

⁶It happened at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made,

⁷and he sent forth a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

⁸He sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the surface of the ground,

⁹but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him into the ark; for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ark.

¹⁰He stayed yet another seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.

¹¹The dove came back to him at evening, and, behold, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

¹²He stayed yet another seven days, and sent forth the dove; and she didn't return to him any more.

¹³It happened in the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dried.

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

¹⁵God spoke to Noah, saying,

¹⁶"Go forth from the ark, you, and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you.

¹⁷Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, cattle, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth."

¹⁸Noah went forth, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives with him.

¹⁹Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went forth out of the ark.

²⁰Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

²¹Yahweh smelled the sweet savor. Yahweh said in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike everything living, as I have done.

²²While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

9God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

²The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that the ground teems with, and all the fish of the sea are delivered into your hand.

³Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As the green herb, I have given everything to you.

⁴But flesh with the life of it, the blood of it, you shall not eat.

⁵I will surely require your blood of your lives. At the hand of every animal I will require it. At the hand of man, even at the hand of every man's brother, I will require the life of man.

⁶Whoever sheds man's blood, by man will his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man.

⁷Be fruitful, and multiply. Bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply in it."

⁸God spoke to Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,

⁹"As for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you,

¹⁰and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every animal of the earth with you. Of all that go out of the ark, even every animal of the earth.

¹¹I will establish my covenant with you; neither will all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood; neither will there any more be a flood to destroy the earth."

¹²God said, "This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

¹³I set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth.

¹⁴It will happen, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow will be seen in the cloud,

¹⁵and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh, and the waters will no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

¹⁶The rainbow will be in the cloud. I will look at it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."

¹⁷God said to Noah, "This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth."

¹⁸The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham is the father of Canaan.

¹⁹These three were the sons of Noah, and from these, the whole earth was populated.

²⁰Noah began to be a farmer, and planted a vineyard.

²¹He drank of the wine, and got drunk. He was uncovered within his tent.

²²Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

²³Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they didn't see their father's nakedness.

²⁴Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him.

²⁵He said, "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants will he be to his brothers."

²⁶He said, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem; Let Canaan be his servant.

²⁷God enlarge Japheth, Let him dwell in the tents of Shem; Let Canaan be his servant."

²⁸Noah lived three hundred fifty years after the flood.

²⁹All the days of Noah were nine hundred fifty years, then he died.

10Now this is the history of the generations of the sons of Noah and of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.

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

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

⁴The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.

⁵Of these were the isles of the nations divided in their lands, everyone after his language, after their families, in their nations.

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

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

⁸Cush became the father of Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

⁹He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh. Therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Yahweh."

¹⁰The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

¹¹Out of that land he went forth into Assyria, and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,

¹²and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (the same is the great city).

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

¹⁴Pathrusim, Casluhim (which the Philistines descended from), and Caphtorim.

¹⁵Canaan became the father of Sidon (his firstborn), Heth,

¹⁶the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite,

¹⁷the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite,

¹⁸the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were spread abroad.

¹⁹The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as you go toward Gerar, to Gaza; as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, to Lasha.

²⁰These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their languages, in their lands, in their nations.

²¹To Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, to him also were children born.

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

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

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

²⁵To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days was the earth divided. His brother's name was Joktan.

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

²⁷Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,

²⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba,

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

³⁰Their dwelling was from Mesha, as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east.

³¹These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their languages, in their lands, after their nations.

³²These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations. Of these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

11The whole earth was of one language and of one speech.

²It happened, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they lived there.

³They said one to another, "Come, let's make brick, and burn them thoroughly." They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.

⁴They said, "Come, let's build us a city, and a tower, whose top reaches to the sky, and let's make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad on the surface of the whole earth."

⁵Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men built.

⁶Yahweh said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do.

⁷Come, let's go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

⁸So Yahweh scattered them abroad from there on the surface of all the earth. They stopped building the city.

⁹Therefore the name of it was called Babel, because Yahweh confused the language of all the earth, there. From there, Yahweh scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth.

¹⁰This is the history of the generations of Shem. Shem was one hundred years old, and became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood.

¹¹Shem lived after he became the father of Arpachshad five hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

¹²Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, and became the father of Shelah.

¹³Arpachshad lived after he became the father of Shelah four hundred three years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

¹⁴Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber:

¹⁵and Shelah lived after he became the father of Eber four hundred three years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

¹⁶Eber lived thirty-four years, and became the father of Peleg.

¹⁷Eber lived after he became the father of Peleg four hundred thirty years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

¹⁸Peleg lived thirty years, and became the father of Reu.

¹⁹Peleg lived after he became the father of Reu two hundred nine years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

²⁰Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug.

²¹Reu lived after he became the father of Serug two hundred seven years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

²²Serug lived thirty years, and became the father of Nahor.

²³Serug lived after he became the father of Nahor two hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

²⁴Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and became the father of Terah.

²⁵Nahor lived after he became the father of Terah one hundred nineteen years, and became the father of sons and daughters.

²⁶Terah lived seventy years, and became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

²⁷Now this is the history of the generations of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran became the father of Lot.

²⁸Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldees.

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

³⁰Sarai was barren. She had no child.

³¹Terah took Abram his son, Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife. They went forth from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran, and lived there.

³²The days of Terah were two hundred five years. Terah died in Haran.

12Now Yahweh said to Abram, "Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.

²I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great. You will be a blessing.

³I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. In you will all of the families of the earth be blessed."

⁴So Abram went, as Yahweh had spoken to him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran.

⁵Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother's son, all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls who they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan. Into the land of Canaan they came.

⁶Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. The Canaanite was then in the land.

⁷Yahweh appeared to Abram, and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." He built an altar there to Yahweh, who appeared to him.

⁸He left from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh, and called on the name of Yahweh.

⁹Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.

¹⁰There was a famine in the land. Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was sore in the land.

¹¹It happened, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, "See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look on.

¹²It will happen, when the Egyptians will see you, that they will say, 'This is his wife.' They will kill me, but they will save you alive.

¹³Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that my soul may live because of you."

¹⁴It happened that when Abram had come into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

¹⁵The princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

¹⁶He dealt well with Abram for her sake. He had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels.

¹⁷Yahweh plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

¹⁸Pharaoh called Abram, and said, "What is this that you have done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife?

¹⁹Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now therefore, see your wife, take her, and go your way."

²⁰Pharaoh gave men charge concerning him: and they brought him on the way, and his wife, and all that he had.

13Abram went up out of Egypt: he, his wife, all that he had, and Lot with him, into the South.

²Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

³He went on his journeys from the South even to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,

⁴to the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on the name of Yahweh.

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

⁶The land was not able to bear them, that they might live together: for their substance was great, so that they could not live together.

⁷There was a strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle: and the Canaanite and the Perizzite lived then in the land.

⁸Abram said to Lot, "Please, let there be no strife between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are relatives.

⁹Isn't the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you go to the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left."

¹⁰Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.

¹¹So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves the one from the other.

¹²Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom.

¹³Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh.

¹⁴Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, "Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,

¹⁵for all the land which you see, I will give to you, and to your offspring forever.

¹⁶I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then your seed may also be numbered.

¹⁷Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it to you."

¹⁸Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to Yahweh.

14It happened in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim,

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

³All these joined together in the vale of Siddim (the same is the Salt Sea).

⁴Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year, they rebelled.

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

⁶and the Horites in their Mount Seir, to Elparan, which is by the wilderness.

⁷They returned, and came to En-mishpat (the same is Kadesh), and struck all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that lived in Hazazon-tamar.

⁸There went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar); and they set the battle in array against them in the vale of Siddim;

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

¹⁰Now the vale of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell there, and those who remained fled to the mountain.

¹¹They took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way.

¹²They took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who lived in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

¹³One who had escaped came and told Abram, the Hebrew: now he lived by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and these were confederate with Abram.

¹⁴When Abram heard that his relative was taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued as far as Dan.

¹⁵He divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, and struck them, and pursued them to Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

¹⁶He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative, Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

¹⁷The king of Sodom went out to meet him, after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, at the vale of Shaveh (the same is the King's Vale).

¹⁸Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was priest of God Most High.

¹⁹He blessed him, and said, "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth:

²⁰and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand." Abram gave him a tenth of all.

²¹The king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the people, and take the goods to yourself."

²²Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have lifted up my hand to Yahweh, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth,

²³that I will not take a thread nor a shoe-latchet nor anything that is yours, lest you should say, 'I have made Abram rich.'

²⁴Except only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre: let them take their portion."

15After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Don't be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."

²Abram said, "Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?"

³Abram said, "Behold, to me you have given no seed: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir."

⁴Behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir, but he who will come forth out of your own body will be your heir."

⁵Yahweh brought him outside, and said, "Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you be able to count them." He said to Abram, "So shall your seed be."

⁶He believed in Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.

⁷He said to him, "I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it."

⁸He said, "Lord Yahweh, whereby will I know that I will inherit it?"

⁹He said to him, "Take me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon."

¹⁰He took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn't divide the birds.

¹¹The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

¹²When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.

¹³He said to Abram, "Know for sure that your seed will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years.

¹⁴I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great substance.

¹⁵But you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried in a good old age.

¹⁶In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full."

¹⁷It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

¹⁸In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

¹⁹the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

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

16Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

²Sarai said to Abram," See now, Yahweh has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my handmaid. It may be that I will obtain children by her." Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

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

⁴He went in to Hagar, and she conceived. When she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

⁵Sarai said to Abram, "This wrong is your fault. I gave my handmaid into your bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. Yahweh judge between me and you."

⁶But Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your maid is in your hand. Do to her whatever is good in your eyes." Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her face.

⁷The angel of Yahweh found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.

⁸He said, "Hagar, Sarai's handmaid, where did you come from? Where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from the face of my mistress Sarai."

⁹The angel of Yahweh said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit yourself under her hands."

¹⁰The angel of Yahweh said to her, "I will greatly multiply your seed, that they will not be numbered for multitude."

¹¹The angel of Yahweh said to her, "Behold, you are with child, and will bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because Yahweh has heard your affliction.

¹²He will be like a wild donkey among men. His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him. He will live opposite all of his brothers."

¹³She called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, "You are a God who sees," for she said, "Have I even stayed alive after seeing him?"

¹⁴Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

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

17When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram, and said to him, "I am God Almighty. Walk before me, and be blameless.

²I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly."

³Abram fell on his face. God talked with him, saying,

⁴"As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations.

⁵Neither will your name any more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for the father of a multitude of nations have I made you.

⁶I will make you exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you.

⁷I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you.

⁸I will give to you, and to your seed after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God."

⁹God said to Abraham, "As for you, you will keep my covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations.

¹⁰This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your seed after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised.

¹¹You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of a covenant between me and you.

¹²He who is eight days old will be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he who is born in the house, or bought with money of any foreigner who is not of your seed.

¹³He who is born in your house, and he who is bought with your money, must be circumcised. My covenant will be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

¹⁴The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant."

¹⁵God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name will be Sarah.

¹⁶I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she will be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her."

¹⁷Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, "Will a child be born to him who is one hundred years old? Will Sarah, who is ninety years old, give birth?"

¹⁸Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!"

¹⁹God said, "No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.

²⁰As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

²¹But my covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time in the next year."

²²When he finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

²³Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money; every male among the men of Abraham's house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the same day, as God had said to him.

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

²⁵Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

²⁶In the same day both Abraham and Ishmael, his son, were circumcised.

²⁷All the men of his house, those born in the house, and those bought with money of a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

18Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.

²He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth,

³and said, "My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please don't go away from your servant.

⁴Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.

⁵I will get a morsel of bread so you can refresh your heart. After that you may go your way, now that you have come to your servant." They said, "Very well, do as you have said."

⁶Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, "Quickly make ready three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes."

⁷Abraham ran to the herd, and fetched a tender and good calf, and gave it to the servant. He hurried to dress it.

⁸He took butter, milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree, and they ate.

⁹They said to him, "Where is Sarah, your wife? He said, "See, in the tent."

¹⁰He said, "I will certainly return to you when the season comes round. Behold, Sarah your wife will have a son." Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.

¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age. It had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.

¹²Sarah laughed within herself, saying, "After I have grown old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?"

¹³Yahweh said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Will I really bear a child, yet I am old?'

¹⁴Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son."

¹⁵Then Sarah denied, saying, "I didn't laugh," for she was afraid." He said, "No, but you did laugh."

¹⁶The men rose up from there, and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to see them on their way.

¹⁷Yahweh said, "Will I hide from Abraham what I do,

¹⁸seeing that Abraham has surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?

¹⁹For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him."

²⁰Yahweh said, "Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,

²¹I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come to me. If not, I will know."

²²The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before Yahweh.

²³Abraham drew near, and said, "Will you consume the righteous with the wicked?

²⁴What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are therein?

²⁵Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, that so the righteous should be as the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn't the Judge of all the earth do right?"

²⁶Yahweh said, "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sake."

²⁷Abraham answered, "See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, who am but dust and ashes.

²⁸What if there will lack five of the fifty righteous? Will you destroy all the city for lack of five?" He said, "I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five there."

²⁹He spoke to him yet again, and said, "What if there are forty found there?" He said, "I will not do it for the forty's sake."

³⁰He said, "Oh don't let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are thirty found there?" He said, "I will not do it, if I find thirty there."

³¹He said, "See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?" He said, "I will not destroy it for the twenty's sake."

³²He said, "Oh don't let the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once. What if ten are found there?" He said, "I will not destroy it for the ten's sake."

³³Yahweh went his way, as soon as he had finished communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

19The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,

²and he said, "See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you will rise up early, and go on your way." They said, "No, but we will stay in the street all night."

³He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

⁴But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.

⁵They called to Lot, and said to him, "Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them."

⁶Lot went out to them to the door, and shut the door after him.

⁷He said, "Please, my brothers, don't act so wickedly.

⁸See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and do you to them as is good in your eyes. Only don't do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof."

⁹They said, "Stand back!" They said, "This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!" They pressed hard on the man, even Lot, and drew near to break the door.

¹⁰But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.

¹¹They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

¹²The men said to Lot, "Do you have you anybody else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:

¹³for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is grown great before Yahweh. Yahweh has sent us to destroy it."

¹⁴Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who married his daughters, and said, "Get up! Get out of this place, for Yahweh will destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.

¹⁵When the morning arose, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, "Arise, take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city."

¹⁶But he lingered; and the men laid hold on his hand, and on the hand of his wife, and on the hand of his two daughters, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.

¹⁷It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, "Escape for your life! Don't look behind you, neither stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed!"

¹⁸Lot said to them, "Oh, not so, my lord.

¹⁹See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have showed to me in saving my life. I can't escape to the mountain, lest evil overtake me, and I die.

²⁰See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn't it a little one?), and my soul will live."

²¹He said to him, "Behold, I have accepted you concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

²²Hurry, escape there, for I can't do anything until you get there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

²³The sun was risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

²⁴Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.

²⁵He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.

²⁶But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.

²⁸He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.

²⁹It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

³⁰Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.

³¹The firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.

³²Come, let's make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."

³³They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she arose.

³⁴It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."

³⁵They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger arose, and lay with him. He didn't know when she lay down, nor when she arose.

³⁶Thus both of Lot's daughters were with child by their father.

³⁷The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. The same is the father of the Moabites to this day.

³⁸The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi. The same is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.

20Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He sojourned in Gerar.

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

³But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken. For she is a man's wife."

⁴Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, "Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation?

⁵Didn't he tell me, 'She is my sister?' She, even she herself said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands have I done this."

⁶God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore I didn't allow you to touch her.

⁷Now therefore, restore the man's wife. For he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you don't restore her, know for sure that you will die, you, and all who are yours.

⁸Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ear. The men were very scared.

⁹Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, "What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done!"

¹⁰Abimelech said to Abraham, "What did you see, that you have done this thing?"

¹¹Abraham said, "Because I thought, 'Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife's sake.'

¹²Moreover she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

¹³It happened, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, 'This is your kindness which you shall show to me. Everywhere that we go, say of me, "He is my brother."'"

¹⁴Abimelech took sheep and oxen, men-servants and women-servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah, his wife to him.

¹⁵Abimelech said, "Behold, my land is before you. Dwell where it pleases you."

¹⁶To Sarah he said, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes to all that are with you. In front of all you are vindicated."

¹⁷Abraham prayed to God. God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maid-servants, and they bore children.

¹⁸For Yahweh had closed up tight all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

21Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken.

²Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

³Abraham called his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.

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

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

⁶Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me."

⁷She said, "Who would have said to Abraham, that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age."

⁸The child grew, and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

⁹Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.

¹⁰Therefore she said to Abraham, "Cast out this handmaid and her son! For the son of this handmaid will not be heir with my son, even with Isaac."

¹¹The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight on account of his son.

¹²God said to Abraham, "Don't let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your handmaid. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For from Isaac will your seed be called.

¹³Also of the son of the handmaid will I make a nation, because he is your seed."

¹⁴Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵The water in the bottle was spent, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

¹⁶She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, "Don't let me see the death of the child." She sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept.

¹⁷God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, "What ails you, Hagar? Don't be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

¹⁸Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation."

¹⁹God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the bottle with water, and gave the boy drink.

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

²¹He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.

²²It happened at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his host spoke to Abraham, saying, "God is with you in all that you do.

²³Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have sojourned."

²⁴Abraham said, "I will swear."

²⁵Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away.

²⁶Abimelech said, I don't know who has done this thing. Neither did you tell me, neither did I hear of it, until today."

²⁷Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.

²⁸Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

²⁹Abimelech said to Abraham, "What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves mean?"

³⁰He said, "You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well."

³¹Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore there.

³²So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God.

³⁴Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days.

22It happened after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" He said, "Here I am."

²He said, "Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of."

³Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him.

⁴On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place far off.

⁵Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go yonder. We will worship, and come back to you.

⁶Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together.

⁷Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, "My father?" He said, "Here I am, my son." He said, "Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"

⁸Abraham said, "God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they both went together.

⁹They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood.

¹⁰Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to kill his son.

¹¹The angel of Yahweh called to him out of the sky, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" He said, "Here I am."

¹²He said, "Don't lay your hand on the boy, neither do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."

¹³Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and saw that behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

¹⁴Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh-jireh. As it is said to this day, "In Yahweh's mountain it will be provided.

¹⁵The angel of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time out of the sky,

¹⁶and said, "I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,

¹⁷that in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.

¹⁸In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice."

¹⁹So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba. Abraham lived at Beersheba.

²⁰It happened after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, "Behold, Milcah, she also has borne children to your brother Nahor:

²¹Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram,

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

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

²⁴His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bare Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

23Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years. These were the years of Sarah's life.

²Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

³Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spoke to the children of Heth, saying,

⁴"I am a stranger and a sojourner with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight."

⁵The children of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him,

⁶"Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. In the choice of our tombs bury your dead. None of us will withhold from you his tomb, but that you may bury your dead."

⁷Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.

⁸He talked with them, saying, "If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar,

⁹that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is in the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in the midst of you for a possession of a burying-place."

¹⁰Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,

¹¹"No, my lord, hear me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the children of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead."

¹²Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land.

¹³He spoke to Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, "But if you will, please hear me. I will give the price of the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there."

¹⁴Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him,

¹⁵"My lord, listen to me. What is a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver between me and you? Therefore bury your dead."

¹⁶Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current merchants' standard.

¹⁷So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the border of it round about, were made sure

¹⁸to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.

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

²⁰The field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure to Abraham for a possession of a burying place by the children of Heth.

24Abraham was old, and well stricken in age. Yahweh had blessed Abraham in all things.

²Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, who ruled over all that he had, "Please put your hand under my thigh.

³I will make you swear by Yahweh, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live.

⁴But you shall go to my country, and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac."

⁵The servant said to him, "What if the woman isn't willing to follow me to this land? Must I bring your son again to the land you came from?"

⁶Abraham said to him, "Beware that you don't bring my son there again.

⁷Yahweh, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house, and from the land of my birth, who spoke to me, and who swore to me, saying, 'To your descendants I will give this land.' He will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.

⁸If the woman isn't willing to follow you, then you shall be clear from this my oath. Only you shall not bring my son there again."

⁹The servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.

¹⁰The servant took ten camels, of his master's camels, and departed, having all goodly things of his master's in his hand. He arose, and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.

¹¹He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time that women go out to draw water.

¹²He said, "Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham.

¹³Behold, I am standing by the spring of water. The daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.

¹⁴Let it happen, that the young lady to whom I will say, 'Please let down your pitcher, that I may drink.' She will say, 'Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink.' Let the same be she who you have appointed for your servant Isaac. Thereby will I know that you have showed kindness to my master."

¹⁵It happened, before he had done speaking, that behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher on her shoulder.

¹⁶The young lady was very beautiful to look at, a virgin, neither had any man known her. She went down to the spring, filled her pitcher, and came up.

¹⁷The servant ran to meet her, and said, "Please give me a drink, a little water from your pitcher."

¹⁸She said, "Drink, my lord." She hurried, and let down her pitcher on her hand, and gave him drink.

¹⁹When she had done giving him drink, she said, "I will also draw for your camels, until they have done drinking."

²⁰She hurried, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again to the well to draw, and drew for all his camels.

²¹The man looked steadfastly at her, holding his peace, to know whether Yahweh had made his journey prosperous or not.

²²It happened, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden ring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold,

²³and said, "Whose daughter are you? Please tell me. Is there room in your father's house for us to lodge in?"

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

²⁵She said moreover to him, "We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in."

²⁶The man bowed his head, and worshipped Yahweh.

²⁷He said, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his lovingkindness and his truth toward my master. As for me, Yahweh has led me in the way to the house of my master's relatives."

²⁸The young lady ran, and told her mother's house about these words.

²⁹Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban. Laban ran out to the man, to the spring.

³⁰It happened, when he saw the ring, and the bracelets on his sister's hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, "This is what the man said to me," that he came to the man. Behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring.

³¹He said, "Come in, you blessed of Yahweh. Why do you stand outside? For I have prepared the house, and room for the camels."

³²The man came into the house, and he unloaded the camels. He gave straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.

³³Food was set before him to eat. But he said, "I will not eat until I have told my message." He said, "Speak on."

³⁴He said, "I am Abraham's servant.

³⁵Yahweh has blessed my master greatly. He has become great. He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, men-servants and maid-servants, and camels and donkeys.

³⁶Sarah, my master's wife, bore a son to my master when she was old. He has given all that he has to him.

³⁷My master made me swear, saying, 'You shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live,

³⁸but you shall go to my father's house, and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son.'

³⁹I said to my master, 'What if the woman will not follow me?'

⁴⁰He said to me, 'Yahweh, before whom I walk, will send his angel with you, and prosper your way. You shall take a wife for my son of my relatives, and of my father's house.

⁴¹Then will you be clear from my oath, when you come to my relatives. If they don't give her to you, you shall be clear from my oath.'

⁴²I came this day to the spring, and said, 'Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, if now you do prosper my way which I go.

⁴³Behold, I am standing by the spring of water. Let it happen, that the maiden who comes forth to draw, to whom I will say, Give me, I pray you, a little water from your pitcher to drink.

⁴⁴She will tell me, "Drink, and I will also draw for your camels." Let the same be the woman whom Yahweh has appointed for my master's son.'

⁴⁵Before I had done speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder. She went down to the spring, and drew. I said to her, 'Please let me drink.'

⁴⁶She hurried and let down her pitcher from her shoulder, and said, 'Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink.' So I drank, and she made the camels drink also.

⁴⁷I asked her, and said, 'Whose daughter are you?' She said, 'The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bare to him.' I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her hands.

⁴⁸I bowed my head, and worshipped Yahweh, and blessed Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter for his son.

⁴⁹Now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. If not, tell me. That I may turn to the right hand, or to the left."

⁵⁰Then Laban and Bethuel answered, "The thing proceeds from Yahweh. We can't speak to you bad or good.

⁵¹Behold, Rebekah is before you, take her, and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as Yahweh has spoken."

⁵²It happened that when Abraham's servant heard their words, he bowed himself down to the earth to Yahweh.

⁵³The servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing, and gave them to Rebekah. He gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things.

⁵⁴They ate and drank, he and the men who were with him, and stayed all night. They rose up in the morning, and he said, "Send me away to my master."

⁵⁵Her brother and her mother said, "Let the young lady stay with us a few days, at least ten. After that she will go."

⁵⁶He said to them, "Don't hinder me, seeing Yahweh has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master."

⁵⁷They said, "We will call the young lady, and ask her."

⁵⁸They called Rebekah, and said to her, "Will you go with this man?" She said, "I will go."

⁵⁹They sent away Rebekah, their sister, with her nurse, Abraham's servant, and his men.

⁶⁰They blessed Rebekah, and said to her, "Our sister, may you be the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and let your seed possess the gate of those who hate them."

⁶¹Rebekah arose with her ladies. They rode on the camels, and followed the man. The servant took Rebekah, and went his way.

⁶²Isaac came from the way of Beer-lahai-roi. For he lived in the land of the South.

⁶³Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the evening. He lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, there were camels coming.

⁶⁴Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel.

⁶⁵She said to the servant, "Who is the man who is walking in the field to meet us?" The servant said, "It is my master." She took her veil, and covered herself.

⁶⁶The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done.

⁶⁷Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife. He loved her. Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

25Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah.

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

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

⁴The sons of Midian: Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.

⁵Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac,

⁶but to the sons of the concubines who Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts. He sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, to the east country.

⁷These are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived: one hundred seventy-five years.

⁸Abraham gave up the spirit, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full, and was gathered to his people.

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

¹⁰the field which Abraham purchased of the children of Heth. There was Abraham buried, with Sarah his wife.

¹¹It happened after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac, his son. Isaac lived by Beer-lahai-roi.

¹²Now this is the history of the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bore to Abraham.

¹³These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to the order of their birth: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

¹⁴Mishma, Dumah, Massa,

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

¹⁶These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their villages, and by their encampments: twelve princes, according to their nations.

¹⁷These are the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred thirty-seven years. He gave up the spirit and died, and was gathered to his people.

¹⁸They lived from Havilah to Shur that is before Egypt, as you go toward Assyria. He lived opposite all his relatives.

¹⁹This is the history of the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham became the father of Isaac.

²⁰Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife.

²¹Isaac entreated Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren. Yahweh was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

²²The children struggled together within her. She said, "If it be so, why do I live?" She went to inquire of Yahweh.

²³Yahweh said to her, Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples will be separated from your body. The one people will be stronger than the other people. The elder will serve the younger.

²⁴When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.

²⁵The first came out red all over, like a hairy garment. They named him Esau.

²⁶After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau's heel. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

²⁷The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.

²⁸Now Isaac loved Esau, because he ate his venison. Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹Jacob boiled stew. Esau came in from the field, and he was famished.

³⁰Esau said to Jacob, "Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am famished." Therefore his name was called Edom.

³¹Jacob said, "First, sell me your birthright."

³²Esau said, "Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?"

³³Jacob said, "Swear to me first." He swore to him. He sold his birthright to Jacob.

³⁴Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils. He ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

26There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.

²Yahweh appeared to him, and said, "Don't go down into Egypt. Dwell in the land which I will tell you of.

³Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you, and to your seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

⁴I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and will give to your seed all these lands. In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed,

⁵because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."

⁶Isaac lived in Gerar.

⁷The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "My wife," lest, he thought, the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she was beautiful to look on.

⁸It happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was caressing Rebekah, his wife.

⁹Abimelech called Isaac, and said, "Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, 'She is my sister?'" Isaac said to him, "Because I said, 'Lest I die because of her.'"

¹⁰Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!"

¹¹Abimelech charged all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."

¹²Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.

¹³The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.

¹⁴He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.

¹⁵Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.

¹⁶Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go from us, for you are much mightier than we."

¹⁷Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.

¹⁸Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father. For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

¹⁹Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

²⁰The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." He called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.

²¹They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. He called the name of it Sitnah.

²²He left that place, and dug another well. They didn't argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, "For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land."

²³He went up from there to Beersheba.

²⁴Yahweh appeared to him the same night, and said, "I am the God of Abraham your father. Don't be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham's sake."

²⁵He built an altar there, and called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. There Isaac's servants dug a well.

²⁶Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his host.

²⁷Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?"

²⁸They said, "We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, 'Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,

²⁹that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.' You are now the blessed of Yahweh."

³⁰He made them a feast, and they ate and drink.

³¹They rose up some time in the morning, and swore one to another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

³²It happened the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water."

³³He called it Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

³⁴When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

³⁵They grieved Isaac and Rebekah's spirits.

27It happened, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, "My son?" He said to him, "Here I am."

²He said, "See now, I am old. I don't know the day of my death.

³Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and take me venison.

⁴Make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.

⁵Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.

⁶Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, "Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying,

⁷'Bring me venison, and make me savory food, that I may eat, and bless you before Yahweh before my death.'

⁸Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you.

⁹Go now to the flock, and get me from there two good kids of the goats. I will make them savory food for your father, such as he loves.

¹⁰You shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death."

¹¹Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

¹²What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing."

¹³His mother said to him, "Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me."

¹⁴He went, and got them, and brought them to his mother. His mother made savory food, such as his father loved.

¹⁵Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son.

¹⁶She put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck.

¹⁷She gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

¹⁸He came to his father, and said, "My father?" He said, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?"

¹⁹Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please arise, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me."

²⁰Isaac said to his son, "How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?" He said, "Because Yahweh your God gave me success."

²¹Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not."

²²Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He felt him, and said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau."

²³He didn't recognize him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother, Esau's hands. So he blessed him.

²⁴He said, "Are you really my son Esau?" He said, "I am."

²⁵He said, "Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless you." He brought it near to him, and he ate. He brought him wine, and he drank.

²⁶His father Isaac said to him, "Come near now, and kiss me, my son."

²⁷He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, "Behold, the smell of my son Is as the smell of a field which Yahweh has blessed.

²⁸God give you of the dew of the sky, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.

²⁹Let peoples serve you, Nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, Let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, Blessed be everyone who blesses you."

³⁰It happened, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

³¹He also made savory food, and brought it to his father. He said to his father, "Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that your soul may bless me."

³²Isaac his father said to him, "Who are you?" He said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau."

³³Isaac trembled violently, and said, "Who, then, is he who has taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed."

³⁴When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said to his father, "Bless me, even me also, my father."

³⁵He said, "Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing."

³⁶He said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing." He said, "Haven't you reserved a blessing for me?"

³⁷Isaac answered Esau, "Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers have I given to him for servants. With grain and new wine have I sustained him. What then will I do for you, my son?"

³⁸Esau said to his father, "Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father." Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

³⁹Isaac his father answered him, "Behold, of the fatness of the earth will be your dwelling, and of the dew of the sky from above.

⁴⁰By your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother. It will happen, when you will break loose, That you shall shake his yoke from off your neck."

⁴¹Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, "The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob."

⁴²The words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. She sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, "Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you.

⁴³Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran.

⁴⁴Stay with him a few days, until your brother's fury turns away;

⁴⁵until your brother's anger turn away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send, and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?"

⁴⁶Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?"

28Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, "You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.

²Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother's father. Take a wife from there from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

³May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples,

⁴and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you, and to your seed with you, that you may inherit the land where you travel, which God gave to Abraham."

⁵Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, Rebekah's brother, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

⁶Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram, to take him a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, "You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan,"

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

⁸Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan didn't please Isaac, his father.

⁹Esau went to Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.

¹⁰Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.

¹¹He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep.

¹²He dreamed. Behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

¹³Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, "I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed.

¹⁴Your seed will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.

¹⁵Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken of to you."

¹⁶Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, "Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn't know it."

¹⁷He was afraid, and said, "How dreadful is this place! This is none other than God's house, and this is the gate of heaven."

¹⁸Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it.

¹⁹He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.

²⁰Jacob vowed a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on,

²¹so that I come again to my father's house in peace, and Yahweh will be my God,

²²then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God's house. Of all that you will give me I will surely give the tenth to you."

29Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east.

²He looked, and behold, a well in the field, and, behold, three flocks of sheep lying there by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. The stone on the well's mouth was great.

³There all the flocks were gathered. They rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again on the well's mouth in its place.

⁴Jacob said to them, "My relatives, where are you from?" They said, "We are from Haran."

⁵He said to them, "Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?" They said, "We know him."

⁶He said to them, "Is it well with him?" They said, "It is well. See, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep."

⁷He said, "Behold, it is still the middle of the day, not time to gather the cattle together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them."

⁸They said, We can't, until all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well's mouth. Then we water the sheep."

⁹While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them.

¹⁰It happened, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.

¹¹Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.

¹²Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son. She ran and told her father.

¹³It happened, when Laban heard the news of Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things.

¹⁴Laban said to him, Surely you are my bone and my flesh. He lived with him for a month.

¹⁵Laban said to Jacob, "Because you are my brother, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what will your wages be?"

¹⁶Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

¹⁷Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful and well favored.

¹⁸Jacob loved Rachel. He said, "I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter."

¹⁹Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you, than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me."

²⁰Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her.

²¹Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her."

²²Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.

²³It happened in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him. He went in to her.

²⁴Laban gave Zilpah his handmaid to his daughter Leah for a handmaid.

²⁵It happened in the morning that, behold, it was Leah. He said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Didn't I serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?"

²⁶Laban said, "It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the first born.

²⁷Fulfill the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you will serve with me yet seven other years."

²⁸Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. He gave him Rachel his daughter as wife.

²⁹Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his handmaid, to be her handmaid.

³⁰He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.

³¹Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

³²Leah conceived, and bore a son, and she named him Reuben. For she said, "Because Yahweh has looked at my affliction. For now my husband will love me."

³³She conceived again, and bare a son, and said, "Because Yahweh has heard that I am hated, he has therefore given me this son also." She named him Simeon.

³⁴She conceived again, and bare a son. Said, "Now this time will my husband be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons." Therefore was his name called Levi.

³⁵She conceived again, and bare a son. She said, "This time will I praise Yahweh." Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.

30When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I will die."

²Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in God's place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"

³She said, "Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her."

⁴She gave him Bilhah her handmaid as wife, and Jacob went in to her.

⁵Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son.

⁶Rachel said, "God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son." Therefore called she his name Dan.

⁷Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son.

⁸Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed." She named him Naphtali.

⁹When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

¹⁰Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a son.

¹¹Leah said, "How fortunate!" She named him Gad.

¹²Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a second son.

¹³Leah said, "Happy am I, for the daughters will call me happy." She named him Asher.

¹⁴Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."

¹⁵She said to her, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes, also?" Rachel said, "Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes."

¹⁶Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, "You must come in to me; for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes." He lay with her that night.

¹⁷God listened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob a fifth son.

¹⁸Leah said, "God has given me my hire, because I gave my handmaid to my husband." She named him Issachar.

¹⁹Leah conceived again, and bore a sixth son to Jacob.

²⁰Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons." She named him Zebulun.

²¹Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

²²God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb.

²³She conceived, bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach.

²⁴She named him Joseph, saying, "May Yahweh add another son to me."

²⁵It happened, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country.

²⁶Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go: for you know my service with which I have served you."

²⁷Laban said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Yahweh has blessed me for your sake."

²⁸He said, "Appoint me your wages, and I will give it."

²⁹He said to him, "You know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me.

³⁰For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?"

³¹He said, "What shall I give you?" Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it.

³²I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire.

³³So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be counted stolen."

³⁴Laban said, "Behold, I desire it to be according to your word."

³⁵That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

³⁶He set three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.

³⁷Jacob took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, plane-tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

³⁸He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink.

³⁹The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and didn't put them into Laban's flock.

⁴¹It happened, whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods;

⁴²but when the flock were feeble, he didn't put them in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.

⁴³The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, maid-servants and men-servants, and camels and donkeys.

31He heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, "Jacob has taken away all that was our father's. From that which was our father's, has he gotten all this wealth."

²Jacob saw the expression on Laban's face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.

³Yahweh said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you."

⁴Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock,

⁵and said to them, "I see the expression on your father's face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.

⁶You know that I have served your father with all of my strength.

⁷Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn't allow him to hurt me.

⁸If he said this, 'The speckled will be your wages,' then all the flock bore speckled. If he said this, 'The streaked will be your wages,' then all the flock bore streaked.

⁹Thus God has taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.

¹⁰It happened at the time that the flock conceive, that I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled.

¹¹The angel of God said to me in the dream, 'Jacob,' and I said, 'Here I am.'

¹²He said, 'Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you.

¹³I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth."

¹⁴Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

¹⁵Aren't we accounted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also quite devoured our money.

¹⁶For all the riches which God has taken away from our father, that is ours and our children's. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do."

¹⁷Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels,

¹⁸and he carried away all his cattle, and all his substance which he had gathered, the cattle of his getting, which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, to go to Isaac his father to the land of Canaan.

¹⁹Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father's.

²⁰Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn't tell him that he was running away.

²¹So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

²²Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled.

²³He took his relatives with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.

²⁴God came to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Take heed to yourself that you don't speak to Jacob either good or bad."

²⁵Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.

²⁶Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?

²⁷Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn't tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp;

²⁸and didn't allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly.

²⁹It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, 'Take heed to yourself that you don't speak to Jacob either good or bad.'

³⁰Now, you want to be gone, because you sore longed after your father's house, but why have you stolen my gods?"

³¹Jacob answered Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I said, 'Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.'

³²With whoever you find your gods, he shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it." For Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen them.

³³Laban went into Jacob's tent, into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two maid-servants; but he didn't find them. He went out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent.

³⁴Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt about all the tent, but didn't find them.

³⁵She said to her father, "Don't let my lord be angry that I can't rise up before you; for the manner of women is on me." He searched, but didn't find the teraphim.

³⁶Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, "What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued after me?

³⁷Now that you have felt around in all my stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between us two.

³⁸These twenty years have I been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven't eaten the rams of your flocks.

³⁹That which was torn of animals, I didn't bring to you. I bore the loss of it. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

⁴⁰Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes.

⁴¹These twenty years have I been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.

⁴²Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night."

⁴³Laban answered Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine: and what can I do this day to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne?

⁴⁴Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you."

⁴⁵Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.

⁴⁶Jacob said to his relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones, and made a heap. They ate there by the heap.

⁴⁷Laban called it Jegar-saha-dutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

⁴⁸Laban said, "This heap is witness between me and you this day." Therefore it was named Galeed

⁴⁹and Mizpah, for he said, "Yahweh watch between me and you, when we are absent one from another.

⁵⁰If you will afflict my daughters, and if you will take wives besides my daughters, no man is with us; behold, God is witness between me and you."

⁵¹Laban said to Jacob, "See this heap, and see the pillar, which I have set between me and you.

⁵²May this heap be a witness, and the pillar be a witness, that I will not pass over this heap to you, and that you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.

⁵³The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." Then Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.

⁵⁴Jacob offered a sacrifice in the mountain, and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread, and stayed all night in the mountain.

⁵⁵Early in the morning, Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them. Laban departed and returned to his place.

32Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

²When he saw them, Jacob said, "This is God's host." He called the name of that place Mahanaim.

³Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.

⁴He commanded them, saying, "This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: 'This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now.

⁵I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, men-servants, and maid-servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.'"

⁶The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau. Not only that, but he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him."

⁷Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed: and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies;

⁸and he said, "If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape."

⁹Jacob said, "God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, 'Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good.'

¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the lovingkindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies.

¹¹Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children.

¹²You said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which can't be numbered because there are so many.'"

¹³He lodged there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother:

¹⁴two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

¹⁵thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty she-donkeys and ten foals.

¹⁶He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd."

¹⁷He commanded the foremost, saying, "When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, 'Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?'

¹⁸Then you shall say, 'They are your servant, Jacob's. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.'"

¹⁹He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, "This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him.

²⁰You shall say, 'Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.'" For, he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me."

²¹So the present passed over before him: and he himself lodged that night in the camp.

²²He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok.

²³He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had.

²⁴Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day.

²⁵When he saw that he didn't prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled.

²⁶The man said, "Let me go, for the day breaks." Jacob said, "I won't let you go, unless you bless me."

²⁷He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob."

²⁸He said, "Your name will no longer be called 'Jacob,' but, 'Israel,' for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed."

²⁹Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." He said, "Why is it that you ask what my name is?" He blessed him there.

³⁰Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for, he said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."

³¹The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh.

³²Therefore the children of Israel don't eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip.

33Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and to the two handmaids.

²He put the handmaids and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.

³He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

⁴Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept.

⁵He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, "Who are these with you?" He said, "The children whom God has graciously given your servant."

⁶Then the handmaids came near with their children, and they bowed themselves.

⁷Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

⁸Esau said, "What do you mean by all this company which I met?" Jacob said, "To find favor in the sight of my lord."

⁹Esau said, "I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours."

¹⁰Jacob said, "Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me.

¹¹Please take the gift that I brought to you; because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough." He urged him, and he took it.

¹²Esau said, "Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before you."

¹³Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.

¹⁴Please let my lord pass over before his servant: and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir."

¹⁵Esau said, "Let me now leave with you some of the folk who are with me." He said, "Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord."

¹⁶So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir.

¹⁷Jacob journeyed to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his cattle. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

¹⁸Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram; and encamped before the city.

¹⁹He bought the parcel of ground, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for one hundred pieces of money.

²⁰He erected an altar there, and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

34Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

²Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her.

³His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady.

⁴Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, "Get me this young lady as a wife."

⁵Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his cattle in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came.

⁶Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him.

⁷The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter; which thing ought not to be done.

⁸Hamor talked with them, saying, "The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife.

⁹Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.

¹⁰You shall dwell with us: and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it."

¹¹Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give.

¹²Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife."

¹³The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister,

¹⁴and said to them, "We can't do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us.

¹⁵Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised;

¹⁶then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people.

¹⁷But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone.

¹⁸Their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem, Hamor's son.

¹⁹The young man didn't wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob's daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father.

²⁰Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying,

²¹"These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it. For, behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters.

²²Only on this condition will the men consent to us to dwell with us, to become one people, if every male among us be circumcised, as they are circumcised.

²³Won't their cattle and their substance and all their animals be ours? Only let us give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us."

²⁴All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor, and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.

²⁵It happened on the third day, when they were sore, that two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males.

²⁶They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house, and went away.

²⁷Jacob's sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.

²⁸They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field;

²⁹and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house.

³⁰Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house."

³¹They said, "Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?"

35God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother."

²Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, change your garments.

³Let us arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went."

⁴They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

⁵They journeyed: and a terror of God was on the cities that were round about them, and they didn't pursue the sons of Jacob.

⁶So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan (the same is Bethel), he and all the people who were with him.

⁷He built an altar there, and called the place El-beth-el; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

⁸Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and the name of it was called Allon-bacuth.

⁹God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him.

¹⁰God said to him, "Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be Jacob any more, but your name will be Israel." He named him Israel.

¹¹God said to him, "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your loins.

¹²The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your seed after you will I give the land."

¹³God went up from him in the place where he spoke with him.

¹⁴Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink-offering on it, and poured oil on it.

¹⁵Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him "Bethel."

¹⁶They journeyed from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor.

¹⁷It happened that, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for now you will have another son."

¹⁸It happened, as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni, but his father named him Benjamin.

¹⁹Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath (the same is Beth-lehem).

²⁰Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.

²¹Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

²²It happened, while Israel lived in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

²³The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob's firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

²⁴The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁵The sons of Bilhah (Rachel's handmaid): Dan and Naphtali.

²⁶The sons of Zilpah (Leah's handmaid): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

²⁷Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

²⁸The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years.

²⁹Isaac gave up the spirit, and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him.

36Now this is the history of the generations of Esau (the same is Edom).

²Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon, the Hittite; and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon, the Hivite;

³and Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebaioth.

⁴Adah bore to Esau Eliphaz. Basemath bore Reuel.

⁵Oholibamah 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, with his cattle, all his animals, and all his possessions, which he had gathered in the land of Canaan, and went into a land away from his brother Jacob.

⁷For their substance was too great for them to dwell together, and the land of their travels couldn't bear them because of their cattle.

⁸Esau lived in the hill country of Seir. Esau is Edom.

⁹This is the history of the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir:

¹⁰these are the names of Esau's sons: Eliphaz, the son of Adah, the wife of Esau; and Reuel, the son of Basemath, the wife of Esau.

¹¹The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz.

¹²Timna was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau's son; and she bore to Eliphaz Amalek. These are the sons of Adah, Esau's wife.

¹³These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the sons of Basemath, Esau's wife.

¹⁴These were the sons of Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife: she bore to Esau Jeush, Jalam, and Korah.

¹⁵These are the chiefs of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief Kenaz,

¹⁶chief Korah, chief Gatam, chief Amalek: these are the chiefs who came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Adah.

¹⁷These are the sons of Reuel, Esau's son: chief Nahath, chief Zerah, chief Shammah, chief Mizzah: these are the chiefs who came of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Basemath, Esau's wife.

¹⁸These are the sons of Oholibamah, Esau's wife: chief Jeush, chief Jalam, chief Korah: these are the chiefs who came of Oholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife.

¹⁹These are the sons of Esau, and these are their chiefs. The same is Edom.

²⁰These are the sons of Seir the Horite, the inhabitants of the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,

²¹Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These are the chiefs who came of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom.

²²The children of Lotan were Hori and Heman. Lotan's sister was Timna.

²³These are the children of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.

²⁴These are the children of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. This is Anah who found the hot springs in the wilderness, as he fed the donkeys of Zibeon his father.

²⁵These are the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah.

²⁶These are the children of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran.

²⁷These are the children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

²⁸These are the children of Dishan: Uz and Aran.

²⁹These are the chiefs who came of the Horites: chief Lotan, chief Shobal, chief Zibeon, chief Anah,

³⁰chief Dishon, chief Ezer, and chief Dishan: these are the chiefs who came of the Horites, according to their chiefs in the land of Seir.

³¹These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the children of Israel.

³²Bela, the son of Beor, reigned in Edom. The name of his city was Dinhabah.

³³Bela died, and Jobab, the son of Zerah of Bozrah, reigned in his place.

³⁴Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his place.

³⁵Husham died, and Hadad, the son of Bedad, who struck Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his place. The name of his city was Avith.

³⁶Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place.

³⁷Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth by the river, reigned in his place.

³⁸Shaul died, and Baal-hanan, the son of Achbor reigned in his place.

³⁹Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his place. The name of his city was Pau. His wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-zahab.

⁴⁰These are the names of the chiefs who came from Esau, according to their families, after their places, and by their names: chief Timna, chief Alvah, chief Jetheth,

⁴¹chief Oholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon,

⁴²chief Kenaz, chief Teman, chief Mibzar,

⁴³chief Magdiel, and chief Iram. These are the chiefs of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession. This is Esau, the father of the Edomites.

37Jacob lived in the land of his father's travels, in the land of Canaan.

²This is the history of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives. Joseph brought an evil report of them to their father.

³Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors.

⁴His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and couldn't speak peaceably to him.

⁵Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers, and they hated him all the more.

⁶He said to them, "Please hear this dream which I have dreamed:

⁷for, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and behold, your sheaves came around, and bowed down to my sheaf."

⁸His brothers said to him, "Will you indeed reign over us? Or will you indeed have dominion over us?" They hated him all the more for his dreams and for his words.

⁹He dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, "Behold, I have dreamed yet another dream: and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me."

¹⁰He told it to his father and to his brothers. His father rebuked him, and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Will I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves down to you to the earth?"

¹¹His brothers envied him; but his father kept this saying in mind.

¹²His brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.

¹³Israel said to Joseph, "Aren't your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them." He said to him, "Here I am."

¹⁴He said to him, "Go now, see whether it is well with your brothers, and well with the flock; and bring me word again." So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

¹⁵A certain man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, "What are you looking for?"

¹⁶He said, "I am looking for my brothers. Tell me, please, where they are feeding the flock."

¹⁷The man said, "They have left here, for I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.'" Joseph went after his brothers, and found them in Dothan.

¹⁸They saw him afar off, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him.

¹⁹They said one to another, "Behold, this dreamer comes.

²⁰Come now therefore, and let's kill him, and cast him into one of the pits, and we will say, 'An evil animal has devoured him.' We will see what will become of his dreams."

²¹Reuben heard it, and delivered him out of their hand, and said, "Let's not take his life."

²²Reuben said to them, "Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him" - that he might deliver him out of their hand, to restore him to his father.

²³It happened, when Joseph came to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his coat, the coat of many colors that was on him;

²⁴and they took him, and threw him into the pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it.

²⁵They sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing spices and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.

²⁶Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?

²⁷Come, and let's sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not let our hand be on him; for he is our brother, our flesh." His brothers listened to him.

²⁸Midianites who were merchants passed by, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. They brought Joseph into Egypt.

²⁹Reuben returned to the pit; and saw that Joseph wasn't in the pit; and he tore his clothes.

³⁰He returned to his brothers, and said, "The child is no more; and I, where will I go?"

³¹They took Joseph's coat, and killed a male goat, and dipped the coat in the blood.

³²They took the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, "We have found this. Examine it, now, whether it is your son's coat or not."

³³He recognized it, and said, "It is my son's coat. An evil animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn in pieces."

³⁴Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days.

³⁵All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted. He said, "For I will go down to Sheol to my son mourning." His father wept for him.

³⁶The Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard.

38It happened at that time, that Judah went down from his brothers, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.

²Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her, and went in to her.

³She conceived, and bore a son; and he named him Er.

⁴She conceived again, and bore a son; and she named him Onan.

⁵She yet again bore a son, and named him Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bore him.

⁶Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

⁷Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of Yahweh. Yahweh killed him.

⁸Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her, and raise up seed to your brother."

⁹Onan knew that the seed wouldn't be his; and it happened, when he went in to his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest he should give seed to his brother.

¹⁰The thing which he did was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and he killed him also.

¹¹Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, "Remain a widow in your father's house, until Shelah, my son, is grown up;" for he said, "Lest he also die, like his brothers." Tamar went and lived in her father's house.

¹²After many days, Shua's daughter, the wife of Judah, died. Judah was comforted, and went up to his sheep-shearers to Timnah, he and his friend Hirah, the Adullamite.

¹³It was told Tamar, saying, "Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep."

¹⁴She took off of her the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she wasn't given to him as a wife.

¹⁵When Judah saw her, he thought that she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.

¹⁶He turned to her by the way, and said, "Please come, let me come in to you:" for he didn't know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, "What will you give me, that you may come in to me?"

¹⁷He said, "I will send you a kid of the goats from the flock." She said, "Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?"

¹⁸He said, "What pledge will I give you?" She said, "Your signet and your cord, and your staff that is in your hand." He gave them to her, and came in to her, and she conceived by him.

¹⁹She arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.

²⁰Judah sent the kid of the goats by the hand of his friend, the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman's hand, but he didn't find her.

²¹Then he asked the men of her place, saying, "Where is the prostitute, that was at Enaim by the road?" They said, "There has been no prostitute here."

²²He returned to Judah, and said, "I haven't found her; and also the men of the place said, 'There has been no prostitute here.'"

²³Judah said, "Let her keep it, lest we be put to shame. Behold, I sent this kid, and you haven't found her."

²⁴It happened about three months later, that it was told Judah, saying, "Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has played the prostitute; and moreover, behold, she is with child by prostitution." Judah said, "Bring her forth, and let her be burnt."

²⁵When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, "By the man, whose these are, I am with child." She also said, "Please discern whose are these - the signet, and the cords, and the staff."

²⁶Judah acknowledged them, and said, "She is more righteous than I, because I didn't give her to Shelah, my son." He knew her again no more.

²⁷It happened in the time of her travail, that behold, twins were in her womb.

²⁸It happened, when she travailed, that one put out a hand: and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, "This came out first."

²⁹It happened, as he drew back his hand, that behold, his brother came out, and she said, "Why have you made a breach for yourself?" Therefore his name was called Perez.

³⁰Afterward his brother came out, that had the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.

39Joseph was brought down to Egypt. Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the hand of the Ishmaelites that had brought him down there.

²Yahweh was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. He was in the house of his master the Egyptian.

³His master saw that Yahweh was with him, and that Yahweh made all that he did prosper in his hand.

⁴Joseph found favor in his sight. He ministered to him, and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.

⁵It happened from the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that Yahweh blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of Yahweh was on all that he had, in the house and in the field.

⁶He left all that he had in Joseph's hand. He didn't concern himself with anything, except for the food which he ate. Joseph was handsome, and well-favored.

⁷It happened after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph; and she said, "Lie with me."

⁸But he refused, and said to his master's wife, "Behold, my master doesn't know what is with me in the house, and he has put all that he has into my hand.

⁹He isn't greater in this house than I, neither has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"

¹⁰It happened that as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he didn't listen to her, to lie by her, or to be with her.

¹¹It happened about this time, that he went into the house to do his work, and there were none of the men of the house inside.

¹²She caught him by his garment, saying, "Lie with me!" He left his garment in her hand, and ran outside.

¹³It happened, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and had run outside,

¹⁴that she called to the men of her house, and spoke to them, saying, "Behold, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice.

¹⁵It happened, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment by me, and ran outside."

¹⁶She laid up his garment by her, until his master came home.

¹⁷She spoke to him according to these words, saying, "The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought to us, came in to me to mock me,

¹⁸and it happened, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment by me, and ran outside."

¹⁹It happened, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke to him, saying, "This is what your servant did to me," that his wrath was kindled.

²⁰Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were bound, and he was there in the custody.

²¹But Yahweh was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

²²The keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever they did there, he was the doer of it.

²³The keeper of the prison didn't look after anything that was under his hand, because Yahweh was with him; and that which he did, Yahweh made it prosper.

40It happened after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord, the king of Egypt.

²Pharaoh was angry against his two officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.

³He put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.

⁴The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he took care of them. They stayed in prison many days.

⁵They both dreamed a dream, each man his dream, in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were bound in the prison.

⁶Joseph came in to them in the morning, and saw them, and, saw that they were sad.

⁷He asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, saying, "Why do you look so sad today?"

⁸They said to him, "We have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it." Joseph said to them, "Don't interpretations belong to God? Please tell it to me."

⁹The chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, "In my dream, behold, a vine was in front of me,

¹⁰and in the vine were three branches. It was as though it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters of it brought forth ripe grapes.

¹¹Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand."

¹²Joseph said to him, "This is the interpretation of it: the three branches are three days.

¹³Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head, and restore you to your office. You will give Pharaoh's cup into his hand, the way you did when you were his butler.

¹⁴But remember me when it will be well with you, and show kindness, please, to me, and make mention of me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.

¹⁵For indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon."

¹⁶When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, "I also was in my dream, and, behold, three baskets of white bread were on my head.

¹⁷In the uppermost basket there was of all kinds of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head."

¹⁸Joseph answered, "This is the interpretation of it. The three baskets are three days.

¹⁹Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from off you, and will hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from off you."

²⁰It happened the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and the head of the chief baker among his servants.

²¹He restored the chief butler to his butlership again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand;

²²but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.

²³Yet the chief butler didn't remember Joseph, but forgot him.

41It happened at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.

²Behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, well-favored and fat-fleshed, and they fed in the reed-grass.

³Behold, seven other cattle came up after them out of the river, ill-favored and lean-fleshed, and stood by the other cattle on the brink of the river.

⁴The ill-favored and lean-fleshed cattle ate up the seven well-favored and fat cattle. So Pharaoh awoke.

⁵He slept and dreamed a second time: and, behold, seven ears of grain came up on one stalk, rank and good.

⁶Behold, seven ears, thin and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them.

⁷The thin ears swallowed up the seven rank and full ears. Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.

⁸It happened in the morning that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men of it. Pharaoh told them his dream, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh.

⁹Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, saying, "I remember my faults today.

¹⁰Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, me and the chief baker.

¹¹We dreamed a dream in one night, I and he. We dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream.

¹²There was with us there a young man, a Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard, and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams. To each man according to his dream he did interpret.

¹³It happened, as he interpreted to us, so it was: me he restored to my office, and him he hanged."

¹⁴Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon. He shaved himself, changed his clothing, and came in to Pharaoh.

¹⁵Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you, that when you hear a dream you can interpret it."

¹⁶Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, "It isn't in me: God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace."

¹⁷Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, "In my dream, behold, I stood on the brink of the river:

¹⁸and, behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, fat-fleshed and well-favored. They fed in the reed-grass,

¹⁹and, behold, seven other cattle came up after them, poor and very ill-favored and lean-fleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness.

²⁰The lean and ill-favored cattle ate up the first seven fat cattle,

²¹and when they had eaten them up, it couldn't be known that they had eaten them, but they were still ill-favored, as at the beginning. So I awoke.

²²I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up on one stalk, full and good:

²³and, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them.

²⁴The thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. I told it to the magicians; but there was no one who could explain it to me."

²⁵Joseph said to Pharaoh, "The dream of Pharaoh is one. What God is about to do he has declared to Pharaoh.

²⁶The seven good cattle are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years. The dream is one.

²⁷The seven lean and ill-favored cattle that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind; they will be seven years of famine.

²⁸That is the thing which I spoke to Pharaoh. What God is about to do he has showed to Pharaoh.

²⁹Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt.

³⁰There will arise after them seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land,

³¹and the plenty will not be known in the land by reason of that famine which follows; for it will be very grievous.

³²The dream was doubled to Pharaoh, because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

³³Now therefore let Pharaoh look for a discreet and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt.

³⁴Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint overseers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt's produce in the seven plenteous years.

³⁵Let them gather all the food of these good years that come, and lay up grain under the hand of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it.

³⁶The food will be for a store to the land against the seven years of famine, which will be in the land of Egypt; that the land not perish through the famine."

³⁷The thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.

³⁸Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God?"

³⁹Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Because God has showed you all of this, there is none so discreet and wise as you.

⁴⁰You shall be over my house, and according to your word will all my people be ruled. Only in the throne I will be greater than you."

⁴¹Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Behold, I have set you over all the land of Egypt."

⁴²Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in robes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck,

⁴³and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had. They cried before him, "Bow the knee!" He set him over all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁴Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, and without you shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt."

⁴⁵Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphenath-paneah; and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On as a wife. Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.

⁴⁶Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.

⁴⁷In the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.

⁴⁸He gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities: the food of the field, which was round about every city, he laid up in the same.

⁴⁹Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until he stopped counting, for it was without number.

⁵⁰To Joseph were born two sons before the year of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore to him.

⁵¹Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, "For," he said, "God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house."

⁵²The name of the second, he called Ephraim: "For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction."

⁵³The seven years of plenty, that was in the land of Egypt, came to an end.

⁵⁴The seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.

⁵⁵When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph. What he says to you, do."

⁵⁶The famine was over all the surface of the earth. Joseph opened all the store-houses, and sold to the Egyptians. The famine was severe in the land of Egypt.

⁵⁷All countries came into Egypt, to Joseph, to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all the earth.

42Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, "Why do you look at one another?"

²He said, "Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy for us from there, so that we may live, and not die."

³Joseph's ten brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

⁴But Jacob didn't send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers; for he said, "Lest perhaps harm befall him."

⁵The sons of Israel came to buy among those who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

⁶Joseph was the governor over the land. It was he who sold to all the people of the land. Joseph's brothers came, and bowed themselves down to him with their faces to the earth.

⁷Joseph saw his brothers, and he recognized them, but acted like a stranger to them, and spoke roughly with them. He said to them, "Where did you come from?" They said, "From the land of Canaan to buy food."

⁸Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn't recognize him.

⁹Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed about them, and said to them, "You are spies! You have come to see the nakedness of the land."

¹⁰They said to him, "No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food.

¹¹We are all one man's sons; we are honest men. Your servants are not spies."

¹²He said to them, "No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land."

¹³They said, "We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more."

¹⁴Joseph said to them, "It is like I told you, saying, 'You are spies.'

¹⁵Hereby you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh you shall not go forth from here, unless your youngest brother come here.

¹⁶Send one of you, and let him get your brother, and you shall be bound, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies."

¹⁷He put them all together into custody three days.

¹⁸Joseph said to them the third day, "Do this, and live, for I fear God.

¹⁹If you are honest men, then let one of your brothers be bound in your prison-house; but you go, carry grain for the famine of your houses.

²⁰Bring your youngest brother to me; so will your words be verified, and you won't die." They did so.

²¹They said one to another, "We are most assuredly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we wouldn't listen. Therefore this distress has come on us."

²²Reuben answered them, saying, "Didn't I tell you, saying, 'Don't sin against the child,' and you wouldn't listen? Therefore also, behold, his blood is required."

²³They didn't know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them.

²⁴He turned himself about from them, and wept, and he returned to them, and spoke to them, and took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes.

²⁵Then Joseph commanded to fill their vessels with grain, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them provisions for the way. Thus was it done to them.

²⁶They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed from there.

²⁷As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging-place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack.

²⁸He said to his brothers, "My money is restored! Behold, it is even in my sack." Their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, "What is this that God has done to us?"

²⁹They came to Jacob their father to the land of Canaan, and told him all that had befallen them, saying,

³⁰"The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly with us, and took us for spies of the country.

³¹We said to him, 'We are honest men. We are no spies.

³²We are twelve brothers, sons of our father; one is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.'

³³The man, the lord of the land, said to us, 'Hereby will I know that you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your houses, and go your way.

³⁴Bring your youngest brother to me. Then will I know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. So will I deliver you your brother, and you shall trade in the land.'"

³⁵It happened as they emptied their sacks, that behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid.

³⁶Jacob, their father, said to them, "You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me."

³⁷Reuben spoke to his father, saying, "Kill my two sons, if I don't bring him to you. Deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to you again."

³⁸He said, "My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he only is left. If harm befall him by the way in which you go, then you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol."

43The famine was severe in the land.

²It happened, when they had eaten up the grain which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said to them, "Go again, buy us a little food."

³Judah spoke to him, saying, "The man solemnly warned us, saying, 'You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.'

⁴If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food,

⁵but if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, 'You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.'"

⁶Israel said, "Why did you treat me so badly, telling the man that you had another brother?"

⁷They said, "The man asked directly concerning ourselves, and concerning our relatives, saying, 'Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?' We just answered his questions. Is there any way we could know that he would say, 'Bring your brother down?'"

⁸Judah said to Israel, his father, "Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, so that we may live, and not die, both we, and you, and also our little ones.

⁹I will be collateral for him. From my hand will you require him. If I don't bring him to you, and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever,

¹⁰for unless we had lingered, surely we would have returned a second time by now."

¹¹Their father, Israel, said to them, "If it be so now, do this. Take from the choice fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down a present for the man, a little balm, a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts, and almonds;

¹²and take double money in your hand, with the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks carry again in your hand. Perhaps it was an oversight.

¹³Take also your brother, and arise, go again to the man.

¹⁴May God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved."

¹⁵The men took that present, and they took double money in their hand, and Benjamin; and rose up, went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.

¹⁶When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, "Bring the men into the house, and butcher an animal, and make ready; for the men will dine with me at noon."

¹⁷The man did as Joseph commanded, and the man brought the men to Joseph's house.

¹⁸The men were afraid, because they were brought to Joseph's house; and they said, "Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, and fall on us, and take us for bondservants, along with our donkeys."

¹⁹They came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they spoke to him at the door of the house,

²⁰and said, "Oh, my lord, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food:

²¹and it happened, when we came to the lodging-place, that we opened our sacks, and, behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. We have brought it again in our hand.

²²Other money have we brought down in our hand to buy food. We don't know who put our money in our sacks."

²³He said, "Peace be to you. Don't be afraid. Your God, and the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks. I received your money." He brought Simeon out to them.

²⁴The man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet. He gave their donkeys provender.

²⁵They made ready the present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there.

²⁶When Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed down themselves to him to the earth.

²⁷He asked them of their welfare, and said, "Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he yet alive?"

²⁸They said, "Your servant, our father, is well. He is still alive." They bowed the head, and did homage.

²⁹He lifted up his eyes, and saw Benjamin, his brother, his mother's son, and said, "Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me?" He said, "God be gracious to you, my son."

³⁰Joseph made haste; for his heart yearned over his brother: and he sought a place to weep; and he entered into his room, and wept there.

³¹He washed his face, and came out. He controlled himself, and said, "Serve the meal."

³²They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians, that ate with him, by themselves, because the Egyptians don't eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.

³³They sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth, and the men marveled one with another.

³⁴He sent portions to them from before him, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs. They drank, and were merry with him.

44He commanded the steward of his house, saying, "Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth.

²Put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, with his grain money." He did according to the word that Joseph had spoken.

³As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.

⁴When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, "Up, follow after the men. When you overtake them, tell them, 'Why have you rewarded evil for good?

⁵Isn't this that from which my lord drinks, and whereby he indeed divines? You have done evil in so doing.'"

⁶He overtook them, and he spoke to them these words.

⁷They said to him, "Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants that they should do such a thing!

⁸Behold, the money, which we found in our sacks' mouths, we brought again to you out of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal silver or gold out of your lord's house?

⁹With whoever of your servants it be found, let him die, and we also will be my lord's bondservants."

¹⁰He said, "Now also let it be according to your words: he with whom it is found will be my bondservant; and you will be blameless."

¹¹Then they hurried, and took down every man his sack to the ground, and opened every man his sack.

¹²He searched, beginning with the eldest, and ending at the youngest. The cup was found in Benjamin's sack.

¹³Then they tore their clothes, and loaded every man his donkey, and returned to the city.

¹⁴Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, and he was still there. They fell on the ground before him.

¹⁵Joseph said to them, "What deed is this that you have done? Don't you know that such a man as I can indeed divine?"

¹⁶Judah said, "What will we tell my lord? What will we speak? Or how will we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are my lord's bondservants, both we, and he also in whose hand the cup is found."

¹⁷He said, "Far be it from me that I should do so. The man in whose hand the cup is found, he will be my bondservant; but as for you, go up in peace to your father."

¹⁸Then Judah came near to him, and said, "Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears, and don't let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even as Pharaoh.

¹⁹My lord asked his servants, saying, 'Have you a father, or a brother?'

²⁰We said to my lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother; and his father loves him.'

²¹You said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.'

²²We said to my lord, 'The boy can't leave his father: for if he should leave his father, his father would die.'

²³You said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will see my face no more.'

²⁴It happened when we came up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord.

²⁵Our father said, 'Go again, buy us a little food.'

²⁶We said, 'We can't go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then will we go down: for we may not see the man's face, unless our youngest brother is with us.'

²⁷Your servant, my father, said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons:

²⁸and the one went out from me, and I said, "Surely he is torn in pieces;" and I haven't seen him since.

²⁹If you take this one also from me, and harm befalls him, you will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.'

³⁰Now therefore when I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the boy's life;

³¹it will happen, when he sees that the boy is no more, that he will die. Your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol.

³²For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, 'If I don't bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.'

³³Now therefore, please let your servant stay instead of the boy, a bondservant to my lord; and let the boy go up with his brothers.

³⁴For how will I go up to my father, if the boy isn't with me? Lest I see the evil that will come on my father."

45Then Joseph couldn't control himself before all those who stood before him, and he cried, "Cause every man to go out from me!" There stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

²He wept aloud. The Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard.

³Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Does my father still live?" His brothers couldn't answer him; for they were terrified at his presence.

⁴Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please." They came near. "He said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

⁵Now don't be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.

⁶For these two years has the famine been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.

⁷God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance.

⁸So now it wasn't you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

⁹Hurry, and go up to my father, and tell him, 'This is what your son Joseph says, "God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Don't wait.

¹⁰You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near to me, you, your children, your children's children, your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.

¹¹There I will nourish you; for there are yet five years of famine; lest you come to poverty, you, and your household, and all that you have."'

¹²Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaks to you.

¹³You shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. You shall hurry and bring my father down here."

¹⁴He fell on his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.

¹⁵He kissed all his brothers, and wept on them. After that his brothers talked with him.

¹⁶The report of it was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, "Joseph's brothers have come." It pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.

¹⁷Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Tell your brothers, 'Do this. Load your animals, and go, travel to the land of Canaan.

¹⁸Take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land.'

¹⁹Now you are commanded: do this. Take wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.

²⁰Also, don't concern yourselves about your belongings, for the good of all of the land of Egypt is yours."

²¹The sons of Israel did so. Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.

²²To all of them he gave each man changes of clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothing.

²³To his father, he sent after this manner: ten donkeys laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with grain and bread and provision for his father by the way.

²⁴So he sent his brothers away, and they departed. He said to them, "See that you don't quarrel on the way."

²⁵They went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father.

²⁶They told him, saying, "Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt." His heart fainted, for he didn't believe them.

²⁷They told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them. When he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived.

²⁸Israel said, "It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die."

46Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac.

²God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night, and said, "Jacob, Jacob!" He said, "Here I am."

³He said, "I am God, the God of your father. Don't be afraid to go down into Egypt; for there I will make of you a great nation.

⁴I will go down with you into Egypt. I will also surely bring you up again. Joseph will close your eyes."

⁵Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

⁶They took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt - Jacob, and all his seed with him,

⁷his sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.

⁸These are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn.

⁹The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

¹⁰The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the 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 died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

¹³The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Iob, and Shimron.

¹⁴The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

¹⁵These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Paddan-aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty-three.

¹⁶The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

¹⁷The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and Serah their sister. The sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.

¹⁸These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob, even sixteen souls.

¹⁹The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁰To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.

²¹The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

²²These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen.

²³The sons of Dan: Hushim.

²⁴The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

²⁵These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel, his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob: all the souls were seven.

²⁶All the souls who came with Jacob into Egypt, who were his direct descendants, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were sixty-six.

²⁷The sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob, who came into Egypt, were seventy.

²⁸He sent Judah before him to Joseph, to show the way before him to Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen.

²⁹Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen. He presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.

³⁰Israel said to Joseph, "Now let me die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive."

³¹Joseph said to his brothers, and to his father's house, "I will go up, and speak with Pharaoh, and will tell him, 'My brothers, and my father's house, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

³²These men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of cattle, and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.'

³³It will happen, when Pharaoh summons you, and will say, 'What is your occupation?'

³⁴that you shall say, 'Your servants have been keepers of cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers:' that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians."

47Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, "My father and my brothers, with their flocks, their herds, and all that they own, have come out of the land of Canaan; and, behold, they are in the land of Goshen."

²From among his brothers he took five men, and presented them to Pharaoh.

³Pharaoh said to his brothers, "What is your occupation?" They said to Pharaoh, "Your servants are shepherds, both we, and our fathers."

⁴They said to Pharaoh, "We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks. For the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen."

⁵Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, "Your father and your brothers have come to you.

⁶The land of Egypt is before you. Make your father and your brothers dwell in the best of the land. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen. If you know any able men among them, then put them in charge of my cattle."

⁷Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

⁸Pharaoh said to Jacob, "How many are the days of the years of your life?"

⁹Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage."

¹⁰Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.

¹¹Joseph placed his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

¹²Joseph nourished his father, his brothers, and all of his father's household, with bread, according to their families.

¹³There was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine.

¹⁴Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

¹⁵When the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, "Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For our money fails."

¹⁶Joseph said, "Give your cattle; and I will give you for your cattle, if money fails."

¹⁷They brought their cattle to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, and for the flocks, and for the herds, and for the donkeys: and he fed them with bread in exchange for all their cattle for that year.

¹⁸When that year was ended, they came to him the second year, and said to him, "We will not hide from my lord how our money is all spent, and the herds of cattle are my lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands.

¹⁹Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh. Give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land won't be desolate."

²⁰So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine was severe on them, and the land became Pharaoh's.

²¹As for the people, he moved them to the cities from one end of the border of Egypt even to the other end of it.

²²Only he didn't buy the land of the priests, for the priests had a portion from Pharaoh, and ate their portion which Pharaoh gave them. That is why they didn't sell their land.

²³Then Joseph said to the people, "Behold, I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh. Behold, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land.

²⁴It will happen at the harvests, that you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four parts will be your own, for seed of the field, for your food, for them of your households, and for food for your little ones."

²⁵They said, "You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants."

²⁶Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth. Only the land of the priests alone didn't become Pharaoh's.

²⁷Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they got themselves possessions therein, and were fruitful, and multiplied exceedingly.

²⁸Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were one hundred forty-seven years.

²⁹The time drew near that Israel must die, and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, "If now I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please don't bury me in Egypt,

³⁰but when I sleep with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place." He said, "I will do as you have said."

³¹He said, "Swear to me," and he swore to him. Israel bowed himself on the bed's head.

48It happened after these things, that one said to Joseph, "Behold, your father is sick." He took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

²One told Jacob, and said, "Behold, your son Joseph comes to you," and Israel strengthened himself, and sat on the bed.

³Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,

⁴and said to me, 'Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.'

⁵Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you into Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simeon, will be mine.

⁶Your issue, who you become the father of after them, will be yours. They will be called after the name of their brothers in their inheritance.

⁷As for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath (the same is Beth-lehem)."

⁸Israel saw Joseph's sons, and said, "Who are these?"

⁹Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me here." He said, "Please bring them to me, and I will bless them."

¹⁰Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he couldn't see. He brought them near to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.

¹¹Israel said to Joseph, "I didn't think I would see your face, and, behold, God has let me see your seed also."

¹²Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

¹³Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near to him.

¹⁴Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.

¹⁵He blessed Joseph, and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day,

¹⁶the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."

¹⁷When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. He held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.

¹⁸Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head."

¹⁹His father refused, and said, "I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a multitude of nations."

²⁰He blessed them that day, saying, "In you will Israel bless, saying, 'God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh'" He set Ephraim before Manasseh.

²¹Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers.

²²Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."

49Jacob called to his sons, and said: "Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which will happen to you in the days to come.

²Assemble yourselves, and hear, you sons of Jacob; Listen to Israel, your father.

³"Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.

⁴Boiling over as water, you shall not have the pre-eminence; Because you went up to your father's bed; Then defiled it. He went up to my couch.

⁵"Simeon and Levi are brothers; Weapons of violence are their swords.

⁶My soul, don't come into their council; My glory, don't be united to their assembly; For in their anger they killed a man, In their self-will they hamstrung an ox.

⁷Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; Their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, Scatter them in Israel.

⁸"Judah, your brothers will praise you: Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; Your father's sons will bow down before you.

⁹Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, As a lioness. Who will rouse him up?

¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes. To him will the obedience of the peoples be.

¹¹Binding his foal to the vine, His donkey's colt to the choice vine; He has washed his garments in wine, His robes in the blood of grapes:

¹²His eyes will be red with wine, His teeth white with milk.

¹³"Zebulun will dwell at the haven of the sea. He will be for a haven of ships. His border will be on Sidon.

¹⁴"Issachar is a strong donkey, Couching down between the sheepfolds.

¹⁵He saw a resting-place, that it was good, The land, that it was pleasant; He bowed his shoulder to bear, And became a servant doing forced labor.

¹⁶"Dan will judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷Dan will be a serpent in the way, An adder in the path, That bites the horse's heels, So that his rider falls backward.

¹⁸I have waited for your salvation, Yahweh.

¹⁹"Gad, a troop will press on him; But he will press on their heel.

²⁰Out of Asher his bread will be fat, He will yield royal dainties.

²¹"Naphtali is a doe set free, Who bears beautiful fawns.

²²"Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a spring; His branches run over the wall.

²³The archers have sorely grieved him, Shot at him, and persecute him:

²⁴But his bow abode in strength, The arms of his hands were made strong, By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, (From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),

²⁵Even by the God of your father, who will help you, By the Almighty, who will bless you, With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that couches beneath, Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.

²⁶The blessings of your father Have prevailed above the blessings of the ancient mountains, Than the bounty of the age-old hills. They will be on the head of Joseph, On the crown of the head of him who is separated from his brothers.

²⁷"Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning she will devour the prey. At evening he will divide the spoil."

²⁸All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father spoke to them and blessed them. He blessed everyone according to his blessing.

²⁹He charged them, and said to them, "I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place.

³¹There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife, and there I buried Leah:

³²the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth."

³³When Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the spirit, and was gathered to his people.

50Joseph fell on his father's face, wept on him, and kissed him.

²Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel.

³Forty days were fulfilled for him, for that is how many the days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for him for seventy days.

⁴When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

⁵'My father made me swear, saying, "Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan." Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.'"

⁶Pharaoh said, "Go up, and bury your father, just like he made you swear."

⁷Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, all the elders of the land of Egypt,

⁸all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.

⁹There went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company.

¹⁰They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sore lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days.

¹¹When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians." Therefore, the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan.

¹²His sons did to him just as he commanded them,

¹³for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, for a possession of a burying-place, from Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.

¹⁴Joseph returned into Egypt - he, and his brothers, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

¹⁵When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully pay us back for all of the evil which we did to him.

¹⁶They sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father commanded before he died, saying,

¹⁷"So will you tell Joseph, 'Now please forgive the disobedience of your brothers, and their sin, because they did evil to you.' Now, please forgive the disobedience of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

¹⁸His brothers also went and fell down before his face; and they said, "Behold, we are your servants."

¹⁹Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid, for am I in the place of God?

²⁰As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive.

²¹Now therefore don't be afraid. I will nourish you and your little ones." He comforted them, and spoke kindly to them.

²²Joseph lived in Egypt, he, and his father's house. Joseph lived one hundred ten years.

²³Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph's knees.

²⁴Joseph said to his brothers, "I am dying, but God will surely visit you, and bring you up out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

²⁵Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here."

²⁶So Joseph died, being one hundred ten years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

1Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt (every man and his household came with Jacob):

²Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

³Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

⁴Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

⁵All the souls who came out of the Jacob's body were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt already.

⁶Joseph died, as did all his brothers, and all that generation.

⁷The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

⁸Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn't know Joseph.

⁹He said to his people, "Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

¹⁰Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies, and fight against us, and escape out of the land."

¹¹Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.

¹²But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They were grieved because of the children of Israel.

¹³The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve,

¹⁴and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.

¹⁵The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah,

¹⁶and he said, "When you perform the duty of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birth stool; if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live."

¹⁷But the midwives feared God, and didn't do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive.

¹⁸The king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, "Why have you done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive?"

¹⁹The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women aren't like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous, and give birth before the midwife comes to them."

²⁰God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and grew very mighty.

²¹It happened, because the midwives feared God, that he gave them families.

²²Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, "You shall cast every son who is born into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive."

2A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife.

²The woman conceived, and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.

³When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank.

⁴His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him.

⁵Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her handmaid to get it.

⁶She opened it, and saw the child, and, behold, the baby cried. She had compassion on him, and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."

⁷Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?"

⁸Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." The maiden went and called the child's mother.

⁹Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages." The woman took the child, and nursed it.

¹⁰The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, and said, "Because I drew him out of the water."

¹¹It happened in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brothers, and looked at their burdens. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers.

¹²He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

¹³He went out the second day, and, behold, two men of the Hebrews were fighting with each other. He said to him who did the wrong, "Why do you strike your fellow?"

¹⁴He said, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" Moses was afraid, and said, "Surely this thing is known."

¹⁵Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

¹⁶Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

¹⁷The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.

¹⁸When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, "How is it that you have returned so early today?"

¹⁹They said, "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock."

²⁰He said to his daughters, "Where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread."

²¹Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter.

²²She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land."

²³It happened in the course of those many days, that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.

²⁴God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

²⁵God saw the children of Israel, and God was concerned about them.

3Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to God's mountain, to Horeb.

²The angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

³Moses said, I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

⁴When Yahweh saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, "Moses! Moses!" He said, "Here I am."

⁵He said, "Don't come close. Take off your sandals from off your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy ground."

⁶Moreover he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look at God.

⁷Yahweh said, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

⁸I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

⁹Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.

¹⁰Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

¹¹Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

¹²He said, "Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."

¹³Moses said to God, "Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you;' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' What should I tell them?"

¹⁴God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM," and he said, "You shall tell the children of Israel this: "I AM has sent me to you."

¹⁵God said moreover to Moses, "You shall tell the children of Israel this, 'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations.

¹⁶Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and tell them, 'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, "I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt;

¹⁷and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey."'

¹⁸They will listen to your voice, and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall tell him, 'Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh, our God.'

¹⁹I know that the king of Egypt won't give you permission to go, no, not by a mighty hand.

²⁰I will put forth my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst of it, and after that he will let you go.

²¹I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and it will happen that when you go, you shall not go empty-handed.

²²But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, and of her who sojourns in her house, jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and clothing; and you shall put them on your sons, and on your daughters. You shall despoil the Egyptians.

4Moses answered, "But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, 'Yahweh has not appeared to you.'"

²Yahweh said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod."

³He said, "Throw it on the ground." He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses ran away from it.

⁴Yahweh said to Moses, "Put forth your hand, and take it by the tail." He put forth his hand, and laid hold of it, and it became a rod in his hand.

⁵"That they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."

⁶Yahweh said furthermore to him, "Now put your hand inside your cloak." He put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.

⁷He said, "Put your hand inside your cloak again." He put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, behold, it had turned again as his other flesh.

⁸"It will happen, if they will neither believe you nor listen to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

⁹It will happen, if they will not believe even these two signs, neither listen to your voice, that you shall take of the water of the river, and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land."

¹⁰Moses said to Yahweh, "Oh, Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue."

¹¹Yahweh said to him, "Who made man's mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn't it I, Yahweh?

¹²Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak."

¹³He said, "Oh, Lord, please send someone else."

¹⁴The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Moses, and he said, "What about Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Also, behold, he comes forth to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.

¹⁵You shall speak to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do.

¹⁶He will be your spokesman to the people; and it will happen, that he will be to you a mouth, and you will be to him as God.

¹⁷You shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs."

¹⁸Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, "Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive." Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."

¹⁹Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, "Go, return into Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead."

²⁰Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God's rod in his hand.

²¹Yahweh said to Moses, "When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go.

²²You shall tell Pharaoh, 'Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my son, my firstborn,

²³and I have said to you, "Let my son go, that he may serve me;" and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.'"

²⁴It happened on the way at a lodging place, that Yahweh met him and wanted to kill him.

²⁵Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me."

²⁶So he let him alone. Then she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision.

²⁷Yahweh said to Aaron, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moses." He went, and met him on God's mountain, and kissed him.

²⁸Moses told Aaron all the words of Yahweh with which he had sent him, and all the signs with which he had charged him.

²⁹Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel.

³⁰Aaron spoke all the words which Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.

³¹The people believed, and when they heard that Yahweh had visited the children of Israel, and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

5Afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said to Pharaoh, "This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, 'Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'"

²Pharaoh said, "Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go? I don't know Yahweh, and moreover I will not let Israel go."

³They said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Yahweh, our God, lest he fall on us with pestilence, or with the sword."

⁴The king of Egypt said to them, "Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people from their work? Get back to your burdens!"

⁵Pharaoh said, "Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens."

⁶The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,

⁷"You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.

⁸The number of the bricks, which they made before, you require from them. You shall not diminish anything of it, for they are idle; therefore they cry, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'

⁹Let heavier work be laid on the men, that they may labor therein; and don't let them pay any attention to lying words."

¹⁰The taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying, This is what Pharaoh says: "I will not give you straw.

¹¹Go yourselves, get straw where you can find it, for nothing of your work shall be diminished."

¹²So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.

¹³The taskmasters were urgent saying, "Fulfill your work quota daily, as when there was straw!"

¹⁴The officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, "Why haven't you fulfilled your quota both yesterday and today, in making brick as before?"

¹⁵Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, saying, "Why do you deal this way with your servants?

¹⁶No straw is given to your servants, and they tell us, 'Make brick!' and, behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people."

¹⁷But he said, "You are idle! You are idle! Therefore you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to Yahweh.'

¹⁸Go therefore now, and work, for no straw shall be given to you, yet shall you deliver the same number of bricks!"

¹⁹The officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble, when it was said, "You shall not diminish anything from your daily quota of bricks!"

²⁰They met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh:

²¹and they said to them, "May Yahweh look at you, and judge, because you have made us a stench to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us."

²²Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, "Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Why is it that you have sent me?

²³For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people; neither have you delivered your people at all."

6Yahweh said to Moses, "Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for by a strong hand he shall let them go, and by a strong hand he shall drive them out of his land."

²God spoke to Moses, and said to him, "I am Yahweh;

³and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.

⁴I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their travels, in which they lived as aliens.

⁵Moreover I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant.

⁶Therefore tell the children of Israel, 'I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments:

⁷and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

⁸I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for a heritage: I am Yahweh.'"

⁹Moses spoke so to the children of Israel, but they didn't listen to Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.

¹⁰Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹¹"Go in, speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land."

¹²Moses spoke before Yahweh, saying, "Behold, the children of Israel haven't listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, who am of uncircumcised lips?"

¹³Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and gave them a charge to the children of Israel, and to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁴These are the heads of their fathers' houses. The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these are the families of Reuben.

¹⁵The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the families of Simeon.

¹⁶These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari; and the years of the life of Levi were one hundred thirty-seven years.

¹⁷The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, according to their families.

¹⁸The sons of Kohath: Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel; and the years of the life of Kohath were one hundred thirty-three years.

¹⁹The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites according to their generations.

²⁰Amram took Jochebed his father's sister to himself as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were a hundred and thirty-seven years.

²¹The sons of Izhar: Korah, and Nepheg, and Zichri.

²²The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, and Elzaphan, and Sithri.

²³Aaron took Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, the sister of Nahshon, as his wife; and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²⁴The sons of Korah: Assir, and Elkanah, and Abiasaph; these are the families of the Korahites.

²⁵Eleazar Aaron's son took one of the daughters of Putiel as his wife; and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites according to their families.

²⁶These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom Yahweh said, "Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their hosts."

²⁷These are those who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt. These are that Moses and Aaron.

²⁸It happened on the day when Yahweh spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt,

²⁹that Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, "I am Yahweh. Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I speak to you."

³⁰Moses said before Yahweh, "Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh listen to me?"

7Yahweh said to Moses, "Behold, I have made you as God to Pharaoh; and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.

²You shall speak all that I command you; and Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.

³I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

⁴But Pharaoh will not listen to you, and I will lay my hand on Egypt, and bring forth my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

⁵The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh, when I stretch forth my hand on Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them."

⁶Moses and Aaron did so. As Yahweh commanded them, so they did.

⁷Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.

⁸Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

⁹"When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, 'Perform a miracle!' then you shall tell Aaron, 'Take your rod, and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it become a serpent.'"

¹⁰Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, as Yahweh had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

¹¹Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers. They also, the magicians of Egypt, did in like manner with their enchantments.

¹²For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.

¹³Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he didn't listen to them; as Yahweh had spoken.

¹⁴Yahweh said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is stubborn. He refuses to let the people go.

¹⁵Go to Pharaoh in the morning. Behold, he goes out to the water; and you shall stand by the river's bank to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand.

¹⁶You shall tell him, 'Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you, saying, "Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness:" and, behold, until now you haven't listened.

¹⁷Thus says Yahweh, "In this you shall know that I am Yahweh. Behold, I will strike with the rod that is in my hand on the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

¹⁸The fish that are in the river shall die, and the river shall become foul; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink water from the river."'"

¹⁹Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Take your rod, and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their ponds of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.'"

²⁰Moses and Aaron did so, as Yahweh commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.

²¹The fish that were in the river died; and the river became foul, and the Egyptians couldn't drink water from the river; and the blood was throughout all the land of Egypt.

²²The magicians of Egypt did in like manner with their enchantments; and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he didn't listen to them; as Yahweh had spoken.

²³Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he lay even this to heart.

²⁴All the Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink; for they couldn't drink of the water of the river.

²⁵Seven days were fulfilled, after Yahweh had struck the river.

8Yahweh spoke to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh, and tell him, "This is what Yahweh says, 'Let my people go, that they may serve me.

²If you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your borders with frogs:

³and the river shall swarm with frogs, which shall go up and come into your house, and into your bedchamber, and on your bed, and into the house of your servants, and on your people, and into your ovens, and into your kneading-troughs:

⁴and the frogs shall come up both on you, and on your people, and on all your servants.'"

⁵Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch forth your hand with your rod over the rivers, over the streams, and over the pools, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.'"

⁶Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.

⁷The magicians did in like manner with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.

⁸Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, "Entreat Yahweh, that he take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to Yahweh."

⁹Moses said to Pharaoh, "I give you the honor of setting the time that I should pray for you, and for your servants, and for your people, that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses, and remain in the river only."

¹⁰He said, "Tomorrow." He said, "Be it according to your word, that you may know that there is none like Yahweh our God.

¹¹The frogs shall depart from you, and from your houses, and from your servants, and from your people. They shall remain in the river only."

¹²Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to Yahweh concerning the frogs which he had brought on Pharaoh.

¹³Yahweh did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courts, and out of the fields.

¹⁴They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank.

¹⁵But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and didn't listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.

¹⁶Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.'"

¹⁷They did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were lice on man, and on animal; all the dust of the earth became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

¹⁸The magicians tried with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they couldn't. There were lice on man, and on animal.

¹⁹Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God:" and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he didn't listen to them; as Yahweh had spoken.

²⁰Yahweh said to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; behold, he comes forth to the water; and tell him, 'This is what Yahweh says, "Let my people go, that they may serve me.

²¹Else, if you will not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies on you, and on your servants, and on your people, and into your houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

²²I will set apart in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end you may know that I am Yahweh in the midst of the earth.

²³I will put a division between my people and your people: by tomorrow shall this sign be."'"

²⁴Yahweh did so; and there came grievous swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses: and in all the land of Egypt the land was corrupted by reason of the swarms of flies.

²⁵Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God in the land!"

²⁶Moses said, "It isn't appropriate to do so; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Yahweh our God. Behold, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and won't they stone us?

²⁷We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Yahweh our God, as he shall command us."

²⁸Pharaoh said, "I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to Yahweh your God in the wilderness, only you shall not go very far away. Pray for me."

²⁹Moses said, "Behold, I go out from you, and I will pray to Yahweh that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow; only don't let Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to Yahweh."

³⁰Moses went out from Pharaoh, and prayed to Yahweh.

³¹Yahweh did according to the word of Moses, and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. There remained not one.

³²Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he didn't let the people go.

9Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh, and tell him, 'This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, that they may serve me.

²For if you refuse to let them go, and hold them still,

³behold, the hand of Yahweh is on your cattle which are in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herds, and on the flocks with a very grievous pestilence.

⁴Yahweh will make a distinction between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt; and there shall nothing die of all that belongs to the children of Israel."'"

⁵Yahweh appointed a set time, saying, "Tomorrow Yahweh shall do this thing in the land."

⁶Yahweh did that thing on the next day; and all the cattle of Egypt died, but of the cattle of the children of Israel, not one died.

⁷Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not so much as one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was stubborn, and he didn't let the people go.

⁸Yahweh said to Moses and to Aaron, "Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh.

⁹It shall become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with boils on man and on animal, throughout all the land of Egypt."

¹⁰They took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward the sky; and it became a boil breaking forth with boils on man and on animal.

¹¹The magicians couldn't stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boils were on the magicians, and on all the Egyptians.

¹²Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he didn't listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken to Moses.

¹³Yahweh said to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and tell him, 'This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, that they may serve me.

¹⁴For this time I will send all my plagues on your heart, and on your servants, and on your people; that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.

¹⁵For now I would have put forth my hand, and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth;

¹⁶but indeed for this cause I have made you stand, to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.

¹⁷As you still exalt yourself against my people, that you won't let them go.

¹⁸Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as has not been in Egypt since the day it was founded even until now.

¹⁹Now therefore command that all of your cattle and all that you have in the field be brought into shelter. Every man and animal that is found in the field, and isn't brought home, the hail shall come down on them, and they shall die."'"

²⁰Those who feared the word of Yahweh among the servants of Pharaoh made their servants and their cattle flee into the houses.

²¹Whoever didn't regard the word of Yahweh left his servants and his cattle in the field.

²²Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch forth your hand toward the sky, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man, and on animal, and on every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt."

²³Moses stretched forth his rod toward the heavens, and Yahweh sent thunder, hail, and lightning flashed down to the earth. Yahweh rained hail on the land of Egypt.

²⁴So there was very severe hail, and lightning mixed with the hail, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

²⁵The hail struck throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and animal; and the hail struck every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field.

²⁶Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.

²⁷Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "I have sinned this time. Yahweh is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.

²⁸Pray to Yahweh; for there has been enough of mighty thunderings and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer."

²⁹Moses said to him, "As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands to Yahweh. The thunders shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that you may know that the earth is Yahweh's.

³⁰But as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear Yahweh God."

³¹The flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bloom.

³²But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they had not grown up.

³³Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands to Yahweh; and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth.

³⁴When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.

³⁵The heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he didn't let the children of Israel go, as Yahweh had spoken through Moses.

10Yahweh said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I may show these my signs in the midst of them,

²and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your son's son, what things I have done to Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that you may know that I am Yahweh."

³Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, "This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.

⁴Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,

⁵and they shall cover the surface of the earth, so that one won't be able to see the earth. They shall eat the residue of that which has escaped, which remains to you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which grows for you out of the field.

⁶Your houses shall be filled, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; as neither your fathers nor your fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were on the earth to this day.'" He turned, and went out from Pharaoh.

⁷Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve Yahweh, their God. Don't you yet know that Egypt is destroyed?

⁸Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, "Go, serve Yahweh your God; but who are those who will go?"

⁹Moses said, "We will go with our young and with our old; with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast to Yahweh."

¹⁰He said to them, "Yahweh be with you if I will let you go with your little ones! See, evil is clearly before your faces.

¹¹Not so! Go now you who are men, and serve Yahweh; for that is what you desire!" They were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

¹²Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up on the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail has left."

¹³Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and Yahweh brought an east wind on the land all that day, and all the night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.

¹⁴The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the borders of Egypt. They were very grievous. Before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.

¹⁵For they covered the surface of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened, and they ate every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. There remained nothing green, either tree or herb of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

¹⁶Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and he said, "I have sinned against Yahweh your God, and against you.

¹⁷Now therefore please forgive my sin again, and pray to Yahweh your God, that he may also take away from me this death."

¹⁸He went out from Pharaoh, and prayed to Yahweh.

¹⁹Yahweh turned an exceeding strong west wind, which took up the locusts, and drove them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the borders of Egypt.

²⁰But Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he didn't let the children of Israel go.

²¹Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt."

²²Moses stretched forth his hand toward the sky, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.

²³They didn't see one another, neither did anyone rise from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

²⁴Pharaoh called to Moses, and said, "Go, serve Yahweh. Only let your flocks and your herds stay behind. Let your little ones also go with you."

²⁵Moses said, "You must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt-offerings, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh our God.

²⁶Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall not a hoof be left behind, for of it we must take to serve Yahweh our God; and we don't know with what we must serve Yahweh, until we come there."

²⁷But Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he wouldn't let them go.

²⁸Pharaoh said to him, "Get away from me! Be careful to see my face no more; for in the day you see my face you shall die!"

²⁹Moses said, "You have spoken well. I will see your face again no more."

11Yahweh said to Moses, "Yet one plague more will I bring on Pharaoh, and on Egypt; afterwards he will let you go. When he lets you go, he will surely thrust you out altogether.

²Speak now in the ears of the people, and let them ask every man of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold."

³Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.

⁴Moses said, "This is what Yahweh says: 'About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt,

⁵and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the maid-servant who is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of cattle.

⁶There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been, nor shall be any more.

⁷But against any of the children of Israel a dog won't even bark or move its tongue, against man or animal; that you may know that Yahweh makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel.

⁸All these your servants shall come down to me, and bow down themselves to me, saying, 'Get out, and all the people who follow you; and after that I will go out.'" He went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.

⁹Yahweh said to Moses, "Pharaoh won't listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt."

¹⁰Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he didn't let the children of Israel go out of his land.

12Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

²"This month shall be to you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.

³Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household;

⁴and if the household be too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls; according to everyone can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.

⁵Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats:

⁶and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at evening.

⁷They shall take same of the blood, and put it on the two side-posts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they shall eat it.

⁸They shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.

⁹Don't eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire; with its head, its legs and its inner parts.

¹⁰You shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remains of it until the morning you shall burn with fire.

¹¹This is how you shall eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh's Passover.

¹²For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh.

¹³The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be on you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to Yahweh: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.

¹⁵Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away yeast out of your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

¹⁶In the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no manner of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.

¹⁷You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this same day have I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall you observe this day throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.

¹⁸In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty first day of the month at evening.

¹⁹Seven days shall there be no yeast found in your houses, for whoever eats that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a sojourner, or one who is born in the land.

²⁰You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.'"

²¹Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, "Draw out, and take lambs according to your families, and kill the Passover.

²²You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.

²³For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two side-posts, Yahweh will pass over the door, and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to strike you.

²⁴You shall observe this thing for an ordinance to you and to your sons forever.

²⁵It shall happen when you have come to the land which Yahweh will give you, according as he has promised, that you shall keep this service.

²⁶It will happen, when your children ask you, 'What do you mean by this service?'

²⁷that you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of Yahweh's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians, and spared our houses.'" The people bowed their heads and worshipped.

²⁸The children of Israel went and did so; as Yahweh had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

²⁹It happened at midnight, that Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.

³⁰Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

³¹He called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, "Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel; and go, serve Yahweh, as you have said!

³²Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also!"

³³The Egyptians were urgent with the people, to send them out of the land in haste, for they said, "We are all dead men."

³⁴The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.

³⁵The children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing.

³⁶Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. They despoiled the Egyptians.

³⁷The children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, besides children.

³⁸A mixed multitude went up also with them, with flocks, herds, and even very much cattle.

³⁹They baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt; for it wasn't leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt, and couldn't wait, neither had they prepared for themselves any food.

⁴⁰Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years.

⁴¹It happened at the end of four hundred thirty years, even the same day it happened, that all the hosts of Yahweh went out from the land of Egypt.

⁴²It is a night to be much observed to Yahweh for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of Yahweh, to be much observed of all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

⁴³Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover. There shall no foreigner eat of it,

⁴⁴but every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then shall he eat of it.

⁴⁵A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat of it.

⁴⁶In one house shall it be eaten; you shall not carry forth anything of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall you break a bone of it.

⁴⁷All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

⁴⁸When a stranger shall sojourn with you, and will keep the Passover to Yahweh, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one who is born in the land: but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.

⁴⁹One law shall be to him who is born at home, and to the stranger who sojourns among you."

⁵⁰Thus did all the children of Israel. As Yahweh commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

⁵¹It happened the same day, that Yahweh brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.

13Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²"Sanctify to me all of the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of animal. It is mine."

³Moses said to the people, "Remember this day, in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand Yahweh brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.

⁴This day you go forth in the month Abib.

⁵It shall be, when Yahweh shall bring you into the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.

⁶Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to Yahweh.

⁷Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and no leavened bread shall be seen with you, neither shall there be yeast seen with you, in all your borders.

⁸You shall tell your son in that day, saying, 'It is because of that which Yahweh did for me when I came forth out of Egypt.'

⁹It shall be for a sign to you on your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that the law of Yahweh may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand Yahweh has brought you out of Egypt.

¹⁰You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.

¹¹"It shall be, when Yahweh shall bring you into the land of the Canaanite, as he swore to you and to your fathers, and shall give it you,

¹²that you shall set apart to Yahweh all that opens the womb, and every firstborn which you have that comes from an animal. The males shall be Yahweh's.

¹³Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and you shall redeem all the firstborn of man among your sons.

¹⁴It shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' that you shall tell him, 'By strength of hand Yahweh brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage;

¹⁵and it happened, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that Yahweh killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of animal. Therefore I sacrifice to Yahweh all that opens the womb, being males; but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.'

¹⁶It shall be for a sign on your hand, and for symbols between your eyes: for by strength of hand Yahweh brought us forth out of Egypt."

¹⁷It happened, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God didn't lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, "Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and they return to Egypt;"

¹⁸but God led the people around by the way of the wilderness by the Red Sea; and the children of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁹Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had made the children of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones away from here with you."

²⁰They took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.

²¹Yahweh went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, that they might go by day and by night:

²²the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, didn't depart from before the people.

14Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²"Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn back and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon. You shall encamp opposite it by the sea.

³Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, 'They are entangled in the land. The wilderness has shut them in.'

⁴I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will follow after them; and I will get honor over Pharaoh, and over all his host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh." They did so.

⁵It was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled; and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was changed towards the people, and they said, "What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?"

⁶He made ready his chariot, and took his army with him;

⁷and he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over all of them.

⁸Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel; for the children of Israel went out with a high hand.

⁹The Egyptians pursued after them: all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen, and his army; and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baal-zephon.

¹⁰When Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them; and they were very afraid. The children of Israel cried out to Yahweh.

¹¹They said to Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you treated us this way, to bring us forth out of Egypt?

¹²Isn't this the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, 'Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?' For it were better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness."

¹³Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh, which he will work for you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall never see them again.

¹⁴Yahweh will fight for you, and you shall be still."

¹⁵Yahweh said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me? Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward.

¹⁶Lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground.

¹⁷I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall go in after them: and I will get myself honor over Pharaoh, and over all his host, over his chariots, and over his horsemen.

¹⁸The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have gotten myself honor over Pharaoh, over his chariots, and over his horsemen."

¹⁹The angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them, and stood behind them.

²⁰It came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud and the darkness, yet gave it light by night: and the one didn't come near the other all the night.

²¹Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yahweh caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

²²The children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left.

²³The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the midst of the sea: all of Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

²⁴It happened in the morning watch, that Yahweh looked out on the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and confused the Egyptian army.

²⁵He took off their chariot wheels, and they drove them heavily; so that the Egyptians said, "Let's flee from the face of Israel, for Yahweh fights for them against the Egyptians!"

²⁶Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come again on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen."

²⁷Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it. Yahweh overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

²⁸The waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even all Pharaoh's army that went in after them into the sea. There remained not so much as one of them.

²⁹But the children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left.

³⁰Thus Yahweh saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.

³¹Israel saw the great work which Yahweh did to the Egyptians, and the people feared Yahweh; and they believed in Yahweh, and in his servant Moses.

15Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to Yahweh, and said, "I will sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously: The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.

²Yah is my strength and song, He has become my salvation: This is my God, and I will praise him; My father's God, and I will exalt him.

³Yahweh is a man of war. Yahweh is his name.

⁴Pharaoh's chariots and his host has he cast into the sea; His chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea.

⁵The deeps cover them. They went down into the depths like a stone.

⁶Your right hand, Yahweh, is glorious in power, Your right hand, Yahweh, dashes the enemy in pieces.

⁷In the greatness of your excellency, you overthrow those who rise up against you: You send forth your wrath. It consumes them as stubble.

⁸With the blast of your nostrils the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.

⁹The enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil. My desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.'

¹⁰You blew with your wind. The sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

¹¹Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders?

¹²You stretched out your right hand. The earth swallowed them.

¹³"You, in your lovingkindness, have led the people that you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation.

¹⁴The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia.

¹⁵Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed. Trembling takes hold of the mighty men of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away.

¹⁶Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone; Until your people pass over, Yahweh, Until the people pass over who you have purchased.

¹⁷You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, The place, Yahweh, which you have made for yourself to dwell in; The sanctuary, Lord, which your hands have established.

¹⁸Yahweh shall reign forever and ever."

¹⁹For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and Yahweh brought back the waters of the sea on them; but the children of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea.

²⁰Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances.

²¹Miriam answered them, "Sing to Yahweh, for he has triumphed gloriously: The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea."

²²Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.

²³When they came to Marah, they couldn't drink from the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah.

²⁴The people murmured against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?"

²⁵Then he cried to Yahweh. Yahweh showed him a tree, and he threw it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There he made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there he tested them;

²⁶and he said, "If you will diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you."

²⁷They came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water, and seventy palm-trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

16They took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

²The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness;

³and the children of Israel said to them, "We wish that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

⁴Then said Yahweh to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.

⁵It shall come to pass on the sixth day, that they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily."

⁶Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, "At evening, then you shall know that Yahweh has brought you out from the land of Egypt;

⁷and in the morning, then you shall see the glory of Yahweh; because he hears your murmurings against Yahweh. Who are we, that you murmur against us?"

⁸Moses said, "Now Yahweh shall give you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to satisfy you; because Yahweh hears your murmurings which you murmur against him. And who are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against Yahweh."

⁹Moses said to Aaron, "Tell all the congregation of the children of Israel, 'Come near before Yahweh, for he has heard your murmurings.'"

¹⁰It happened, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of Yahweh appeared in the cloud.

¹¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹²"I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'At evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread: and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.'"

¹³It happened at evening that quail came up and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay around the camp.

¹⁴When the dew that lay had gone, behold, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round thing, small as the hoar-frost on the ground.

¹⁵When the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, "What is it?" For they didn't know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread which Yahweh has given you to eat."

¹⁶This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded: "Gather of it everyone according to his eating; an omer a head, according to the number of your persons, shall you take it, every man for those who are in his tent."

¹⁷The children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less.

¹⁸When they measured it with an omer, he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating.

¹⁹Moses said to them, "Let no one leave of it until the morning."

²⁰Notwithstanding they didn't listen to Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and became foul: and Moses was angry with them.

²¹They gathered it morning by morning, everyone according to his eating. When the sun grew hot, it melted.

²²It happened that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

²³He said to them, "This is that which Yahweh has spoken, 'Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all that remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning."

²⁴They laid it up until the morning, as Moses asked, and it didn't become foul, neither was there any worm in it.

²⁵Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahweh. Today you shall not find it in the field.

²⁶Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath. In it there shall be none."

²⁷It happened on the seventh day, that some of the people went out to gather, and they found none.

²⁸Yahweh said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

²⁹Behold, because Yahweh has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day."

³⁰So the people rested on the seventh day.

³¹The house of Israel called the name of it Manna, and it was like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers with honey.

³²Moses said, "This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, 'Let an omer-full of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt."

³³Moses said to Aaron, "Take a pot, and put an omer-full of manna in it, and lay it up before Yahweh, to be kept throughout your generations."

³⁴As Yahweh commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

³⁵The children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.

³⁶Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.

17All the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to Yahweh's commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.

²Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?"

³The people were thirsty for water there; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"

⁴Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, "What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."

⁵Yahweh said to Moses, "Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go.

⁶Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

⁷He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, "Is Yahweh among us, or not?"

⁸Then Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

⁹Moses said to Joshua, "Choose men for us, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with God's rod in my hand.

¹⁰So Joshua did as Moses had told him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

¹¹It happened, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

¹²But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. His hands were steady until sunset.

¹³Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴Yahweh said to Moses, "Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky."

¹⁵Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Yahweh our Banner

¹⁶He said, "Yah has sworn: 'Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.'"

18Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, how that Yahweh had brought Israel out of Egypt.

²Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, received Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away,

³and her two sons. The name of one son was Gershom, for Moses said, "I have been a sojourner in a foreign land".

⁴The name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, "My father's God was my help and delivered me from Pharaoh's sword."

⁵Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses into the wilderness where he was encamped, at the Mountain of God.

⁶He said to Moses, I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you with your wife, and her two sons with her.

⁷Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and bowed and kissed him. They asked each other of their welfare, and they came into the tent.

⁸Moses told his father-in-law all that Yahweh had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardships that had come on them on the way, and how Yahweh delivered them.

⁹Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which Yahweh had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

¹⁰Jethro said, "Blessed be Yahweh, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh; who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

¹¹Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all gods because of the thing in which they dealt arrogantly against them."

¹²Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. Aaron came with all of the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.

¹³It happened on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning to the evening.

¹⁴When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, "What is this thing that you do for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning to evening?"

¹⁵Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to inquire of God.

¹⁶When they have a matter, they come to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make them know the statutes of God, and his laws."

¹⁷Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you do is not good.

¹⁸You will surely wear away, both you, and this people that is with you; for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to perform it yourself alone.

¹⁹Listen now to my voice. I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You represent the people before God, and bring the causes to God.

²⁰You shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and shall show them the way in which they must walk, and the work that they must do.

²¹Moreover you shall provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God: men of truth, hating unjust gain; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

²²Let them judge the people at all times. It shall be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So shall it be easier for you, and they shall share the load with you.

²³If you will do this thing, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all of these people also will go to their place in peace."

²⁴So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said.

²⁵Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

²⁶They judged the people at all times. They brought the hard causes to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

²⁷Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way into his own land.

19In the third month after the children of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, on that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

²When they had departed from Rephidim, and had come to the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the mountain.

³Moses went up to God, and Yahweh called to him out of the mountain, saying, "This is what you shall tell the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:

⁴'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself.

⁵Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;

⁶and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."

⁷Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which Yahweh commanded him.

⁸All the people answered together, and said, "All that Yahweh has spoken we will do." Moses reported the words of the people to Yahweh.

⁹Yahweh said to Moses, "Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever." Moses told the words of the people to Yahweh.

¹⁰Yahweh said to Moses, "Go to the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments,

¹¹and be ready against the third day; for on the third day Yahweh will come down in the sight of all the people on Mount Sinai.

¹²You shall set bounds to the people round about, saying, 'Be careful that you don't go up onto the mountain, or touch its border. Whoever touches the mountain shall be surely put to death.

¹³No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether it is animal or man, he shall not live.' When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come up to the mountain."

¹⁴Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.

¹⁵He said to the people, "Be ready by the third day. Don't have sexual relations with a woman."

¹⁶It happened on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.

¹⁷Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lower part of the mountain.

¹⁸Mount Sinai, the whole of it, smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.

¹⁹When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.

²⁰Yahweh came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

²¹Yahweh said to Moses, "Go down, charge the people, lest they break through to Yahweh to gaze, and many of them perish.

²²Let the priests also, who come near to Yahweh, sanctify themselves, lest Yahweh break forth on them."

²³Moses said to Yahweh, "The people can't come up to Mount Sinai, for you charged us, saying, 'Set bounds around the mountain, and sanctify it.'"

²⁴Yahweh said to him, "Go down and you shall bring Aaron up with you, but don't let the priests and the people break through to come up to Yahweh, lest he break forth on them."

²⁵So Moses went down to the people, and told them.

20God spoke all these words, saying,

²"I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

³You shall have no other gods before me.

⁴"You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

⁵you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,

⁶and showing lovingkindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

⁷"You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

⁸"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

⁹You shall labor six days, and do all your work,

¹⁰but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates;

¹¹for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.

¹²"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

¹³"You shall not murder.

¹⁴"You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵"You shall not steal.

¹⁶"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

¹⁷"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

¹⁸All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance.

¹⁹They said to Moses, "Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don't let God speak with us, lest we die."

²⁰Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won't sin."

²¹The people stayed at a distance, and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

²²Yahweh said to Moses, "This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

²³You shall most certainly not make alongside of me gods of silver, or gods of gold for yourselves.

²⁴You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace-offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you.

²⁵If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it.

²⁶Neither shall you go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed to it.'

21"Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.

²If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.

³If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.

⁴If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.

⁵But if the servant shall plainly say, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;'

⁶then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the door-post, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.

⁷"If a man sells his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go out as the men-servants do.

⁸If she doesn't please her master, who has married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, seeing he has dealt deceitfully with her.

⁹If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.

¹⁰If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights.

¹¹If he doesn't do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.

¹²"One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death,

¹³but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen: then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.

¹⁴If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.

¹⁵"Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.

¹⁶"Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷"Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸"If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he doesn't die, but is confined to bed;

¹⁹if he rises again and walks around with his staff, then he who struck him shall be cleared: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for his healing until he is thoroughly healed.

²⁰"If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished.

²¹Notwithstanding, if he gets up after a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his property.

²²"If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman's husband demands and the judges allow.

²³But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life,

²⁴eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,

²⁵burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.

²⁶"If a man strikes his servant's eye, or his maid's eye, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.

²⁷If he strikes out his man-servant's tooth, or his maid-servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.

²⁸"If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible.

²⁹But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death.

³⁰If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is laid on him.

³¹Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.

³²If the bull gores a man-servant or a maid-servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.

³³"If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and doesn't cover it, and a bull or a donkey falls into it,

³⁴the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.

³⁵"If one man's bull injures another's, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live bull, and divide its price; and they shall also divide the dead animal.

³⁶Or if it is known that the bull was in the habit of goring in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall surely pay bull for bull, and the dead animal shall be his own.

22"If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it, or sells it; he shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.

²If the thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt of bloodshed for him.

³If the sun has risen on him, there shall be guilt of bloodshed for him; he shall make restitution. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.

⁴If the stolen property is found in his hand alive, whether it is ox, donkey, or sheep, he shall pay double.

⁵"If a man causes a field or vineyard to be eaten, and lets his animal loose, and it grazes in another man's field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field, and from the best of his own vineyard.

⁶"If fire breaks out, and catches in thorns so that the shocks of grain, or the standing grain, or the field are consumed; he who kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.

⁷"If a man delivers to his neighbor money or stuff to keep, and it is stolen out of the man's house; if the thief is found, he shall pay double.

⁸If the thief isn't found, then the master of the house shall come near to God, to find out if he hasn't put his hand to his neighbor's goods.

⁹For every matter of trespass, whether it be for ox, for donkey, for sheep, for clothing, or for any kind of lost thing, whereof one says, 'This is mine,' the cause of both parties shall come before God. He whom God condemns shall pay double to his neighbor.

¹⁰"If a man delivers to his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to keep, and it dies or is injured, or driven away, no man seeing it;

¹¹the oath of Yahweh shall be between them both, whether he hasn't put his hand to his neighbor's goods; and the owner of it shall accept it, and he shall not make restitution.

¹²But if it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution to the owner of it.

¹³If it is torn in pieces, let him bring it for evidence. He shall not make good that which was torn.

¹⁴"If a man borrows anything of his neighbor's, and it is injured, or dies, the owner of it not being with it, he shall surely make restitution.

¹⁵If the owner of it is with it, he shall not make it good. If it is a leased thing, it came for its lease.

¹⁶"If a man entices a virgin who isn't pledged to be married, and lies with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to be his wife.

¹⁷If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.

¹⁸"You shall not allow a sorceress to live.

¹⁹"Whoever has sex with an animal shall surely be put to death.

²⁰"He who sacrifices to any god, except to Yahweh only, shall be utterly destroyed.

²¹"You shall not wrong an alien, neither shall you oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

²²"You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child.

²³If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry;

²⁴and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

²⁵"If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor; neither shall you charge him interest.

²⁶If you take your neighbor's garment as collateral, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down,

²⁷for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What would he sleep in? It will happen, when he cries to me, that I will hear, for I am gracious.

²⁸"You shall not blaspheme God, nor curse a ruler of your people.

²⁹"You shall not delay to offer from your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. "You shall give the firstborn of your sons to me.

³⁰You shall do likewise with your oxen and with your sheep. Seven days it shall be with its mother, then on the eighth day you shall give it me.

³¹"You shall be holy men to me, therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by animals in the field. You shall cast it to the dogs.

23"You shall not spread a false report. Don't join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.

²You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; neither shall you testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice;

³neither shall you favor a poor man in his cause.

⁴"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.

⁵If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don't leave him, you shall surely help him with it.

⁶"You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.

⁷"Keep far from a false charge, and don't kill the innocent and righteous: for I will not justify the wicked.

⁸You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.

⁹"You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, seeing you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

¹⁰"For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in its increase,

¹¹but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the field shall eat. In like manner you shall deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.

¹²"Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your handmaid, and the alien may be refreshed.

¹³"Be careful to do all things that I have said to you; and don't invoke the name of other gods, neither let them be heard out of your mouth.

¹⁴"You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.

¹⁵You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it you came out from Egypt), and no one shall appear before me empty.

¹⁶And the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field: and the feast of harvest, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field.

¹⁷Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁸"You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, neither shall the fat of my feast remain all night until the morning.

¹⁹The first of the first-fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of Yahweh your God. "You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

²⁰"Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

²¹Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don't provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.

²²But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.

²³For my angel shall go before you, and bring you in to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I will cut them off.

²⁴You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars.

²⁵You shall serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from your midst.

²⁶No one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.

²⁷I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

²⁸I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.

²⁹I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field multiply against you.

³⁰Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.

³¹I will set your border from the Red Sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.

³²You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

³³They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."

24He said to Moses, "Come up to Yahweh, you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship from a distance.

²Moses alone shall come near to Yahweh, but they shall not come near, neither shall the people go up with him."

³Moses came and told the people all the words of Yahweh, and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, "All the words which Yahweh has spoken will we do."

⁴Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh, and rose up early in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain, and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

⁵He sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen to Yahweh.

⁶Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

⁷He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, "All that Yahweh has spoken will we do, and be obedient."

⁸Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has made with you concerning all these words."

⁹Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up.

¹⁰They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was like a paved work of sapphire stone, like the skies for clearness.

¹¹He didn't lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel. They saw God, and ate and drank.

¹²Yahweh said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and stay here, and I will give you the tables of stone with the law and the commands that I have written, that you may teach them."

¹³Moses rose up with Joshua, his servant, and Moses went up onto God's Mountain.

¹⁴He said to the elders, "Wait here for us, until we come again to you. Behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever is involved in a dispute can go to them."

¹⁵Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

¹⁶The glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. The seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

¹⁷The appearance of the glory of Yahweh was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.

¹⁸Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up on the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

25Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²"Speak to the children of Israel, that they take an offering for me. From everyone whose heart makes him willing you shall take my offering.

³This is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, brass,

⁴blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats' hair,

⁵rams' skins dyed red, sea cow hides, acacia wood,

⁶oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense,

⁷onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate.

⁸Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.

⁹According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tent, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.

¹⁰"They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Its length shall be two and a half cubits, its breadth a cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half its height.

¹¹You shall overlay it with pure gold. Inside and outside shall you overlay it, and shall make a gold molding around it.

¹²You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four feet. Two rings shall be on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it.

¹³You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.

¹⁴You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark.

¹⁵The poles shall be in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it.

¹⁶You shall put the testimony which I shall give you into the ark.

¹⁷You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.

¹⁸You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.

¹⁹Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim on its two ends of one piece with the mercy seat.

²⁰The cherubim shall spread out their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.

²¹You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I will give you.

²²There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the testimony, all that I command you for the children of Israel.

²³"You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, and a cubit its breadth, and one and a half cubits its height.

²⁴You shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it.

²⁵You shall make a rim of a handbreadth around it. You shall make a golden molding on its rim around it.

²⁶You shall make four rings of gold for it, and put the rings in the four corners that are on its four feet.

²⁷the rings shall be close to the rim, for places for the poles to carry the table.

²⁸You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them.

²⁹You shall make its dishes, its spoons, its ladles, and its bowls to pour out offerings with. Of pure gold shall you make them.

³⁰You shall set bread of the presence on the table before me always.

³¹"You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. Of hammered work shall the lampstand be made, even its base, its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its flowers, shall be of one piece with it.

³²There shall be six branches going out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of its one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of its other side;

³³three cups made like almond blossoms in one branch, a bud and a flower; and three cups made like almond blossoms in the other branch, a bud and a flower, so for the six branches going out of the lampstand;

³⁴and in the lampstand four cups made like almond blossoms, its buds and its flowers;

³⁵and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, for the six branches going out of the lampstand.

³⁶Their buds and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it one beaten work of pure gold.

³⁷You shall make its lamps seven, and they shall light its lamps to give light to the space in front of it.

³⁸Its snuffers and its snuff dishes shall be of pure gold.

³⁹It shall be made of a talent of pure gold, with all these accessories.

⁴⁰See that you make them after their pattern, which has been shown to you on the mountain.

26"Moreover you shall make the tent with ten curtains; of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim. The work of the skillful workman you shall make them.

²The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits: all the curtains shall have one measure.

³Five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and the other five curtains shall be coupled one to another.

⁴You shall make loops of blue on the edge of the one curtain from the edge in the coupling; and likewise shall you make in the edge of the curtain that is outmost in the second coupling.

⁵You shall make fifty loops in the one curtain, and you shall make fifty loops in the edge of the curtain that is in the second coupling. The loops shall be opposite one to another.

⁶You shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to another with the clasps: and the tent shall be a unit.

⁷"You shall make curtains of goats' hair for a covering over the tent: eleven curtains shall you make them.

⁸The length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits: the eleven curtains shall have one measure.

⁹You shall couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shall double over the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tent.

¹⁰You shall make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain which is outmost in the second coupling.

¹¹You shall make fifty clasps of brass, and put the clasps into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one.

¹²The overhanging part that remains of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remains, shall hang over the back of the tent.

¹³The cubit on the one side, and the cubit on the other side, of that which remains in the length of the curtains of the tent, shall hang over the sides of the tent on this side and on that side, to cover it.

¹⁴You shall make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of sea cow hides above.

¹⁵"You shall make the boards for the tent of acacia wood, standing up.

¹⁶Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and one and a half cubits the breadth of each board.

¹⁷There shall be two tenons in each board, joined to one another: thus shall you make for all the boards of the tent.

¹⁸You shall make the boards for the tent, twenty boards for the south side southward.

¹⁹You shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for its two tenons, and two sockets under another board for its two tenons.

²⁰For the second side of the tent, on the north side, twenty boards,

²¹and their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

²²For the far part of the tent westward you shall make six boards.

²³Two boards shall you make for the corners of the tent in the far part.

²⁴They shall be double beneath, and in like manner they shall be entire to the top of it to one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two corners.

²⁵There shall be eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

²⁶"You shall make bars of acacia wood: five for the boards of the one side of the tent,

²⁷and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tent, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tent, for the far part westward.

²⁸The middle bar in the midst of the boards shall pass through from end to end.

²⁹You shall overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars: and you shall overlay the bars with gold.

³⁰You shall set up the tent according to the way that it was shown to you on the mountain.

³¹"You shall make a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cherubim. The work of the skillful workman shall it be made.

³²You shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold; their hooks shall be of gold, on four sockets of silver.

³³You shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and shall bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil: and the veil shall separate the holy place from the most holy for you.

³⁴You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.

³⁵You shall set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand over against the table on the side of the tent toward the south: and you shall put the table on the north side.

³⁶"You shall make a screen for the door of the Tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the embroiderer.

³⁷You shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia, and overlay them with gold: their hooks shall be of gold: and you shall cast five sockets of brass for them.

27"You shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and its height shall be three cubits.

²You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it; and you shall overlay it with brass.

³You shall make its pots to take away its ashes, its shovels, its basins, its flesh hooks, and its fire pans: all its vessels you shall make of brass.

⁴You shall make a grating for it of network of brass: and on the net you shall make four brazen rings in its four corners.

⁵You shall put it under the ledge around the altar beneath, that the net may reach halfway up the altar.

⁶You shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with brass.

⁷Its poles shall be put into the rings, and the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar, when carrying it.

⁸Hollow with planks shall you make it: as it has been showed you on the mountain, so shall they make it.

⁹"You shall make the court of the tent: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen one hundred cubits long for one side:

¹⁰and the pillars of it shall be twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.

¹¹Likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings one hundred cubits long, and the pillars of it twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass; the hooks of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver.

¹²For the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits; their pillars ten, and their sockets ten.

¹³The breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.

¹⁴The hangings for the one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

¹⁵For the other side shall be hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

¹⁶For the gate of the court shall be a screen of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the embroiderer; their pillars four, and their sockets four.

¹⁷All the pillars of the court round about shall be filleted with silver; their hooks of silver, and their sockets of brass.

¹⁸The length of the court shall be one hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the height five cubits, of fine twined linen, and their sockets of brass.

¹⁹All the instruments of the tent in all its service, and all the pins of it, and all the pins of the court, shall be of brass.

²⁰"You shall command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually.

²¹In the tent of meeting, outside the veil which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it in order from evening to morning before Yahweh: it shall be a statute forever throughout their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

28"Bring Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, near to you from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to me in the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons.

²You shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.

³You shall speak to all who are wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they make Aaron's garments to sanctify him, that he may minister to me in the priest's office.

⁴These are the garments which they shall make: a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, and his sons, that he may minister to me in the priest's office.

⁵They shall take the gold, and the blue, and the purple, and the scarlet, and the fine linen.

⁶"They shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of the skillful workman.

⁷It shall have two shoulder-pieces joined to the two ends of it, that it may be joined together.

⁸The skillfully woven band, which is on it, that is on him, shall be like its work and of the same piece; of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.

⁹You shall take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the children of Israel:

¹⁰six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the six that remain on the other stone, in the order of their birth.

¹¹With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shall you engrave the two stones, according to the names of the children of Israel: you shall make them to be enclosed in settings of gold.

¹²You shall put the two stones on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, to be stones of memorial for the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before Yahweh on his two shoulders for a memorial.

¹³You shall make settings of gold,

¹⁴and two chains of pure gold; you make them like cords shall, of braided work: and you shall put the braided chains on the settings.

¹⁵"You shall make a breastplate of judgment, the work of the skillful workman; like the work of the ephod you shall make it; of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, shall you make it.

¹⁶It shall be square and folded double; a span shall be its length of it, and a span its breadth.

¹⁷You shall set in it settings of stones, four rows of stones: a row of ruby, topaz, and beryl shall be the first row;

¹⁸and the second row a turquoise, a sapphire, and an emerald;

¹⁹and the third row a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;

²⁰and the fourth row a chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be enclosed in gold in their settings.

²¹The stones shall be according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names; like the engravings of a signet, everyone according to his name, they shall be for the twelve tribes.

²²You shall make on the breastplate chains like cords, of braided work of pure gold.

²³You shall make on the breastplate two rings of gold, and shall put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.

²⁴You shall put the two braided chains of gold in the two rings at the ends of the breastplate.

²⁵The other two ends of the two braided chains you shall put on the two settings, and put them on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod in the forepart of it.

²⁶You shall make two rings of gold, and you shall put them on the two ends of the breastplate, on its edge, which is toward the side of the ephod inward.

²⁷You shall make two rings of gold, and shall put them on the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod underneath, in the forepart of it, close by the coupling of it, above the skillfully woven band of the ephod.

²⁸They shall bind the breastplate by the rings of it to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it may be on the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and that the breastplate may not swing out from the ephod.

²⁹Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment on his heart, when he goes in to the holy place, for a memorial before Yahweh continually.

³⁰You shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be on Aaron's heart, when he goes in before Yahweh: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel on his heart before Yahweh continually.

³¹"You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue.

³²It shall have a hole for the head in the midst of it: it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of a coat of mail, that it not be torn.

³³On its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, around its hem; and bells of gold between them round about:

³⁴a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, on the hem of the robe round about.

³⁵It shall be on Aaron to minister: and the sound of it shall be heard when he goes in to the holy place before Yahweh, and when he comes out, that he not die.

³⁶"You shall make a plate of pure gold, and engrave on it, like the engravings of a signet, 'HOLY TO YAHWEH.'

³⁷You shall put it on a lace of blue, and it shall be on the sash; on the front of the sash it shall be.

³⁸It shall be on Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall make holy in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always on his forehead, that they may be accepted before Yahweh.

³⁹You shall weave the coat in checker work of fine linen, and you shall make a turban of fine linen, and you shall make a sash, the work of the embroiderer.

⁴⁰"You shall make coats for Aaron's sons, and you shall make sashes for them and headbands shall you make for them, for glory and for beauty.

⁴¹You shall put them on Aaron your brother, and on his sons with him, and shall anoint them, and consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister to me in the priest's office.

⁴²You shall make them linen breeches to cover the flesh of their nakedness; from the loins even to the thighs they shall reach:

⁴³They shall be on Aaron, and on his sons, when they go in to the tent of meeting, or when they come near to the altar to minister in the holy place; that they don't bear iniquity, and die: it shall be a statute forever to him and to his descendants after him.

29"This is the thing that you shall do to them to make them holy, to minister to me in the priest's office: take one young bull and two rams without blemish,

²unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil: you shall make them of fine wheat flour.

³You shall put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams.

⁴You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tent of meeting, and shall wash them with water.

⁵You shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate, and dress him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod;

⁶and you shall set the turban on his head, and put the holy crown on the turban.

⁷Then you shall take the anointing oil, and pour it on his head, and anoint him.

⁸You shall bring his sons, and put coats on them.

⁹You shall dress them with belts, Aaron and his sons, and bind headbands on them: and they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute: and you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons.

¹⁰"You shall bring the bull before the tent of meeting: and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull.

¹¹You shall kill the bull before Yahweh, at the door of the tent of meeting.

¹²You shall take of the blood of the bull, and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger; and you shall pour out all the blood at the base of the altar.

¹³You shall take all the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar.

¹⁴But the flesh of the bull, and its skin, and its dung, you shall burn with fire outside of the camp: it is a sin-offering.

¹⁵"You shall also take the one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram.

¹⁶You shall kill the ram, and you shall take its blood, and sprinkle it around on the altar.

¹⁷You shall cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its innards, and its legs, and put them with its pieces, and with its head.

¹⁸You shall burn the whole ram on the altar: it is a burnt offering to Yahweh; it is a sweet savor, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

¹⁹"You shall take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram.

²⁰Then you shall kill the ram, and take some of its blood, and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and on the tip of the right ear of his sons, and on the thumb of their right hand, and on the big toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood on the altar round about.

²¹You shall take of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron, and on his garments, and on his sons, and on the garments of his sons with him: and he shall be made holy, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him.

²²Also you shall take some of the ram's fat, the fat tail, the fat that covers the innards, the cover of the liver, the two kidneys, the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of consecration),

²³and one loaf of bread, one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before Yahweh.

²⁴You shall put all of this in Aaron's hands, and in his sons' hands, and shall wave them for a wave-offering before Yahweh.

²⁵You shall take them from their hands, and burn them on the altar on the burnt offering, for a sweet savor before Yahweh: it is an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

²⁶"You shall take the breast of Aaron's ram of consecration, and wave it for a wave-offering before Yahweh: and it shall be your portion.

²⁷You shall sanctify the breast of the wave-offering, and the thigh of the heave-offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up, of the ram of consecration, even of that which is for Aaron, and of that which is for his sons:

²⁸and it shall be for Aaron and his sons as their portion forever from the children of Israel; for it is a heave-offering: and it shall be a heave-offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifices of their peace-offerings, even their heave-offering to Yahweh.

²⁹"The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, to be anointed in them, and to be consecrated in them.

³⁰Seven days shall the son who is priest in his place put them on, when he comes into the tent of meeting to minister in the holy place.

³¹"You shall take the ram of consecration, and boil its flesh in a holy place.

³²Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, at the door of the tent of meeting.

³³They shall eat those things with which atonement was made, to consecrate and sanctify them: but a stranger shall not eat of it, because they are holy.

³⁴If anything of the flesh of the consecration, or of the bread, remains to the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire: it shall not be eaten, because it is holy.

³⁵"Thus shall you do to Aaron, and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. Seven days shall you consecrate them.

³⁶Every day shall you offer the bull of sin-offering for atonement: and you shall cleanse the altar, when you make atonement for it; and you shall anoint it, to sanctify it.

³⁷Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar, and sanctify it: and the altar shall be most holy; whatever touches the altar shall be holy.

³⁸"Now this is that which you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day continually.

³⁹The one lamb you shall offer in the morning; and the other lamb you shall offer at evening:

⁴⁰and with the one lamb a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mixed with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil, and the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink-offering.

⁴¹The other lamb you shall offer at evening, and shall do to it according to the meal-offering of the morning, and according to its drink-offering, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

⁴²It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tent of meeting before Yahweh, where I will meet with you, to speak there to you.

⁴³There I will meet with the children of Israel; and the place shall be sanctified by my glory.

⁴⁴I will sanctify the tent of meeting and the altar: Aaron also and his sons I will sanctify, to minister to me in the priest's office.

⁴⁵I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.

⁴⁶They shall know that I am Yahweh their God, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them: I am Yahweh their God.

30"You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood.

²Its length shall be a cubit, and its breadth a cubit. It shall be square, and its height shall be two cubits. Its horns shall be of one piece with it.

³You shall overlay it with pure gold, the top of it, the sides of it around it, and its horns; and you shall make a gold molding around it.

⁴You shall make two golden rings for it under its molding; on its two ribs, on its two sides you shall make them; and they shall be for places for poles with which to bear it.

⁵You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.

⁶You shall put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you.

⁷Aaron shall burn incense of sweet spices on it every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn it.

⁸When Aaron lights the lamps at evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before Yahweh throughout your generations.

⁹You shall offer no strange incense on it, nor burnt offering, nor meal-offering; and you shall pour no drink-offering on it.

¹⁰Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once in the year; with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year he shall make atonement for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to Yahweh."

¹¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹²"When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are numbered among them, then each man shall give a ransom for his soul to Yahweh, when you number them; that there be no plague among them when you number them.

¹³They shall give this, everyone who passes over to those who are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary; (the shekel is twenty gerahs;) half a shekel for an offering to Yahweh.

¹⁴Everyone who passes over to those who are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering to Yahweh.

¹⁵The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls.

¹⁶You shall take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the tent of meeting; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before Yahweh, to make atonement for your souls."

¹⁷Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁸"You shall also make a basin of brass, and the base of it of brass, in which to wash. You shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.

¹⁹Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in it.

²⁰When they go into the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, that they not die; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

²¹So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they not die: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his descendants throughout their generations."

²²Moreover Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²³"Also take fine spices: of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, even two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant cane, two hundred and fifty;

²⁴and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary; and a hin of olive oil.

²⁵You shall make it a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer: it shall be a holy anointing oil.

²⁶You shall use it to anoint the tent of meeting, the ark of the testimony,

²⁷the table and all its articles, the lampstand and its accessories, the altar of incense,

²⁸the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its base.

²⁹You shall sanctify them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy.

³⁰You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, that they may minister to me in the priest's office.

³¹You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations.

³²It shall not be poured on man's flesh, neither shall you make any like it, according to its composition: it is holy. It shall be holy to you.

³³Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.'"

³⁴Yahweh said to Moses, "Take to yourself sweet spices, gum resin, and onycha, and galbanum; sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be an equal weight;

³⁵and you shall make incense of it, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy:

³⁶and you shall beat some of it very small, and put some of it before the testimony in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be to you most holy.

³⁷The incense which you shall make, according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves: it shall be to you holy for Yahweh.

³⁸Whoever shall make any like that, to smell of it, he shall be cut off from his people."

31Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²"Behold, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:

³and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,

⁴to devise skillful works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,

⁵and in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all manner of workmanship.

⁶I, behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the heart of all who are wise-hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded you:

⁷the tent of meeting, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat that is on it, all the furniture of the Tent,

⁸the table and its vessels, the pure lampstand with all its vessels, the altar of incense,

⁹the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, the basin and its base,

¹⁰the finely worked garments -- the holy garments for Aaron the priest -- the garments of his sons to minister in the priest's office,

¹¹the anointing oil, and the incense of sweet spices for the holy place: according to all that I have commanded you they shall do."

¹²Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹³"Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, 'Most assuredly you shall keep my Sabbaths: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.

¹⁴You shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

¹⁵Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to Yahweh. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death.

¹⁶Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

¹⁷It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.'"

¹⁸He gave to Moses, when he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets, written with God's finger.

32When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him."

²Aaron said to them, "Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me."

³All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.

⁴He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, "These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt."

⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh."

⁶They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace-offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

⁷Yahweh spoke to Moses, "Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves!

⁸They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'"

⁹Yahweh said to Moses, "I have seen these people, and, behold, they are a stiff-necked people.

¹⁰Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation."

¹¹Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, "Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

¹²Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'He brought them forth for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.

¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'"

¹⁴Yahweh repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people.

¹⁵Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other they were written.

¹⁶The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tables.

¹⁷When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is the noise of war in the camp."

¹⁸He said, "It isn't the voice of those who shout for victory, neither is it the voice of those who cry for being overcome; but the noise of those who sing that I hear."

¹⁹It happened, as soon as he came near to the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing: and Moses' anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain.

²⁰He took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

²¹Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people to you, that you have brought a great sin on them?"

²²Aaron said, "Don't let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.

²³For they said to me, 'Make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.'

²⁴I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them take it off:' so they gave it me; and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf."

²⁵When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, (for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies,)

²⁶then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is on Yahweh's side, come to me!" All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.

²⁷He said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor."

²⁸The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

²⁹Moses said, "Consecrate yourselves today to Yahweh, yes, every man against his son, and against his brother; that he may bestow on you a blessing this day."

³⁰It happened on the next day, that Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin."

³¹Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.

³²Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin-- and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written."

³³Yahweh said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

³⁴Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin."

³⁵Yahweh struck the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

33Yahweh spoke to Moses, "Depart, go up from here, you and the people that you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your seed.'

²I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

³to a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you in the way."

⁴When the people heard this evil news, they mourned: and no one put on his jewelry.

⁵Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up into your midst for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry from you, that I may know what to do to you."

⁶The children of Israel stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.

⁷Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it "The tent of meeting." It happened that everyone who sought Yahweh went out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

⁸It happened that when Moses went out to the Tent, that all the people rose up, and stood, everyone at their tent door, and watched Moses, until he had gone into the Tent.

⁹It happened, when Moses entered into the Tent, that the pillar of cloud descended, stood at the door of the Tent, and spoke with Moses.

¹⁰All the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent, and all the people rose up and worshipped, everyone at their tent door.

¹¹Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, didn't depart out of the Tent.

¹²Moses said to Yahweh, "Behold, you tell me, 'Bring up this people:' and you haven't let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.'

¹³Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight: and consider that this nation is your people."

¹⁴He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

¹⁵He said to him, "If your presence doesn't go with me, don't carry us up from here.

¹⁶For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn't it in that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?"

¹⁷Yahweh said to Moses, "I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."

¹⁸He said, "Please show me your glory."

¹⁹He said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy."

²⁰He said, "You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live."

²¹Yahweh also said, "Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock.

²²It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by;

²³then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen."

34Yahweh said to Moses, "Chisel two stone tablets like the first: and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

²Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.

³No one shall come up with you; neither let anyone be seen throughout all the mountain; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mountain."

⁴He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets.

⁵Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Yahweh.

⁶Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, "Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth,

⁷keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children's children, on the third and on the fourth generation."

⁸Moses hurried and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

⁹He said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us; although this is a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."

¹⁰He said, "Behold, I make a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been worked in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among which you are shall see the work of Yahweh; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you.

¹¹Observe that which I command you this day. Behold, I drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

¹²Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare in the midst of you:

¹³but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim;

¹⁴for you shall worship no other god: for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

¹⁵Don't make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice;

¹⁶and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.

¹⁷You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.

¹⁸"You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.

¹⁹All that opens the womb is mine; and all your cattle that is male, the firstborn of cow and sheep.

²⁰The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb: and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. No one shall appear before me empty.

²¹Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.

²²You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first-fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year's end.

²³Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel.

²⁴For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither shall any man desire your land when you go up to appear before Yahweh, your God, three times in the year.

²⁵"You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left to the morning.

²⁶You shall bring the first of the first-fruits of your ground to the house of Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk."

²⁷Yahweh said to Moses, "Write you these words: for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."

²⁸He was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

²⁹It happened, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mountain, that Moses didn't know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him.

³⁰When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.

³¹Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.

³²Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all of the commandments that Yahweh had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.

³³When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.

³⁴But when Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded.

³⁵The children of Israel saw Moses' face, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

35Moses assembled all the congregation of the children of Israel, and said to them, "These are the words which Yahweh has commanded, that you should do them.

²'Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of solemn rest to Yahweh: whoever does any work in it shall be put to death.

³You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath day.'"

⁴Moses spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, "This is the thing which Yahweh commanded, saying,

⁵'Take from among you an offering to Yahweh. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, Yahweh's offering: gold, silver, brass,

⁶blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats' hair,

⁷rams' skins dyed red, sea cow hides, acacia wood,

⁸oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense,

⁹onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate.

¹⁰"Let every wise-hearted man among you come, and make all that Yahweh has commanded:

¹¹the tent, its outer covering, its roof, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets;

¹²the ark, and its poles, the mercy seat, the veil of the screen;

¹³the table with its poles and all its vessels, and the show bread;

¹⁴the lampstand also for the light, with its vessels, its lamps, and the oil for the light;

¹⁵and the altar of incense with its poles, the anointing oil, the sweet incense, the screen for the door, at the door of the tent;

¹⁶the altar of burnt offering, with its grating of brass, it poles, and all its vessels, the basin and its base;

¹⁷the hangings of the court, its pillars, their sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court;

¹⁸the pins of the tent, the pins of the court, and their cords;

¹⁹the finely worked garments, for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office.'"

²⁰All the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses.

²¹They came, everyone whose heart stirred him up, and everyone whom his spirit made willing, and brought Yahweh's offering, for the work of the tent of meeting, and for all of its service, and for the holy garments.

²²They came, both men and women, as many as were willing-hearted, and brought brooches, ear-rings, signet-rings, and armlets, all jewels of gold; even every man who offered an offering of gold to Yahweh.

²³Everyone, with whom was found blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats' hair, rams' skins dyed red, and sea cow hides, brought them.

²⁴Everyone who did offer an offering of silver and brass brought Yahweh's offering; and everyone, with whom was found acacia wood for any work of the service, brought it.

²⁵All the women who were wise-hearted spun with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and the fine linen.

²⁶All the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun the goats' hair.

²⁷The rulers brought the onyx stones, and the stones to be set, for the ephod and for the breastplate;

²⁸and the spice, and the oil for the light, for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.

²⁹The children of Israel brought a freewill offering to Yahweh; every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all the work, which Yahweh had commanded to be made by Moses.

³⁰Moses said to the children of Israel, "Behold, Yahweh has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.

³¹He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship;

³²and to make skillful works, to work in gold, in silver, in brass,

³³in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all kinds of skillful workmanship.

³⁴He has put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.

³⁵He has filled them with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of workmanship, of the engraver, of the skillful workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of those who do any workmanship, and of those who make skillful works.

36"Bezalel and Oholiab shall work with every wise-hearted man, in whom Yahweh has put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all the work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that Yahweh has commanded."

²Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab, and every wise-hearted man, in whose heart Yahweh had put wisdom, even everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to the work to do it:

³and they received from Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, with which to make it. They brought yet to him freewill-offerings every morning.

⁴All the wise men, who performed all the work of the sanctuary, each came from his work which they did.

⁵They spoke to Moses, saying, "The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which Yahweh commanded to make."

⁶Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, "Let neither man nor woman make anything else for the offering for the sanctuary." So the people were restrained from bringing.

⁷For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.

⁸All the wise-hearted men among those who did the work made the tent with ten curtains; of fine twined linen, blue, purple, and scarlet, with cherubim, the work of the skillful workman, they made them.

⁹The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains had one measure.

¹⁰He coupled five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he coupled one to another.

¹¹He made loops of blue on the edge of the one curtain from the edge in the coupling. Likewise he made in the edge of the curtain that was outmost in the second coupling.

¹²He made fifty loops in the one curtain, and he made fifty loops in the edge of the curtain that was in the second coupling. The loops were opposite one to another.

¹³He made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains one to another with the clasps: so the tent was a unit.

¹⁴He made curtains of goats' hair for a covering over the tent. He made them eleven curtains.

¹⁵The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and four cubits the breadth of each curtain. The eleven curtains had one measure.

¹⁶He coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves.

¹⁷He made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that was outmost in the coupling, and he made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain which was outmost in the second coupling.

¹⁸He made fifty clasps of brass to couple the tent together, that it might be a unit.

¹⁹He made a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of sea cow hides above.

²⁰He made the boards for the tent of acacia wood, standing up.

²¹Ten cubits was the length of a board, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each board.

²²Each board had two tenons, joined one to another. He made all the boards of the tent this way.

²³He made the boards for the tent: twenty boards for the south side southward.

²⁴He made forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards; two sockets under one board for its two tenons, and two sockets under another board for its two tenons.

²⁵For the second side of the tent, on the north side, he made twenty boards,

²⁶and their forty sockets of silver; two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

²⁷For the far part of the tent westward he made six boards.

²⁸He made two boards for the corners of the tent in the far part.

²⁹They were double beneath, and in like manner they were all the way to the top of it to one ring. He did thus to both of them in the two corners.

³⁰There were eight boards, and their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets; under every board two sockets.

³¹He made bars of acacia wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tent,

³²and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tent, and five bars for the boards of the tent for the hinder part westward.

³³He made the middle bar to pass through in the midst of the boards from the one end to the other.

³⁴He overlaid the boards with gold, and made their rings of gold for places for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.

³⁵He made the veil of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen: with cherubim. He made it the work of a skillful workman.

³⁶He made four pillars of acacia for it, and overlaid them with gold. Their hooks were of gold. He cast four sockets of silver for them.

³⁷He made a screen for the door of the tent, of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen, the work of an embroiderer;

³⁸and the five pillars of it with their hooks. He overlaid their capitals and their fillets with gold, and their five sockets were of brass.

37Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood. Its length was two and a half cubits, and its breadth a cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half its height.

²He overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold for it round about.

³He cast four rings of gold for it, in its four feet; even two rings on its one side, and two rings on its other side.

⁴He made poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold.

⁵He put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to bear the ark.

⁶He made a mercy seat of pure gold. Its length was two and a half cubits, and a cubit and a half its breadth.

⁷He made two cherubim of gold. He made them of beaten work them, at the two ends of the mercy seat;

⁸one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end. He made the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends.

⁹The cherubim spread out their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat.

¹⁰He made the table of acacia wood. Its length was two cubits, and its breadth was a cubit, and its height was a cubit and a half.

¹¹He overlaid it with pure gold, and made a gold molding around it.

¹²He made a border of a handbreadth around it, and made a golden molding on its border around it.

¹³He cast four rings of gold for it, and put the rings in the four corners that were on its four feet.

¹⁴The rings were close by the border, the places for the poles to carry the table.

¹⁵He made the poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold, to carry the table.

¹⁶He made the vessels which were on the table, its dishes, its spoons, its bowls, and its pitchers with which to pour out, of pure gold.

¹⁷He made the lampstand of pure gold. He made the lampstand of beaten work. Its base, its shaft, its cups, it buds, and its flowers were of one piece with it.

¹⁸There were six branches going out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of its one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of its other side:

¹⁹three cups made like almond-blossoms in one branch, a bud and a flower, and three cups made like almond-blossoms in the other branch, a bud and a flower: so for the six branches going out of the lampstand.

²⁰In the lampstand were four cups made like almond-blossoms, its buds and its flowers;

²¹and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, for the six branches going out of it.

²²Their buds and their branches were of one piece with it. The whole thing was one beaten work of pure gold.

²³He made its seven lamps, and its snuffers, and its snuff dishes, of pure gold.

²⁴He made it of a talent of pure gold, with all its vessels.

²⁵He made the altar of incense of acacia wood. It was square: its length was a cubit, and its breadth a cubit. Its height was two cubits. Its horns were of one piece with it.

²⁶He overlaid it with pure gold, its top, its sides around it, and its horns. He made a gold molding around it.

²⁷He made two golden rings for it under its molding crown, on its two ribs, on its two sides, for places for poles with which to carry it.

²⁸He made the poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold.

²⁹He made the holy anointing oil and the pure incense of sweet spices, after the art of the perfumer.

38He made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood. It was square. Its length was five cubits, its breadth was five cubits, and its height was three cubits.

²He made its horns on its four corners. Its horns were of one piece with it, and he overlaid it with brass.

³He made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, the shovels, the basins, the flesh-hooks, and the fire pans. He made all its vessels of brass.

⁴He made for the altar a grating of a network of brass, under the ledge around it beneath, reaching halfway up.

⁵He cast four rings for the four ends of brass grating, to be places for the poles.

⁶He made the poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with brass.

⁷He put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar, with which to carry it. He made it hollow with planks.

⁸He made the basin of brass, and its base of brass, out of the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered at the door of the tent of meeting.

⁹He made the court: for the south side southward the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, one hundred cubits;

¹⁰their pillars were twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver.

¹¹For the north side one hundred cubits, their pillars twenty, and their sockets twenty, of brass; the hooks of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver.

¹²For the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver.

¹³For the east side eastward fifty cubits.

¹⁴The hangings for the one side were fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three;

¹⁵and so for the other side: on this hand and that hand by the gate of the court were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.

¹⁶All the hangings around the court were of fine twined linen.

¹⁷The sockets for the pillars were of brass. The hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver; and the overlaying of their capitals, of silver; and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver.

¹⁸The screen for the gate of the court was the work of the embroiderer, of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen. Twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, like to the hangings of the court.

¹⁹Their pillars were four, and their sockets four, of brass; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals, and their fillets, of silver.

²⁰All the pins of the tent, and around the court, were of brass.

²¹This is the amount of material used for the tent, even the Tent of the Testimony, as they were counted, according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.

²²Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that Yahweh commanded Moses.

²³With him was Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a skillful workman, and an embroiderer in blue, in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen.

²⁴All the gold that was used for the work in all the work of the sanctuary, even the gold of the offering, was twenty-nine talents, and seven hundred thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary.

²⁵The silver of those who were numbered of the congregation was one hundred talents, and one thousand seven hundred seventy-five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary:

²⁶a beka a head, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone who passed over to those who were numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty men.

²⁷The one hundred talents of silver were for casting the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the veil; one hundred sockets for the one hundred talents, a talent for a socket.

²⁸Of the one thousand seven hundred seventy-five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, overlaid their capitals, and made fillets for them.

²⁹The brass of the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand four hundred shekels.

³⁰With this he made the sockets to the door of the tent of meeting, the brazen altar, the brazen grating for it, all the vessels of the altar,

³¹the sockets around the court, the sockets of the gate of the court, all the pins of the tent, and all the pins around the court.

39Of the blue, purple, and scarlet, they made finely worked garments, for ministering in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

²He made the ephod of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen.

³They beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, in the purple, in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, the work of the skillful workman.

⁴They made shoulder-pieces for it, joined together. At the two ends it was joined together.

⁵The skillfully woven band that was on it, with which to fasten it on, was of the same piece, like its work; of gold, of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

⁶They worked the onyx stones, enclosed in settings of gold, engraved with the engravings of a signet, according to the names of the children of Israel.

⁷He put them on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, to be stones of memorial for the children of Israel, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

⁸He made the breastplate, the work of a skillful workman, like the work of the ephod; of gold, of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen.

⁹It was square. They made the breastplate double. Its length was a span, and its breadth a span, being double.

¹⁰They set in it four rows of stones. A row of ruby, topaz, and beryl was the first row;

¹¹and the second row, a turquoise, a sapphire, and an emerald;

¹²and the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;

¹³and the fourth row, a chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in gold settings.

¹⁴The stones were according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names; like the engravings of a signet, everyone according to his name, for the twelve tribes.

¹⁵They made on the breastplate chains like cords, of braided work of pure gold.

¹⁶They made two settings of gold, and two gold rings, and put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.

¹⁷They put the two braided chains of gold in the two rings at the ends of the breastplate.

¹⁸The other two ends of the two braided chains they put on the two settings, and put them on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, in the front of it.

¹⁹They made two rings of gold, and put them on the two ends of the breastplate, on the edge of it, which was toward the side of the ephod inward.

²⁰They made two rings of gold, and put them on the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod underneath, in the front of it, close by its coupling, above the skillfully woven band of the ephod.

²¹They bound the breastplate by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it might be on the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and that the breastplate might not come loose from the ephod, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

²²He made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue.

²³The opening of the robe in the midst of it was like the opening of a coat of mail, with a binding around its opening, that it should not be torn.

²⁴They made on the skirts of the robe pomegranates of blue, purple, scarlet, and twined linen.

²⁵They made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates around the skirts of the robe, between the pomegranates;

²⁶a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, around the skirts of the robe, to minister in, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

²⁷They made the coats of fine linen of woven work for Aaron, and for his sons,

²⁸and the turban of fine linen, and the linen headbands of fine linen, and the linen breeches of fine twined linen,

²⁹and the sash of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, the work of the embroiderer, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

³⁰They made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote on it a writing, like the engravings of a signet: "HOLY TO YAHWEH."

³¹They tied to it a lace of blue, to fasten it on the turban above, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

³²Thus all the work of the tent of the tent of meeting was finished. The children of Israel did according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses; so they did.

³³They brought the tent to Moses, the tent, with all its furniture, its clasps, its boards, it bars, its pillars, its sockets,

³⁴the covering of rams' skins dyed red, the covering of sea cow hides, the veil of the screen,

³⁵the ark of the testimony with its poles, the mercy seat,

³⁶the table, all its vessels, the show bread,

³⁷the pure lampstand, its lamps, even the lamps to be set in order, all its vessels, the oil for the light,

³⁸the golden altar, the anointing oil, the sweet incense, the screen for the door of the Tent,

³⁹the brazen altar, its grating of brass, its poles, all of its vessels, the basin and its base,

⁴⁰the hangings of the court, its pillars, its sockets, the screen for the gate of the court, its cords, its pins, all the instruments of the service of the tent, for the tent of meeting,

⁴¹the finely worked garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office.

⁴²According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did all the work.

⁴³Moses saw all the work, and, behold, they had done it as Yahweh had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them.

40Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²"On the first day of the first month you shall raise up the tent of the Tent of Meeting.

³You shall put the ark of the testimony in it, and you shall screen the ark with the veil.

⁴You shall bring in the table, and set in order the things that are on it. You shall bring in the lampstand, and light the lamps of it.

⁵You shall set the golden altar for incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the screen of the door to the tent.

⁶You shall set the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tent of the tent of meeting.

⁷You shall set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and shall put water therein.

⁸You shall set up the court around it, and hang up the screen of the gate of the court.

⁹You shall take the anointing oil, and anoint the tent, and all that is in it, and shall make it holy, and all its furniture: and it will be holy.

¹⁰You shall anoint the altar of burnt offering, with all its vessels, and sanctify the altar: and the altar will be most holy.

¹¹You shall anoint the basin and its base, and sanctify it.

¹²You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tent of meeting, and shall wash them with water.

¹³You shall put on Aaron the holy garments; and you shall anoint him, and sanctify him, that he may minister to me in the priest's office.

¹⁴You shall bring his sons, and put coats on them.

¹⁵You shall anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may minister to me in the priest's office. Their anointing shall be to them for an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.

¹⁶Thus did Moses: according to all that Yahweh commanded him, so he did.

¹⁷It happened in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tent was raised up.

¹⁸Moses raised up the tent, and laid its sockets, and set up the boards of it, and put in the bars of it, and raised up its pillars.

¹⁹He spread the covering over the tent, and put the roof of the tent above on it, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

²⁰He took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the poles on the ark, and put the mercy seat above on the ark.

²¹He brought the ark into the tent, and set up the veil of the screen, and screened the ark of the testimony, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

²²He put the table in the tent of meeting, on the side of the tent northward, outside of the veil.

²³He set the bread in order on it before Yahweh, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

²⁴He put the lampstand in the tent of meeting, opposite the table, on the side of the tent southward.

²⁵He lit the lamps before Yahweh, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

²⁶He put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the veil;

²⁷and he burnt incense of sweet spices on it, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

²⁸He put up the screen of the door to the tent.

²⁹He set the altar of burnt offering at the door of the tent of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the meal-offering, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

³⁰He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water therein, with which to wash.

³¹Moses, Aaron, and his sons washed their hands and their feet there.

³²When they went into the tent of meeting, and when they came near to the altar, they washed, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

³³He raised up the court around the tent and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.

³⁴Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Yahweh filled the tent.

³⁵Moses wasn't able to enter into the tent of meeting, because the cloud stayed on it, and Yahweh's glory filled the tent.

³⁶When the cloud was taken up from over the tent, the children of Israel went onward, throughout all their journeys;

³⁷but if the cloud wasn't taken up, then they didn't travel until the day that it was taken up.

³⁸For the cloud of Yahweh was on the tent by day, and there was fire in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

1Yahweh called to Moses, and spoke to him out of the Tent of Meeting, saying,

²"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When anyone of you offers an offering to Yahweh, you shall offer your offering of the cattle, of the herd and of the flock.

³If his offering is a burnt offering of the herd, he shall offer it a male without blemish. He shall offer it at the door of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before Yahweh.

⁴He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.

⁵He shall kill the bull before Yahweh. Aaron's sons, the priests, shall present the blood and sprinkle the blood around on the altar that is at the door of the tent of meeting.

⁶He shall flay the burnt-offering, and cut it into its pieces.

⁷The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay wood in order on the fire;

⁸and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall lay the pieces, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar;

⁹but its innards and its legs he shall wash with water. The priest shall burn the whole on the altar, for a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh.

¹⁰If his offering is of the flock, of the sheep, or of the goats, for a burnt offering, he shall offer it a male without blemish.

¹¹He shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before Yahweh. Aaron's sons, the priests, shall sprinkle its blood around on the altar.

¹²He shall cut it into its pieces, with its head and its fat. The priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar,

¹³but the innards and the legs he shall wash with water. The priest shall offer the whole, and burn it on the altar: it is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh.

¹⁴If his offering to Yahweh is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall offer his offering of turtle-doves, or of young pigeons.

¹⁵The priest shall bring it to the altar, and wring off its head, and burn it on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar;

¹⁶and he shall take away its crop with its filth, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, in the place of the ashes:

¹⁷and he shall tear it by its wings, but shall not divide it apart. The priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh.

2"'When anyone offers an offering of a meal-offering to Yahweh, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil on it, and put frankincense on it.

²He shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests; and he shall take his handful of its fine flour, and of its oil, with all its frankincense; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it on the altar, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh.

³That which is left of the meal-offering shall be Aaron's and his sons'. It is a most holy thing of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire.

⁴When you offer an offering of a meal-offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

⁵If your offering is a meal-offering of the baking-pan, it shall be of unleavened fine flour, mingled with oil.

⁶You shall cut it in pieces, and pour oil on it. It is a meal-offering.

⁷If your offering be a meal-offering of the frying-pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.

⁸You shall bring the meal-offering that is made of these things to Yahweh: and it shall be presented to the priest, and he shall bring it to the altar.

⁹The priest shall take up from the meal-offering the memorial of it, and shall burn it on the altar, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh.

¹⁰That which is left of the meal-offering shall be Aaron's and his sons': it is a thing most holy of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire.

¹¹No meal-offering, which you shall offer to Yahweh, shall be made with yeast; for you shall burn no yeast, nor any honey, as an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

¹²As an offering of first -[fruits] you shall offer them to Yahweh: but they shall not come up for a sweet savor on the altar.

¹³Every offering of your meal-offering shall you season with salt; neither shall you allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your meal-offering: with all your offerings you shall offer salt.

¹⁴If you offer a meal-offering of first-fruits to Yahweh, you shall offer for the meal-offering of your first-fruits grain in the ear parched with fire, bruised grain of the fresh ear.

¹⁵You shall put oil on it, and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meal-offering.

¹⁶The priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the bruised grain of it, and part of the oil of it, with all the frankincense of it: it is an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

3If his offering be a sacrifice of peace-offerings; if he offer of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before Yahweh.

²He shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tent of meeting: and Aaron's sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood on the altar round about.

³He shall offer of the sacrifice of peace-offerings an offering made by fire to Yahweh; the fat that covers the inwards, and all the fat that is on the inwards,

⁴and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, shall he take away.

⁵Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar on the burnt offering, which is on the wood that is on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh.

⁶If his offering for a sacrifice of peace-offerings to Yahweh be of the flock; male or female, he shall offer it without blemish.

⁷If he offer a lamb for his offering, then shall he offer it before Yahweh;

⁸and he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it before the tent of meeting: and Aaron's sons shall sprinkle the blood of it on the altar round about.

⁹He shall offer of the sacrifice of peace-offerings an offering made by fire to Yahweh; the fat of it, the fat tail entire, he shall take away hard by the backbone; and the fat that covers the inwards, and all the fat that is on the inwards,

¹⁰and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, shall he take away.

¹¹The priest shall burn it on the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire to Yahweh.

¹²If his offering be a goat, then he shall offer it before Yahweh:

¹³and he shall lay his hand on the head of it, and kill it before the tent of meeting; and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle the blood of it on the altar round about.

¹⁴He shall offer of it his offering, [even] an offering made by fire to Yahweh; the fat that covers the inwards, and all the fat that is on the inwards,

¹⁵and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, shall he take away.

¹⁶The priest shall burn them on the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire, for a sweet savor; all the fat is Yahweh's.

¹⁷It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings, that you shall eat neither fat nor blood.

4Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If anyone shall sin unwittingly, in any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done, and shall do any one of them:

³if the anointed priest shall sin so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer for his sin, which he has sinned, a young bull without blemish to Yahweh for a sin-offering.

⁴He shall bring the bull to the door of the tent of meeting before Yahweh; and he shall lay his hand on the head of the bull, and kill the bull before Yahweh.

⁵The anointed priest shall take of the blood of the bull, and bring it to the tent of meeting:

⁶and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before Yahweh, before the veil of the sanctuary.

⁷The priest shall put of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before Yahweh, which is in the tent of meeting; and all the blood of the bull shall he pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door of the tent of meeting.

⁸All the fat of the bull of the sin-offering he shall take off from it; the fat that covers the inwards, and all the fat that is on the inwards,

⁹and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, shall he take away,

¹⁰as it is taken off from the ox of the sacrifice of peace-offerings: and the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering.

¹¹The skin of the bull, and all its flesh, with its head, and with its legs, and its inwards, and its dung,

¹²even the whole bull shall he carry forth outside the camp to a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall it be burnt.

¹³If the whole congregation of Israel err, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done, and are guilty;

¹⁴when the sin in which they have sinned is known, then the assembly shall offer a young bull for a sin-offering, and bring it before the tent of meeting.

¹⁵The elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before Yahweh; and the bull shall be killed before Yahweh.

¹⁶The anointed priest shall bring of the blood of the bull to the tent of meeting:

¹⁷and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before Yahweh, before the veil.

¹⁸He shall put of the blood on the horns of the altar which is before Yahweh, that is in the tent of meeting; and all the blood shall he pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door of the tent of meeting.

¹⁹All the fat of it shall he take off from it, and burn it on the altar.

²⁰Thus shall he do with the bull; as he did with the bull of the sin-offering, so shall he do with this; and the priest shall make atonement for them, and they shall be forgiven.

²¹He shall carry forth the bull outside the camp, and burn it as he burned the first bull: it is the sin-offering for the assembly.

²²When a ruler sins, and does unwittingly any one of all the things which Yahweh his God has commanded not to be done, and is guilty;

²³if his sin, in which he has sinned, be made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a male without blemish.

²⁴He shall lay his hand on the head of the goat, and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt-offering before Yahweh: it is a sin-offering.

²⁵The priest shall take of the blood of the sin-offering with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering; and the blood of it shall he pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering.

²⁶All the fat of it shall he burn on the altar, as the fat of the sacrifice of peace-offerings; and the priest shall make atonement for him as concerning his sin, and he shall be forgiven.

²⁷If anyone of the common people sin unwittingly, in doing any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done, and be guilty;

²⁸if his sin, which he has sinned, be made known to him, then he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has sinned.

²⁹He shall lay his hand on the head of the sin-offering, and kill the sin-offering in the place of burnt offering.

³⁰The priest shall take of the blood of it with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering; and all the blood of it shall he pour out at the base of the altar.

³¹All the fat of it shall he take away, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace-offerings; and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a sweet savor to Yahweh; and the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven.

³²If he bring a lamb as his offering for a sin-offering, he shall bring it a female without blemish.

³³He shall lay his hand on the head of the sin-offering, and kill it for a sin-offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering.

³⁴The priest shall take of the blood of the sin-offering with his finger, and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering; and all the blood of it shall he pour out at the base of the altar:

³⁵and all the fat of it shall he take away, as the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of peace-offerings; and the priest shall burn them on the altar, on the offerings of Yahweh made by fire; and the priest shall make atonement for him as touching his sin that he has sinned, and he shall be forgiven.

5If anyone sin, in that he hears the voice of adjuration, he being a witness, whether he has seen or known, if he doesn't report it, then he shall bear his iniquity.

²Or if anyone touch any unclean thing, whether it be the carcass of an unclean animal, or the carcass of unclean cattle, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and it be hidden from him, and he be unclean, then he shall be guilty.

³Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatever his uncleanness be with which he is unclean, and it be hid from him; when he knows of it, then he shall be guilty.

⁴Or if anyone swear rashly with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatever it be that a man shall utter rashly with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knows of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these [things].

⁵It shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these [things], that he shall confess that in which he has sinned:

⁶and he shall bring his trespass-offering to Yahweh for his sin which he has sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin-offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him as concerning his sin.

⁷If his means aren't sufficient for a lamb, then he shall bring his trespass-offering for that in which he has sinned, two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, to Yahweh; one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt offering.

⁸He shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer that which is for the sin-offering first, and wring off its head from its neck, but shall not divide it apart:

⁹and he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin-offering on the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar: it is a sin-offering.

¹⁰He shall offer the second for a burnt offering, according to the ordinance; and the priest shall make atonement for him as concerning his sin which he has sinned, and he shall be forgiven.

¹¹But if his means aren't sufficient for two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, then he shall bring his offering for that in which he has sinned, the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin-offering: he shall put no oil on it, neither shall he put any frankincense thereon; for it is a sin-offering.

¹²He shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take his handful of it as the memorial of it, and burn it on the altar, on the offerings of Yahweh made by fire: it is a sin-offering.

¹³The priest shall make atonement for him as touching his sin that he has sinned in any of these things, and he shall be forgiven: and [the remnant] shall be the priest's, as the meal-offering.

¹⁴Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁵If anyone commits a trespass, and sin unwittingly, in the holy things of Yahweh; then he shall bring his trespass-offering to Yahweh, a ram without blemish out of the flock, according to your estimation in silver by shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass-offering:

¹⁶and he shall make restitution for that which he has done amiss in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it to the priest; and the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass-offering, and he shall be forgiven.

¹⁷If anyone sins, and does any of the things which Yahweh has commanded not to be done; though he didn't know it, yet he is guilty, and shall bear his iniquity.

¹⁸He shall bring a ram without blemish out of the flock, according to your estimation, for a trespass-offering, to the priest; and the priest shall make atonement for him concerning the thing in which he erred unwittingly and didn't know it, and he shall be forgiven.

¹⁹It is a trespass-offering: he is certainly guilty before Yahweh.

6Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²If anyone sins, and commit a trespass against Yahweh, and deal falsely with his neighbor in a matter of deposit, or of bargain, or of robbery, or have oppressed his neighbor,

³or have found that which was lost, and deal falsely therein, and swear to a lie; in any of all these things that a man does, sinning therein;

⁴then it shall be, if he has sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took by robbery, or the thing which he has gotten by oppression, or the deposit which was committed to him, or the lost thing which he found,

⁵or any thing about which he has sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in full, and shall add the fifth part more thereto: to him to whom it appertains shall he give it, in the day of his being found guilty.

⁶He shall bring his trespass-offering to Yahweh, a ram without blemish out of the flock, according to your estimation, for a trespass-offering, to the priest:

⁷and the priest shall make atonement for him before Yahweh; and he shall be forgiven concerning whatever he does so as to be guilty thereby.

⁸Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

⁹Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: the burnt offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night to the morning; and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning thereon.

¹⁰The priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put on his flesh; and he shall take up the ashes whereto the fire has consumed the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar.

¹¹He shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes outside of the camp to a clean place.

¹²The fire on the altar shall be kept burning thereon, it shall not go out; and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning: and he shall lay the burnt offering in order on it, and shall burn thereon the fat of the peace-offerings.

¹³Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.

¹⁴This is the law of the meal-offering: the sons of Aaron shall offer it before Yahweh, before the altar.

¹⁵He shall take up therefrom his handful, of the fine flour of the meal-offering, and of the oil of it, and all the frankincense which is on the meal-offering, and shall burn it on the altar for a sweet savor, as the memorial of it, to Yahweh.

¹⁶That which is left of it shall Aaron and his sons eat: it shall be eaten without yeast in a holy place; in the court of the tent of meeting they shall eat it.

¹⁷It shall not be baked with yeast. I have given it as their portion of my offerings made by fire; it is most holy, as the sin-offering, and as the trespass-offering.

¹⁸Every male among the children of Aaron shall eat of it, as [his] portion for ever throughout your generations, from the offerings of Yahweh made by fire: whoever touches them shall be holy.

¹⁹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁰This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer to Yahweh in the day when he is anointed: the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a meal-offering perpetually, half of it in the morning, and half of it in the evening.

²¹On a baking-pan it shall be made with oil; when it is soaked, you shall bring it in: in baked pieces shall you offer the meal-offering for a sweet savor to Yahweh.

²²The anointed priest that shall be in his place from among his sons shall offer it: by a statute for ever it shall be wholly burnt to Yahweh.

²³Every meal-offering of the priest shall be wholly burnt: it shall not be eaten.

²⁴Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁵Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin-offering: in the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin-offering be killed before Yahweh: it is most holy.

²⁶The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it: in a holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tent of meeting.

²⁷Whatever shall touch the flesh of it shall be holy; and when there is sprinkled of the blood of it on any garment, you shall wash that whereon it was sprinkled in a holy place.

²⁸But the earthen vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken; and if it be boiled in a brazen vessel, it shall be scoured, and rinsed in water.

²⁹Every male among the priests shall eat of it: it is most holy.

³⁰No sin-offering, whereof any of the blood is brought into the tent of meeting to make atonement in the holy place, shall be eaten: it shall be burnt with fire.

7This is the law of the trespass-offering: it is most holy.

²In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass-offering; and the blood of it shall he sprinkle on the altar round about.

³He shall offer of it all the fat of it: the fat tail, and the fat that covers the inwards,

⁴and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the cover on the liver, with the kidneys, shall he take away;

⁵and the priest shall burn them on the altar for an offering made by fire to Yahweh: it is a trespass-offering.

⁶Every male among the priests shall eat of it: it shall be eaten in a holy place: it is most holy.

⁷As is the sin-offering, so is the trespass-offering; there is one law for them: the priest who makes atonement therewith, he shall have it.

⁸The priest who offers any man's burnt offering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering which he has offered.

⁹Every meal-offering that is baked in the oven, and all that is dressed in the frying-pan, and on the baking-pan, shall be the priest's who offers it.

¹⁰Every meal-offering, mingled with oil, or dry, shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as well as another.

¹¹This is the law of the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which one shall offer to Yahweh.

¹²If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour soaked.

¹³With cakes of leavened bread he shall offer his offering with the sacrifice of his peace-offerings for thanksgiving.

¹⁴Of it he shall offer one out of each offering for a heave-offering to Yahweh; it shall be the priest's who sprinkles the blood of the peace-offerings.

¹⁵The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten on the day of his offering; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.

¹⁶But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a freewill-offering, it shall be eaten on the day that he offers his sacrifice; and on the next day that which remains of it shall be eaten:

¹⁷but that which remains of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire.

¹⁸If any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings be eaten on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed to him who offers it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul who eats of it shall bear his iniquity.

¹⁹The flesh that touches any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire. As for the flesh, everyone who is clean shall eat of it:

²⁰but the soul who eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace-offerings, that pertain to Yahweh, having his uncleanness on him, that soul shall be cut off from his people.

²¹When anyone shall touch any unclean thing, the uncleanness of man, or an unclean animal, or any unclean abomination, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which pertain to Yahweh, that soul shall be cut off from his people.

²²Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²³Speak to the children of Israel, saying, You shall eat no fat, of ox, or sheep, or goat.

²⁴The fat of that which dies of itself, and the fat of that which is torn of animals, may be used for any other service; but you shall in no way eat of it.

²⁵For whoever eats the fat of the animal, of which men offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, even the soul who eats it shall be cut off from his people.

²⁶You shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of bird or of animal, in any of your dwellings.

²⁷Whoever it be who eats any blood, that soul shall be cut off from his people.

²⁸Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁹Speak to the children of Israel, saying, He who offers the sacrifice of his peace-offerings to Yahweh shall bring his offering to Yahweh out of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings:

³⁰his own hands shall bring the offerings of Yahweh made by fire; the fat with the breast shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave-offering before Yahweh.

³¹The priest shall burn the fat on the altar; but the breast shall be Aaron's and his sons'.

³²The right thigh shall you give to the priest for a heave-offering out of the sacrifices of your peace-offerings.

³³He among the sons of Aaron who offers the blood of the peace-offerings, and the fat, shall have the right thigh for a portion.

³⁴For the wave-breast and the heave-thigh have I taken of the children of Israel out of the sacrifices of their peace-offerings, and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons as [their] portion forever from the children of Israel.

³⁵This is the anointing-portion of Aaron, and the anointing-portion of his sons, out of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister to Yahweh in the priest's office;

³⁶which Yahweh commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them. It is [their] portion for ever throughout their generations.

³⁷This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meal-offering, and of the sin-offering, and of the trespass-offering, and of the consecration, and of the sacrifice of peace- offerings;

³⁸which Yahweh commanded Moses in Mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their offerings to Yahweh, in the wilderness of Sinai.

8Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the bull of the sin-offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread;

³and assemble you all the congregation at the door of the tent of meeting.

⁴Moses did as Yahweh commanded him; and the congregation was assembled at the door of the tent of meeting.

⁵Moses said to the congregation, This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded to be done.

⁶Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.

⁷He put on him the coat, and girded him with the sash, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him, and he girded him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and bound it to him therewith.

⁸He placed the breastplate on him: and in the breastplate he put the Urim and the Thummim.

⁹He set the turban on his head; and on the turban, in front, did he set the golden plate, the holy crown; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

¹⁰Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tent and all that was therein, and sanctified them.

¹¹He sprinkled of it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its vessels, and the basin and its base, to sanctify them.

¹²He poured of the anointing oil on Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.

¹³Moses brought Aaron's sons, and clothed them with coats, and girded them with girdles, and bound headbands on them; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

¹⁴He brought the bull of the sin-offering: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull of the sin-offering.

¹⁵He killed it; and Moses took the blood, and put it on the horns of the altar round about with his finger, and purified the altar, and poured out the blood at the base of the altar, and sanctified it, to make atonement for it.

¹⁶He took all the fat that was on the inwards, and the cover of the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat; and Moses burned it on the altar.

¹⁷But the bull, and its skin, and its flesh, and its dung, he burnt with fire outside of the camp; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

¹⁸He presented the ram of the burnt offering: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.

¹⁹He killed it; and Moses sprinkled the blood on the altar round about.

²⁰He cut the ram into its pieces; and Moses burnt the head, and the pieces, and the fat.

²¹He washed the inwards and the legs with water; and Moses burnt the whole ram on the altar: it was a burnt offering for a sweet savor: it was an offering made by fire to Yahweh; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

²²He presented the other ram, the ram of consecration: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.

²³He killed it; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put it on the tip of Aaron's right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot.

²⁴He brought Aaron's sons; and Moses put of the blood on the tip of their right ear, and on the thumb of their right hand, and on the great toe of their right foot: and Moses sprinkled the blood on the altar round about.

²⁵He took the fat, and the fat tail, and all the fat that was on the inwards, and the cover of the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and the right thigh:

²⁶and out of the basket of unleavened bread, that was before Yahweh, he took one unleavened cake, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, and placed them on the fat, and on the right thigh:

²⁷and he put the whole on the hands of Aaron, and on the hands of his sons, and waved them for a wave-offering before Yahweh.

²⁸Moses took them from off their hands, and burnt them on the altar on the burnt offering: they were a consecration for a sweet savor: it was an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

²⁹Moses took the breast, and waved it for a wave-offering before Yahweh: it was Moses' portion of the ram of consecration; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

³⁰Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood which was on the altar, and sprinkled it on Aaron, on his garments, and on his sons, and on his sons' garments with him, and sanctified Aaron, his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him.

³¹Moses said to Aaron and to his sons, Boil the flesh at the door of the tent of meeting: and there eat it and the bread that is in the basket of consecration, as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it.

³²That which remains of the flesh and of the bread shall you burn with fire.

³³You shall not go out from the door of the tent of meeting seven days, until the days of your consecration be fulfilled: for he shall consecrate you seven days.

³⁴As has been done this day, so Yahweh has commanded to do, to make atonement for you.

³⁵At the door of the tent of meeting shall you abide day and night seven days, and keep the charge of Yahweh, that you don't die: for so I am commanded.

³⁶Aaron and his sons did all the things which Yahweh commanded by Moses.

9It happened on the eighth day, that Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel;

²and he said to Aaron, Take a calf of the herd for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before Yahweh.

³To the children of Israel you shall speak, saying, Take a male goat for a sin-offering; and a calf and a lamb, both a year old, without blemish, for a burnt offering;

⁴and an ox and a ram for peace-offerings, to sacrifice before Yahweh; and a meal-offering mingled with oil: for today Yahweh appears to you.

⁵They brought that which Moses commanded before the tent of meeting: and all the congregation drew near and stood before Yahweh.

⁶Moses said, This is the thing which Yahweh commanded that you should do: and the glory of Yahweh shall appear to you.

⁷Moses said to Aaron, Draw near to the altar, and offer your sin-offering, and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself, and for the people; and offer the offering of the people, and make atonement for them; as Yahweh commanded.

⁸So Aaron drew near to the altar, and killed the calf of the sin-offering, which was for himself.

⁹The sons of Aaron presented the blood to him; and he dipped his finger in the blood, and put it on the horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at the base of the altar:

¹⁰but the fat, and the kidneys, and the cover from the liver of the sin-offering, he burnt on the altar; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

¹¹The flesh and the skin he burnt with fire outside of the camp.

¹²He killed the burnt offering; and Aaron's sons delivered to him the blood, and he sprinkled it on the altar round about.

¹³They delivered the burnt- offering to him, piece by piece, and the head: and he burnt them on the altar.

¹⁴He washed the inwards and the legs, and burnt them on the burnt offering on the altar.

¹⁵He presented the people's offering, and took the goat of the sin-offering which was for the people, and killed it, and offered it for sin, as the first.

¹⁶He presented the burnt-offering, and offered it according to the ordinance.

¹⁷He presented the meal-offering, and filled his hand therefrom, and burnt it on the altar, besides the burnt offering of the morning.

¹⁸He killed also the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which was for the people: and Aaron's sons delivered to him the blood, which he sprinkled on the altar round about,

¹⁹and the fat of the ox and of the ram, the fat tail, and that which covers [the inwards], and the kidneys, and the cover of the liver:

²⁰and they put the fat on the breasts, and he burnt the fat on the altar:

²¹and the breasts and the right thigh Aaron waved for a wave-offering before Yahweh; as Moses commanded.

²²Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people, and blessed them; and he came down from offering the sin-offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace-offerings.

²³Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people.

²⁴There came forth fire from before Yahweh, and consumed on the altar the burnt offering and the fat: and when all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces.

10Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took each of them his censer, and put fire therein, and laid incense thereon, and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them.

²There came forth fire from before Yahweh, and devoured them, and they died before Yahweh.

³Then Moses said to Aaron, This is it what Yahweh spoke, saying, I will be sanctified in those who come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified. Aaron held his peace.

⁴Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, Draw near, carry your brothers from before the sanctuary out of the camp.

⁵So they drew near, and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said.

⁶Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, Don't let the hair of your heads go loose, neither tear your clothes; that you don't die, and that he not be angry with all the congregation: but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which Yahweh has kindled.

⁷You shall not go out from the door of the tent of meeting, lest you die; for the anointing oil of Yahweh is on you. They did according to the word of Moses.

⁸Yahweh spoke to Aaron, saying,

⁹Drink no wine nor strong drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, that you don't die: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations:

¹⁰and that you may make a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean;

¹¹and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which Yahweh has spoken to them by Moses.

¹²Moses spoke to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons who were left, Take the meal-offering that remains of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire, and eat it without yeast beside the altar; for it is most holy;

¹³and you shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your portion, and your sons' portion, of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire: for so I am commanded.

¹⁴The wave-breast and the heave-thigh shall you eat in a clean place, you, and your sons, and your daughters with you: for they are given as your portion, and your sons' portion, out of the sacrifices of the peace-offerings of the children of Israel.

¹⁵The heave-thigh and the wave-breast shall they bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave-offering before Yahweh: and it shall be your, and your sons' with you, as a portion forever; as Yahweh has commanded.

¹⁶Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin-offering, and, behold, it was burnt: and he was angry with Eleazar and with Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who were left, saying,

¹⁷Why haven't you eaten the sin-offering in the place of the sanctuary, seeing it is most holy, and he has given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before Yahweh?

¹⁸Behold, the blood of it was not brought into the sanctuary within: you should certainly have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded.

¹⁹Aaron spoke to Moses, Behold, this day have they offered their sin- offering and their burnt offering before Yahweh; and there have befallen me such things as these: and if I had eaten the sin-offering today, would it have been well-pleasing in the sight of Yahweh?

²⁰When Moses heard [that], it was well-pleasing in his sight.

11Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them,

²Speak to the children of Israel, saying, These are the living things which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth.

³Whatever parts the hoof, and is cloven-footed, [and] chews the cud, among the animals, that may you eat.

⁴Nevertheless these shall you not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who part the hoof: the camel, because he chews the cud but doesn't have a parted hoof, he is unclean to you.

⁵The rabbit, because he chews the cud but doesn't have a parted the hoof, he is unclean to you.

⁶The hare, because she chews the cud but doesn't part the hoof, she is unclean to you.

⁷The pig, because he doesn't part the hoof, and is cloven-footed, but doesn't chew the cud, he is unclean to you.

⁸Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch; they are unclean to you.

⁹These may you eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, that may you eat.

¹⁰All that don't have fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of all the living creatures that are in the waters, they are an abomination to you,

¹¹and they shall be an abomination to you; you shall not eat of their flesh, and their carcasses you shall have in abomination.

¹²Whatever has no fins nor scales in the waters, that is an abomination to you.

¹³These you shall have in abomination among the birds; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the gier-eagle, and the ospray,

¹⁴and the kite, and the falcon after its kind,

¹⁵every raven after its kind,

¹⁶and the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the seamew, and the hawk after its kind,

¹⁷and the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl,

¹⁸and the horned owl, and the pelican, and the vulture,

¹⁹and the stork, the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat.

²⁰All winged creeping things that go on all fours are an abomination to you.

²¹Yet these may you eat of all winged creeping things that go on all fours, which have legs above their feet, with which to leap on the earth.

²²Even these of them you may eat: the locust after its kind, and the bald locust after its kind, and the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind.

²³But all winged creeping things, which have four feet, are an abomination to you.

²⁴By these you shall become unclean: whoever touches the carcass of them shall be unclean until the even;

²⁵Whoever bears [anything] of the carcass of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.

²⁶Every animal which parts the hoof, and is not cloven-footed, nor chews the cud, is unclean to you: everyone who touches them shall be unclean.

²⁷Whatever goes on its paws, among all animals that go on all fours, they are unclean to you: whoever touches their carcass shall be unclean until the even.

²⁸He who bears the carcass of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: they are unclean to you.

²⁹These are they which are unclean to you among the creeping things that creep on the earth: the weasel, and the mouse, and the great lizard after its kind,

³⁰and the gecko, and the land-crocodile, and the lizard, and the sand-lizard, and the chameleon.

³¹These are they which are unclean to you among all that creep: whoever does touch them, when they are dead, shall be unclean until the even.

³²On whatever any of them, when they are dead, does fall, it shall be unclean; whether it be any vessel of wood, or clothing, or skin, or sack, whatever vessel it be, with which any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the even; then shall it be clean.

³³Every earthen vessel, into which any of them falls, whatever is in it shall be unclean, and it you shall break.

³⁴All food [therein] which may be eaten, that on which water comes, shall be unclean; and all drink that may be drunk in every [such] vessel shall be unclean.

³⁵Every thing whereupon [any part] of their carcass falls shall be unclean; whether oven, or range for pots, it shall be broken in pieces: they are unclean, and shall be unclean to you.

³⁶Nevertheless a spring or a pit in which is a gathering of water shall be clean: but that which touches their carcass shall be unclean.

³⁷If [anything] of their carcass fall on any sowing seed which is to be sown, it is clean.

³⁸But if water be put on the seed, and [anything] of their carcass fall thereon, it is unclean to you.

³⁹If any animal, of which you may eat, die; he who touches the carcass of it shall be unclean until the even.

⁴⁰He who eats of the carcass of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: he also that bears the carcass of it shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.

⁴¹Every creeping thing that creeps on the earth is an abomination; it shall not be eaten.

⁴²Whatever goes on the belly, and whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet, even all creeping things that creep on the earth, them you shall not eat; for they are an abomination.

⁴³You shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creeps, neither shall you make yourselves unclean with them, that you should be defiled thereby.

⁴⁴For I am Yahweh your God: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be you holy; for I am holy: neither shall you defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that moves on the earth.

⁴⁵For I am Yahweh who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: you shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

⁴⁶This is the law of the animal, and of the bird, and of every living creature that moves in the waters, and of every creature that creeps on the earth;

⁴⁷to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean, and between the living thing that may be eaten and the living thing that may not be eaten.

12Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a woman conceive seed, and bear a man-child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of the impurity of her sickness shall she be unclean.

³In the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

⁴She shall continue in the blood of [her] purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no holy thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.

⁵But if she bear a maid-child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her impurity; and she shall continue in the blood of [her] purifying sixty-six days.

⁶When the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb a year old for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtle-dove, for a sin-offering, to the door of the tent of meeting, to the priest:

⁷and he shall offer it before Yahweh, and make atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the fountain of her blood. This is the law for her who bears, whether a male or a female.

⁸If her means isn't sufficient for a lamb, then she shall take two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons; the one for a burnt offering, and the other for a sin-offering: and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.

13Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

²When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, or a scab, or a bright spot, and it become in the skin of his flesh the plague of leprosy, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons the priests:

³and the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and if the hair in the plague be turned white, and the appearance of the plague be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is the plague of leprosy; and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.

⁴If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and the appearance of it isn't deeper than the skin, and the hair of it isn't turned white, then the priest shall shut up [him who has] the plague seven days:

⁵and the priest shall look on him the seventh day: and, behold, if in his eyes the plague be at a stay, and the plague isn't spread in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up seven days more:

⁶and the priest shall look on him again the seventh day; and, behold, if the plague be dim, and the plague hasn't spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean: it is a scab: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.

⁷But if the scab spread abroad in the skin, after that he has showed himself to the priest for his cleansing, he shall show himself to the priest again:

⁸and the priest shall look; and, behold, if the scab be spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is leprosy.

⁹When the plague of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be brought to the priest;

¹⁰and the priest shall look; and, behold, if there be a white rising in the skin, and it have turned the hair white, and there be quick raw flesh in the rising,

¹¹it is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean: he shall not shut him up, for he is unclean.

¹²If the leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of [him who has] the plague from his head even to his feet, as far as appears to the priest;

¹³then the priest shall look; and, behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce [him] clean [who has] the plague: it is all turned white: he is clean.

¹⁴But whenever raw flesh appears in him, he shall be unclean.

¹⁵The priest shall look on the raw flesh, and pronounce him unclean: the raw flesh is unclean: it is leprosy.

¹⁶Or if the raw flesh turn again, and be changed to white, then he shall come to the priest;

¹⁷and the priest shall look on him; and, behold, if the plague be turned into white, then the priest shall pronounce [him] clean [who has] the plague: he is clean.

¹⁸When the flesh has in the skin of it a boil, and it is healed,

¹⁹and in the place of the boil there is a white rising, or a bright spot, reddish-white, then is shall be showed to the priest;

²⁰and the priest shall look; and, behold, if the appearance of it be lower than the skin, and the hair of it be turned white, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy, it has broken out in the boil.

²¹But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hairs therein, and it isn't lower than the skin, but is dim; then the priest shall shut him up seven days:

²²If it spread abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a plague.

²³But if the bright spot stay in its place, and hasn't spread, it is the scar of the boil; and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

²⁴Or when the flesh has in the skin of it a burning by fire, and the quick [flesh] of the burning become a bright spot, reddish-white, or white;

²⁵then the priest shall look on it; and, behold, if the hair in the bright spot be turned white, and the appearance of it be deeper than the skin; it is leprosy, it has broken out in the burning: and the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy.

²⁶But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hair in the bright spot, and it be no lower than the skin, but be dim; then the priest shall shut him up seven days:

²⁷and the priest shall look on him the seventh day: if it spread abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy.

²⁸If the bright spot stays in its place, and hasn't spread in the skin, but be dim; it is the rising of the burning, and the priest shall pronounce him clean: for it is the scar of the burning.

²⁹When a man or woman has a plague on the head or on the beard,

³⁰then the priest shall look on the plague; and, behold, if the appearance of it be deeper than the skin, and there be in it yellow thin hair, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a scall, it is leprosy of the head or of the beard.

³¹If the priest look on the plague of the scall, and, behold, the appearance of it isn't deeper than the skin, and there be no black hair in it, then the priest shall shut up [him who has] the plague of the scall seven days:

³²In the seventh day the priest shall look on the plague; and, behold, if the scall isn't spread, and there be in it no yellow hair, and the appearance of the scall isn't deeper than the skin,

³³then he shall be shaved, but he shall not shave the scall; and the priest shall shut up [him who has] the scall seven days more:

³⁴and in the seventh day the priest shall look on the scall; and, behold, if the scall hasn't spread in the skin, and the appearance of it isn't deeper than the skin; then the priest shall pronounce him clean: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.

³⁵But if the scall spread abroad in the skin after his cleansing,

³⁶then the priest shall look on him; and, behold, if the scall be spread in the skin, the priest shall not seek for the yellow hair; he is unclean.

³⁷But if in his eyes the scall be at a stay, and black hair be grown up therein; the scall is healed, he is clean: and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

³⁸When a man or a woman has in the skin of the flesh bright spots, even white bright spots;

³⁹then the priest shall look; and, behold, if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh be of a dull white, it is a harmless rash, it has broken out in the skin; he is clean.

⁴⁰If a man's hair be fallen off his head, he is bald; [yet] is he clean.

⁴¹If his hair be fallen off from the front part of his head, he is forehead bald; [yet] is he clean.

⁴²But if there be in the bald head, or the bald forehead, a reddish-white plague; it is leprosy breaking out in his bald head, or his bald forehead.

⁴³Then the priest shall look on him; and, behold, if the rising of the plague be reddish-white in his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the appearance of leprosy in the skin of the flesh;

⁴⁴he is a leprous man, he is unclean: the priest shall surely pronounce him unclean; his plague is in his head.

⁴⁵The leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall go loose, and he shall cover his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.

⁴⁶All the days in which the plague is in him he shall be unclean; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; outside of the camp shall his dwelling be.

⁴⁷The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woolen garment, or a linen garment;

⁴⁸whether it be in warp, or woof; of linen, or of woolen; whether in a skin, or in anything made of skin;

⁴⁹if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything of skin; it is the plague of leprosy, and shall be showed to the priest.

⁵⁰The priest shall look on the plague, and shut up [that which has] the plague seven days:

⁵¹and he shall look on the plague on the seventh day: if the plague be spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in the skin, whatever service skin is used for; the plague is a fretting leprosy; it is unclean.

⁵²He shall burn the garment, whether the warp or the woof, in woolen or in linen, or anything of skin, in which the plague is: for it is a fretting leprosy; it shall be burnt in the fire.

⁵³If the priest shall look, and, behold, the plague hasn't spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything of skin;

⁵⁴then the priest shall command that they wash the thing in which the plague is, and he shall shut it up seven days more:

⁵⁵and the priest shall look, after that the plague is washed; and, behold, if the plague hasn't changed its color, and the plague hasn't spread, it is unclean; you shall burn it in the fire: it is a fret, whether the bareness be inside or outside.

⁵⁶If the priest look, and, behold, the plague be dim after the washing of it, then he shall tear it out of the garment, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof:

⁵⁷and if it appear still in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything of skin, it is breaking out: you shall burn that in which the plague is with fire.

⁵⁸The garment, either the warp, or the woof, or whatever thing of skin it be, which you shall wash, if the plague be departed from them, then it shall be washed the second time, and shall be clean.

⁵⁹This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of woolen or linen, either in the warp, or the woof, or anything of skin, to pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean.

14Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought to the priest:

³and the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look; and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper,

⁴then shall the priest command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:

⁵The priest shall command to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water.

⁶As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water:

⁷He shall sprinkle on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let go the living bird into the open field.

⁸He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water; and he shall be clean: and after that he shall come into the camp, but shall dwell outside his tent seven days.

⁹It shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off: and he shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.

¹⁰On the eighth day he shall take two he-lambs without blemish, and one ewe-lamb a year old without blemish, and three tenth parts [of an ephah] of fine flour for a meal-offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil.

¹¹The priest who cleanses him shall set the man who is to be cleansed, and those things, before Yahweh, at the door of the tent of meeting.

¹²The priest shall take one of the he-lambs, and offer him for a trespass-offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave-offering before Yahweh:

¹³and he shall kill the he-lamb in the place where they kill the sin-offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary: for as the sin-offering is the priest's, so is the trespass-offering: it is most holy:

¹⁴and the priest shall take of the blood of the trespass-offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot.

¹⁵The priest shall take of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand;

¹⁶and the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before Yahweh:

¹⁷and of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot, on the blood of the trespass-offering:

¹⁸and the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed: and the priest shall make atonement for him before Yahweh.

¹⁹The priest shall offer the sin-offering, and make atonement for him who is to be cleansed because of his uncleanness: and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering;

²⁰and the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meal-offering on the altar: and the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.

²¹If he be poor, and can't get so much, then he shall take one he-lamb for a trespass-offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, and one tenth part [of an ephah] of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering, and a log of oil;

²²and two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; and the one shall be a sin-offering, and the other a burnt offering.

²³On the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, to the door of the tent of meeting, before Yahweh:

²⁴and the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass-offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave-offering before Yahweh.

²⁵He shall kill the lamb of the trespass-offering; and the priest shall take of the blood of the trespass-offering, and put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot.

²⁶The priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand;

²⁷and the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before Yahweh:

²⁸and the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the trespass-offering:

²⁹and the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before Yahweh.

³⁰He shall offer one of the turtle-doves, or of the young pigeons, such as he is able to get,

³¹even such as he is able to get, the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt offering, with the meal-offering: and the priest shall make atonement for him who is to be cleansed before Yahweh.

³²This is the law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy, who is not able to get [that which pertains] to his cleansing.

³³Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

³⁴When you are come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession;

³⁵then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, There seems to me to be as it were a plague in the house.

³⁶The priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest goes in to see the plague, that all that is in the house not be made unclean: and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house:

³⁷and he shall look on the plague; and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow streaks, greenish or reddish, and the appearance of it be lower than the wall;

³⁸then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days.

³⁹The priest shall come again the seventh day, and shall look; and, behold, if the plague be spread in the walls of the house;

⁴⁰then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which the plague is, and cast them into an unclean place outside of the city:

⁴¹and he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the mortar, that they scrape off, outside of the city into an unclean place:

⁴²and they shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house.

⁴³If the plague come again, and break out in the house, after that he has taken out the stones, and after he has scraped the house, and after it is plastered;

⁴⁴then the priest shall come in and look; and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean.

⁴⁵He shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber of it, and all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.

⁴⁶Moreover he who goes into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even.

⁴⁷He who lies in the house shall wash his clothes; and he who eats in the house shall wash his clothes.

⁴⁸If the priest shall come in, and look, and, behold, the plague hasn't spread in the house, after the house was plastered; then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed.

⁴⁹He shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:

⁵⁰and he shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water:

⁵¹and he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times:

⁵²and he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop, and with the scarlet:

⁵³but he shall let got the living bird out of the city into the open field: so shall he make atonement for the house; and it shall be clean.

⁵⁴This is the law for all manner of plague of leprosy, and for a scall,

⁵⁵and for the leprosy of a garment, and for a house,

⁵⁶and for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot;

⁵⁷to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean: this is the law of leprosy.

15Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

²Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When any man has an issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean.

³This shall be his uncleanness in his issue: whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue, it is his uncleanness.

⁴Every bed whereon he who has the issue lies shall be unclean; and everything whereon he sits shall be unclean.

⁵Whoever touches his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

⁶He who sits on anything whereon he who has the issue sat shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

⁷He who touches the flesh of him who has the issue shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

⁸If he who has the issue spit on him who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

⁹Whatever saddle he who has the issue rides on shall be unclean.

¹⁰Whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until the even: and he who bears those things shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

¹¹Whoever he who has the issue touches, without having rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

¹²The earthen vessel, which he who has the issue touches, shall be broken; and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.

¹³When he who has an issue is cleansed of his issue, then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes; and he shall bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.

¹⁴On the eighth day he shall take to him two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, and come before Yahweh to the door of the tent of meeting, and give them to the priest:

¹⁵and the priest shall offer them, the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him before Yahweh for his issue.

¹⁶If any man's seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall bathe all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even.

¹⁷Every garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even.

¹⁸The woman also with whom a man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.

¹⁹If a woman have an issue, [and] her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be in her impurity seven days: and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the even.

²⁰Everything that she lies on in her impurity shall be unclean: everything also that she sits on shall be unclean.

²¹Whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

²²Whoever touches anything that she sits on shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

²³If it be on the bed, or on anything whereon she sits, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until the even.

²⁴If any man lie with her, and her impurity be on him, he shall be unclean seven days; and every bed whereon he lies shall be unclean.

²⁵If a woman have an issue of her blood many days not in the time of her impurity, or if she have an issue beyond the time of her impurity; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness she shall be as in the days of her impurity: she is unclean.

²⁶Every bed whereon she lies all the days of her issue shall be to her as the bed of her impurity: and everything whereon she sits shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her impurity.

²⁷Whoever touches those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even.

²⁸But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean.

²⁹On the eighth day she shall take to her two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, and bring them to the priest, to the door of the tent of meeting.

³⁰The priest shall offer the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her before Yahweh for the issue of her uncleanness.

³¹Thus shall you separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, that they not die in their uncleanness, when they defile my tent that is in the midst of them.

³²This is the law of him who has an issue, and of him whose seed of copulation goes from him, so that he is unclean thereby;

³³and of her who is sick with her impurity, and of him who has an issue, of the man, and of the woman, and of him who lies with her who is unclean.

16Yahweh spoke to Moses, after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before Yahweh, and died;

²and Yahweh said to Moses, Speak to Aaron your brother, that he doesn't come at all times into the holy place within the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark; that he not die: for I will appear in the cloud on the mercy seat.

³Herewith shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bull for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.

⁴He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches on his flesh, and shall be girded with the linen sash, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: they are the holy garments; and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and put them on.

⁵He shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two male goats for a sin-offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.

⁶Aaron shall present the bull of the sin-offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself, and for his house.

⁷He shall take the two goats, and set them before Yahweh at the door of the tent of meeting.

⁸Aaron shall cast lots on the two goats; one lot for Yahweh, and the other lot for Azazel.

⁹Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for Yahweh, and offer him for a sin-offering.

¹⁰But the goat, on which the lot fell for Azazel, shall be set alive before Yahweh, to make atonement for him, to send him away for Azazel into the wilderness.

¹¹Aaron shall present the bull of the sin-offering, which is for himself, and shall make atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bull of the sin-offering which is for himself:

¹²and he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar before Yahweh, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil:

¹³and he shall put the incense on the fire before Yahweh, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony, that he not die:

¹⁴and he shall take of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.

¹⁵Then shall he kill the goat of the sin-offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with his blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat:

¹⁶and he shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins: and so shall he do for the tent of meeting, that dwells with them in the midst of their uncleanness.

¹⁷There shall be no man in the tent of meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.

¹⁸He shall go out to the altar that is before Yahweh, and make atonement for it, and shall take of the blood of the bull, and of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar round about.

¹⁹He shall sprinkle of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and make it holy from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.

²⁰When he has made an end of atoning for the holy place, and the tent of meeting, and the altar, he shall present the live goat:

²¹and Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a man who is in readiness into the wilderness:

²²and the goat shall bear on him all their iniquities to a solitary land: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

²³Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there:

²⁴and he shall bathe his flesh in water in a holy place, and put on his garments, and come forth, and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people.

²⁵The fat of the sin-offering shall he burn on the altar.

²⁶He who lets go the goat for Azazel shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp.

²⁷The bull of the sin-offering, and the goat of the sin-offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be carried forth outside of the camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung.

²⁸He who burns them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp.

²⁹It shall be a statute forever to you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and shall do no manner of work, the home-born, or the stranger who sojourns among you:

³⁰for on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall you be clean before Yahweh.

³¹It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls; it is a statute forever.

³²The priest, who shall be anointed and who shall be consecrated to be priest in his father's place, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen garments, even the holy garments:

³³and he shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary; and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar; and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.

³⁴This shall be an everlasting statute to you, to make atonement for the children of Israel because of all their sins once in the year. He did as Yahweh commanded Moses.

17Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Speak to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and tell them: This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, saying,

³Whatever man there be of the house of Israel, who kills an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or who kills it outside of the camp,

⁴and hasn't brought it to the door of the tent of meeting, to offer it as an offering to Yahweh before the tent of Yahweh: blood shall be imputed to that man; he has shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people:

⁵To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they sacrifice in the open field, even that they may bring them to Yahweh, to the door of the tent of meeting, to the priest, and sacrifice them for sacrifices of peace-offerings to Yahweh.

⁶The priest shall sprinkle the blood on the altar of Yahweh at the door of the tent of meeting, and burn the fat for a sweet savor to Yahweh.

⁷They shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to the male goats, after which they play the prostitute. This shall be a statute forever to them throughout their generations.

⁸You shall tell them, Whatever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice,

⁹and doesn't bring it to the door of the tent of meeting, to sacrifice it to Yahweh; that man shall be cut off from his people.

¹⁰Whatever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who eats any manner of blood, I will set my face against that soul who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people.

¹¹For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.

¹²Therefore I said to the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.

¹³Whatever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any animal or bird that may be eaten; he shall pour out the blood of it, and cover it with dust.

¹⁴For as to the life of all flesh, the blood of it is [all one] with the life of it: therefore I said to the children of Israel, You shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; for the life of all flesh is the blood of it: whoever eats it shall be cut off.

¹⁵Every soul who eats that which dies of itself, or that which is torn of animals, whether he be home-born or a sojourner, he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even: then shall he be clean.

¹⁶But if he doesn't wash them, nor bathe his flesh, then he shall bear his iniquity.

18Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, I am Yahweh your God.

³After the doings of the land of Egypt, in which you lived, you shall not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, where I bring you, you shall not do; neither shall you walk in their statutes.

⁴My ordinances shall you do, and my statutes shall you keep, to walk therein: I am Yahweh your God.

⁵You shall therefore keep my statutes, and my ordinances; which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am Yahweh.

⁶None of you shall approach to any who are close relatives to him, to uncover [their] nakedness: I am Yahweh.

⁷The nakedness of your father, even the nakedness of your mother, you shall not uncover: she is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness.

⁸The nakedness of your father's wife you shall not uncover: it is your father's nakedness.

⁹The nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness you shall not uncover.

¹⁰The nakedness of your son's daughter, or of your daughter's daughter, even their nakedness you shall not uncover: for theirs is your own nakedness.

¹¹The nakedness of your father's wife's daughter, conceived by your father, she is your sister, you shall not uncover her nakedness.

¹²You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister: she is your father's near kinswoman.

¹³You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister: for she is your mother's near kinswoman.

¹⁴You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother, you shall not approach to his wife: she is your aunt.

¹⁵You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law: she is your son's wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness.

¹⁶You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife: it is your brother's nakedness.

¹⁷You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter; you shall not take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; they are near kinswomen: it is wickedness.

¹⁸You shall not take a wife to her sister, to be a rival [to her], to uncover her nakedness, besides the other in her lifetime.

¹⁹You shall not approach to a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is impure by her uncleanness.

²⁰You shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, to defile yourself with her.

²¹You shall not give any of your seed to make them pass through [the fire] to Molech; neither shall you profane the name of your God: I am Yahweh.

²²You shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

²³You shall not lie with any animal to defile yourself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a animal, to lie down thereto: it is confusion.

²⁴Don't defile yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out from before you;

²⁵The land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity of it on it, and the land vomits out her inhabitants.

²⁶You therefore shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the home-born, nor the stranger who sojourns among you;

²⁷(for all these abominations have the men of the land done, that were before you, and the land is defiled);

²⁸that the land not vomit you out also, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.

²⁹For whoever shall do any of these abominations, even the souls that do them shall be cut off from among their people.

³⁰Therefore shall you keep my charge, that you not practice any of these abominable customs, which were practiced before you, and that you not defile yourselves therein: I am Yahweh your God.

19Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and tell them, You shall be holy; for I Yahweh your God am holy.

³You shall fear every man his mother, and his father; and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am Yahweh your God.

⁴Don't turn to idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am Yahweh your God.

⁵When you offer a sacrifice of peace-offerings to Yahweh, you shall offer it that you may be accepted.

⁶It shall be eaten the same day you offer it, and on the next day: and if anything remain until the third day, it shall be burnt with fire.

⁷If it be eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it shall not be accepted:

⁸but everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned the holy thing of Yahweh: and that soul shall be cut off from his people.

⁹When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleaning of your harvest.

¹⁰You shall not glean your vineyard, neither shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am Yahweh your God.

¹¹You shall not steal; neither shall you deal falsely, nor lie one to another.

¹²You shall not swear by my name falsely, and profane the name of your God: I am Yahweh.

¹³You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him: the wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.

¹⁴You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but you shall fear your God: I am Yahweh.

¹⁵You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: you shall not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty; but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.

¹⁶You shall not go up and down as a talebearer among your people: neither shall you stand against the blood of your neighbor: I am Yahweh.

¹⁷You shall not hate your brother in your heart: you shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.

¹⁸You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am Yahweh.

¹⁹You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your cattle breed with a diverse kind: you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed: neither shall there come on you a garment of two kinds of stuff mingled together.

²⁰Whoever lies carnally with a woman, who is a bondmaid, pledged to be married to a husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; they shall be punished; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free.

²¹He shall bring his trespass-offering to Yahweh, to the door of the tent of meeting, even a ram for a trespass-offering.

²²The priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass-offering before Yahweh for his sin which he has sinned: and the sin which he has sinned shall be forgiven him.

²³When you shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then you shall count the fruit of it as their uncircumcision: three years shall they be as uncircumcised to you; it shall not be eaten.

²⁴But in the fourth year all the fruit of it shall be holy, for giving praise to Yahweh.

²⁵In the fifth year shall you eat of the fruit of it, that it may yield to you the increase of it: I am Yahweh your God.

²⁶You shall not eat anything with the blood: neither shall you use enchantments, nor practice sorcery.

²⁷You shall not cut the hair on the sides of your heads, neither shall you clip off the edge of your beard.

²⁸You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks on you: I am Yahweh.

²⁹Don't profane your daughter, to make her a prostitute; lest the land fall to prostitution, and the land become full of wickedness.

³⁰You shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary; I am Yahweh.

³¹Don't turn to those who have familiar spirits, nor to the wizards; don't seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am Yahweh your God.

³²You shall rise up before the gray head, and honor the face of the old man, and you shall fear your God: I am Yahweh.

³³If a stranger sojourn with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.

³⁴The stranger who sojourns with you shall be to you as the home-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your God.

³⁵You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity.

³⁶Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall you have: I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

³⁷You shall observe all my statutes, and all my ordinances, and do them: I am Yahweh.

20Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Moreover, you shall tell the children of Israel, Whoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who gives of his seed to Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.

³I also will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he has given of his seed to Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.

⁴If the people at the land do at all hide their eyes from that man, when he gives of his seed to Molech, and don't put him to death;

⁵then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all who play the prostitute after him, to play the prostitute with Molech, from among their people.

⁶The soul that turns to those who have familiar spirits, and to the wizards, to play the prostitute after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

⁷Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be you holy; for I am Yahweh your God.

⁸You shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.

⁹For everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death: he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be on him.

¹⁰The man who commits adultery with another man's wife, even he who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

¹¹The man who lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be on them.

¹²If a man lie with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have created confusion; their blood shall be on them.

¹³If a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be on them.

¹⁴If a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.

¹⁵If a man lie with a animal, he shall surely be put to death: and you shall kill the animal.

¹⁶If a woman approach to any animal, and lie down thereto, you shall kill the woman, and the animal: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be on them.

¹⁷If a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a shameful thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people: he has uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.

¹⁸If a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

¹⁹You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, nor of your father's sister; for he has made naked his close relative: they shall bear their iniquity.

²⁰If a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless.

²¹If a man shall take his brother's wife, it is impurity: he has uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless.

²²You shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my ordinances, and do them; that the land, where I bring you to dwell therein, not vomit you out.

²³You shall not walk in the customs of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they did all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

²⁴But I have said to you, You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey: I am Yahweh your God, who has separated you from the peoples.

²⁵You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean: and you shall not make your souls abominable by animal, or by bird, or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have separated from you as unclean.

²⁶You shall be holy to me: for I, Yahweh, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples, that you should be mine.

²⁷A man also or a woman that has a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be on them.

21Yahweh said to Moses, Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, There shall none defile himself for the dead among his people;

²except for his relatives, that is near to him, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother,

³and for his sister a virgin, that is near to him, that has had no husband; for her may he defile himself.

⁴He shall not defile himself, [being] a chief man among his people, to profane himself.

⁵They shall not make baldness on their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.

⁶They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God; for the offerings of Yahweh made by fire, the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy.

⁷They shall not take a woman that is a prostitute, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he is holy to his God.

⁸You shall sanctify him therefore; for he offers the bread of your God: he shall be holy to you: for I Yahweh, who sanctify you, am holy.

⁹The daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the prostitute, she profanes her father: she shall be burnt with fire.

¹⁰He who is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not let the hair of his head go loose, nor tear his clothes;

¹¹neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother;

¹²neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am Yahweh.

¹³He shall take a wife in her virginity.

¹⁴A widow, or one divorced, or a profane woman, a prostitute, these shall he not take: but a virgin of his own people shall he take as a wife.

¹⁵He shall not profane his seed among his people: for I am Yahweh who sanctifies him.

¹⁶Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁷Speak to Aaron, saying, Whoever he be of your seed throughout their generations that has a blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.

¹⁸For whatever man he be that has a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that has a flat nose, or any deformity,

¹⁹or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed,

²⁰or crook-backed, or a dwarf, or that has a blemish in his eye, or is scurvy, or scabbed, or has his stones broken;

²¹no man of the seed of Aaron the priest, that has a blemish, shall come near to offer the offerings of Yahweh made by fire: he has a blemish; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.

²²He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy:

²³only he shall not go in to the veil, nor come near to the altar, because he has a blemish; that he not profane my sanctuaries: for I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.

²⁴So Moses spoke to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel.

22Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Speak to Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, which they make holy to me, and that they not profane my holy name: I am Yahweh.

³Tell them, Whoever he be of all your seed throughout your generations, that approaches to the holy things, which the children of Israel make holy to Yahweh, having his uncleanness on him, that soul shall be cut off from before me: I am Yahweh.

⁴Whatever man of the seed of Aaron is a leper, or has an issue; he shall not eat of the holy things, until he is clean. Whoever touches anything that is unclean by the dead, or a man whose seed goes from him;

⁵or whoever touches any creeping thing, whereby he may be made unclean, or a man of whom he may take uncleanness, whatever uncleanness he has;

⁶the soul that touches any such shall be unclean until the even, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he bathe his flesh in water.

⁷When the sun is down, he shall be clean; and afterward he shall eat of the holy things, because it is his bread.

⁸That which dies of itself, or is torn by animals, he shall not eat, to defile himself therewith: I am Yahweh.

⁹They shall therefore keep my charge, lest they bear sin for it, and die therein, if they profane it: I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.

¹⁰There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing: a sojourner of the priest's, or a hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing.

¹¹But if a priest buy any soul, the purchase of his money, he shall eat of it; and such as are born in his house, they shall eat of his bread.

¹²If a priest's daughter be married to a stranger, she shall not eat of the heave-offering of the holy things.

¹³But if a priest's daughter be a widow, or divorced, and have no child, and be returned to her father's house, as in her youth, she shall eat of her father's bread: but there shall no stranger eat of it.

¹⁴If a man eat of the holy thing unwittingly, then he shall put the fifth part of it to it, and shall give to the priest the holy thing.

¹⁵They shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer to Yahweh,

¹⁶and [so] cause them to bear the iniquity that brings guilt, when they eat their holy things: for I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.

¹⁷Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁸Speak to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and tell them, Whoever he be of the house of Israel, or of the sojourners in Israel, that offers his offering, whether it be any of their vows, or any of their freewill-offerings, which they offer to Yahweh for a burnt offering;

¹⁹that you may be accepted, [you shall offer] a male without blemish, of the bulls, of the sheep, or of the goats.

²⁰But whatever has a blemish, that shall you not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you.

²¹Whoever offers a sacrifice of peace-offerings to Yahweh to accomplish a vow, or for a freewill-offering, of the herd or of the flock, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein.

²²Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, you shall not offer these to Yahweh, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar to Yahweh.

²³Either a bull or a lamb that has any deformity or lacking in his parts, that may you offer for a freewill-offering; but for a vow it shall not be accepted.

²⁴That which has its stones bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut, you shall not offer to Yahweh; neither shall you do [thus] in your land.

²⁵Neither from the hand of a foreigner shall you offer the bread of your God of any of these; because their corruption is in them, there is a blemish in them: they shall not be accepted for you.

²⁶Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁷When a bull, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth, then it shall be seven days under the hen; and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for the offering of an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

²⁸Whether it be cow or ewe, you shall not kill it and its young both in one day.

²⁹When you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to Yahweh, you shall sacrifice it that you may be accepted.

³⁰On the same day it shall be eaten; you shall leave none of it until the morning: I am Yahweh.

³¹Therefore shall you keep my commandments, and do them: I am Yahweh.

³²You shall not profane my holy name; but I will be made holy among the children of Israel: I am Yahweh who makes you holy,

³³who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am Yahweh.

23Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, The set feasts of Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my set feasts.

³Six days shall work be done: but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no manner of work: it is a Sabbath to Yahweh in all your dwellings.

⁴These are the set feasts of Yahweh, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed season.

⁵In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, is Yahweh's Passover.

⁶On the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to Yahweh: seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

⁷In the first day you shall have a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work.

⁸But you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh seven days: in the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work.

⁹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁰Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you are come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest of it, then you shall bring the sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest:

¹¹and he shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh, to be accepted for you: on the next day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.

¹²In the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a he-lamb without blemish a year old for a burnt offering to Yahweh.

¹³The meal-offering of it shall be two tenth parts [of an ephah] of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire to Yahweh for a sweet savor; and the drink-offering of it shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin.

¹⁴You shall eat neither bread, nor parched grain, nor fresh ears, until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

¹⁵You shall count to you from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave-offering; seven Sabbaths shall there be complete:

¹⁶even to the next day after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal-offering to Yahweh.

¹⁷You shall bring out of your habitations two wave-loaves of two tenth parts [of an ephah]: they shall be of fine flour, they shall be baked with yeast, for first-fruits to Yahweh.

¹⁸You shall present with the bread seven lambs without blemish a year old, and one young bull, and two rams: they shall be a burnt offering to Yahweh, with their meal-offering, and their drink-offerings, even an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh.

¹⁹You shall offer one male goat for a sin-offering, and two he-lambs a year old for a sacrifice of peace-offerings.

²⁰The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first-fruits for a wave-offering before Yahweh, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to Yahweh for the priest.

²¹You shall make proclamation on the same day; there shall be a holy convocation to you; you shall do no servile work: it is a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

²²When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleaning of your harvest: you shall leave them for the poor, and for the sojourner: I am Yahweh your God.

²³Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁴Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest to you, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

²⁵You shall do no servile work; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

²⁶Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁷However on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation to you, and you shall afflict your souls; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

²⁸You shall do no manner of work in that same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before Yahweh your God.

²⁹For whatever soul it be who shall not be afflicted in that same day; he shall be cut off from his people.

³⁰Whatever soul it be who does any manner of work in that same day, that soul will I destroy from among his people.

³¹You shall do no manner of work: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

³²It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even to even, shall you keep your Sabbath.

³³Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

³⁴Speak to the children of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tents for seven days to Yahweh.

³⁵On the first day shall be a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work.

³⁶Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh: on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation to you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh: it is a solemn assembly; you shall do no servile work.

³⁷These are the set feasts of Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, a burnt offering, and a meal-offering, a sacrifice, and drink-offerings, each on its own day;

³⁸besides the Sabbaths of Yahweh, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill-offerings, which you give to Yahweh.

³⁹However on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruits of the land, you shall keep the feast of Yahweh seven days: on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest.

⁴⁰You shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God seven days.

⁴¹You shall keep it a feast to Yahweh seven days in the year: it is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall keep it in the seventh month.

⁴²You shall dwell in booths seven days; all who are home-born in Israel shall dwell in booths;

⁴³that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your God.

⁴⁴Moses declared to the children of Israel the set feasts of Yahweh.

24Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually.

³Outside of the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, shall Aaron keep it in order from evening to morning before Yahweh continually: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.

⁴He shall keep in order the lamps on the pure lampstand before Yahweh continually.

⁵You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it: two tenth parts [of an ephah] shall be in one cake.

⁶You shall set them in two rows, six on a row, on the pure table before Yahweh.

⁷You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

⁸Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before Yahweh continually; it is on the behalf of the children of Israel, an everlasting covenant.

⁹It shall be for Aaron and his sons; and they shall eat it in a holy place: for it is most holy to him of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire by a perpetual statute.

¹⁰The son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and the son of the Israelite woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp:

¹¹and the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses. His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.

¹²They put him in custody, that it might be declared to them at the mouth of Yahweh.

¹³Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁴Bring forth him who has cursed outside of the camp; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.

¹⁵You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin.

¹⁶He who blasphemes the name of Yahweh, he shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the sojourner, as the home-born, when he blasphemes the name [of Yahweh], shall be put to death.

¹⁷He who strikes any man mortally shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸He who strikes a animal mortally shall make it good, life for life.

¹⁹If a man cause a blemish in his neighbor; as he has done, so shall it be done to him:

²⁰breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be rendered to him.

²¹He who kills a animal shall make it good: and he who kills a man shall be put to death.

²²You shall have one manner of law, as well for the sojourner, as for the home-born: for I am Yahweh your God.

²³Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and they brought forth him who had cursed out of the camp, and stoned him with stones. The children of Israel did as Yahweh commanded Moses.

25Yahweh spoke to Moses in Mount Sinai, saying,

²Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath to Yahweh.

³Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruits of it;

⁴but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.

⁵That which grows of itself of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.

⁶The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for you, and for your servant and for your maid, and for your hired servant and for your stranger, who sojourn with you.

⁷For your cattle, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all the increase of it be for food.

⁸You shall number seven Sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years.

⁹Then shall you send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall you send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land.

¹⁰You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants of it: it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family.

¹¹A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you: you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather [the grapes] in it of the undressed vines.

¹²For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat the increase of it out of the field.

¹³In this year of jubilee you shall return every man to his possession.

¹⁴If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy of your neighbor's hand, you shall not wrong one another.

¹⁵According to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy of your neighbor, [and] according to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you.

¹⁶According to the length of the years you shall increase the price of it, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish the price of it; for the number of the crops does he sell to you.

¹⁷You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am Yahweh your God.

¹⁸Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.

¹⁹The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.

²⁰If you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;

²¹then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.

²²You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store.

²³The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for you are strangers and sojourners with me.

²⁴In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.

²⁵If your brother be grew poor, and sell some of his possession, then shall his kinsman who is next to him come, and shall redeem that which his brother has sold.

²⁶If a man have no one to redeem it, and he be grew rich and find sufficient to redeem it;

²⁷then let him reckon the years of the sale of it, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his possession.

²⁸But if he isn't able to get it back for himself, then that which he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return to his possession.

²⁹If a man sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption.

³⁰If it isn't redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee.

³¹But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.

³²Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.

³³If one of the Levites redeem, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.

³⁴But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.

³⁵If your brother has grown poor, and his hand fail with you; then you shall uphold him: [as] a stranger and a sojourner shall he live with you.

³⁶Take no interest of him or increase, but fear your God; that your brother may live with you.

³⁷You shall not give him your money on interest, nor give him your victuals for increase.

³⁸I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, [and] to be your God.

³⁹If your brother has grown poor with you, and sell himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a bond-servant.

⁴⁰As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you to the year of jubilee:

⁴¹then shall he go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers shall he return.

⁴²For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondservants.

⁴³You shall not rule over him with rigor, but shall fear your God.

⁴⁴As for your bondservants, and your bondmaids, whom you shall have; of the nations that are round about you, of them shall you buy bondservants and bondmaids.

⁴⁵Moreover of the children of the strangers who sojourn among you, of them shall you buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land: and they shall be your possession.

⁴⁶You shall make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them shall you take your bondservants forever: but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with rigor.

⁴⁷If a stranger or sojourner with you has grown rich, and your brother has grown poor beside him, and sell himself to the stranger [or] sojourner with you, or to the stock of the stranger's family;

⁴⁸after that he is sold he may be redeemed: one of his brothers may redeem him;

⁴⁹or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself.

⁵⁰He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him.

⁵¹If there be yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.

⁵²If there remain but few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years shall he give back the price of his redemption.

⁵³As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight.

⁵⁴If he isn't redeemed by these [means], then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he, and his children with him.

⁵⁵For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your God.

26You shall make you no idols, neither shall you rear you up an engraved image, or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am Yahweh your God.

²You shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am Yahweh.

³If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

⁴then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

⁵Your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

⁶I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will cause evil animals to cease out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

⁷You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.

⁸Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

⁹I will have respect to you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.

¹⁰You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall bring forth the old because of the new.

¹¹I will set my tent among you: and my soul won't abhor you.

¹²I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

¹³I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondservants; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.

¹⁴But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments;

¹⁵and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant;

¹⁶I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

¹⁷I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck before your enemies: those who hate you shall rule over you; and you shall flee when none pursues you.

¹⁸If you will not yet for these things listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.

¹⁹I will break the pride of your power: and I will make your sky as iron, and your earth as brass;

²⁰and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.

²¹If you walk contrary to me, and won't listen to me, I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins.

²²I will send the animal of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate.

²³If by these things you won't be reformed to me, but will walk contrary to me;

²⁴then will I also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins.

²⁵I will bring a sword on you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant; and you shall be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

²⁶When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.

²⁷If you won't for all this listen to me, but walk contrary to me;

²⁸then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.

²⁹You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat.

³⁰I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your dead bodies on the bodies of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you.

³¹I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I won't smell the savor of your sweet odors.

³²I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it.

³³You will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

³⁴Then shall the land enjoy its Sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths.

³⁵As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it didn't have in your Sabbaths, when you lived on it.

³⁶As for those who are left of you, I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursues.

³⁷They shall stumble one on another, as it were before the sword, when none pursues: and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.

³⁸You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

³⁹Those who are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

⁴⁰They shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me,

⁴¹I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity;

⁴²then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

⁴³The land also shall be left by them, and shall enjoy its Sabbaths, while it lies desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.

⁴⁴Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God;

⁴⁵but I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am Yahweh.

⁴⁶These are the statutes and ordinances and laws, which Yahweh made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.

27Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When a man shall accomplish a vow, the persons shall be for Yahweh by your estimation.

³Your estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even to sixty years old, even your estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.

⁴If it be a female, then your estimation shall be thirty shekels.

⁵If it be from five years old even to twenty years old, then your estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.

⁶If it be from a month old even to five years old, then your estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female your estimation shall be three shekels of silver.

⁷If it be from sixty years old and upward; if it be a male, then your estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels.

⁸But if he be poorer than your estimation, then he shall be set before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to the ability of him who vowed shall the priest value him.

⁹If it be a animal, whereof men offer an offering to Yahweh, all that any man gives of such to Yahweh shall be holy.

¹⁰He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change animal for animal, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy.

¹¹If it be any unclean animal, of which they do not offer an offering to Yahweh, then he shall set the animal before the priest;

¹²and the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as you the priest value it, so shall it be.

¹³But if he will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of it to your estimation.

¹⁴When a man shall sanctify his house to be holy to Yahweh, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand.

¹⁵If he who sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your estimation to it, and it shall be his.

¹⁶If a man shall sanctify to Yahweh part of the field of his possession, then your estimation shall be according to the sowing of it: the sowing of a homer of barley [shall be valued] at fifty shekels of silver.

¹⁷If he sanctify his field from the year of jubilee, according to your estimation it shall stand.

¹⁸But if he sanctify his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall reckon to him the money according to the years that remain to the year of jubilee; and an abatement shall be made from your estimation.

¹⁹If he who sanctified the field will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your estimation to it, and it shall be assured to him.

²⁰If he will not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more:

²¹but the field, when it goes out in the jubilee, shall be holy to Yahweh, as a field devoted; the possession of it shall be the priest's.

²²If he sanctify to Yahweh a field which he has bought, which is not of the field of his possession;

²³then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your estimation to the year of jubilee: and he shall give your estimation in that day, as a holy thing to Yahweh.

²⁴In the year of jubilee the field shall return to him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land belongs.

²⁵All your estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.

²⁶Only the firstborn among animals, which is made a firstborn to Yahweh, no man shall sanctify it; whether it be ox or sheep, it is Yahweh's.

²⁷If it be of an unclean animal, then he shall ransom it according to your estimation, and shall add to it the fifth part of it: or if it isn't redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your estimation.

²⁸Notwithstanding, no devoted thing, that a man shall devote to Yahweh of all that he has, whether of man or animal, or of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy to Yahweh.

²⁹No one devoted, who shall be devoted from among men, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.

³⁰All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is Yahweh's: it is holy to Yahweh.

³¹If a man will redeem anything of his tithe, he shall add to it the fifth part of it.

³²All the tithe of the herd or the flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to Yahweh.

³³He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.

³⁴These are the commandments, which Yahweh commanded Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai.

1Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

²Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, every male, by their polls;

³from twenty years old and upward, all who are able to go forth to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their hosts.

⁴With you there shall be a man of every tribe; everyone head of his fathers' house.

⁵These are the names of the men who shall stand with you. Of Reuben: Elizur the son of Shedeur.

⁶Of Simeon: Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.

⁷Of Judah: Nahshon the son of Amminadab.

⁸Of Issachar: Nethanel the son of Zuar.

⁹Of Zebulun: Eliab the son of Helon.

¹⁰Of the children of Joseph: Of Ephraim: Elishama the son of Ammihud. Of Manasseh: Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.

¹¹Of Benjamin: Abidan the son of Gideoni.

¹²Of Dan: Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.

¹³Of Asher: Pagiel the son of Ochran.

¹⁴Of Gad: Eliasaph the son of Deuel.

¹⁵Of Naphtali: Ahira the son of Enan.

¹⁶These are those who were called of the congregation, the princes of the tribes of their fathers; they were the heads of the thousands of Israel.

¹⁷Moses and Aaron took these men who are mentioned by name:

¹⁸They assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month; and they declared their pedigrees after their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, by their polls.

¹⁹As Yahweh commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.

²⁰The children of Reuben, Israel's firstborn, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, by their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war;

²¹those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Reuben, were forty-six thousand five hundred.

²²Of the children of Simeon, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, those who were numbered of it, according to the number of the names, by their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war;

²³those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty-nine thousand three hundred.

²⁴Of the children of Gad, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war;

²⁵those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Gad, were forty-five thousand six hundred fifty.

²⁶Of the children of Judah, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war;

²⁷those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Judah, were sixty-four thousand six hundred.

²⁸Of the children of Issachar, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war;

²⁹those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Issachar, were fifty-four thousand four hundred.

³⁰Of the children of Zebulun, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war;

³¹those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Zebulun, were fifty-seven thousand four hundred.

³²Of the children of Joseph, [namely], of the children of Ephraim, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war;

³³those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Ephraim, were forty thousand five hundred.

³⁴Of the children of Manasseh, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war;

³⁵those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Manasseh, were thirty-two thousand two hundred.

³⁶Of the children of Benjamin, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war;

³⁷those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Benjamin, were thirty-five thousand four hundred.

³⁸Of the children of Dan, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war;

³⁹those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Dan, were sixty-two thousand seven hundred.

⁴⁰Of the children of Asher, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war;

⁴¹those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Asher, were forty-one thousand five hundred.

⁴²Of the children of Naphtali, their generations, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war;

⁴³those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Naphtali, were fifty-three thousand and four hundred.

⁴⁴These are those who were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve men: they were each one for his fathers' house.

⁴⁵So all those who were numbered of the children of Israel by their fathers' houses, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war in Israel;

⁴⁶even all those who were numbered were six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty.

⁴⁷But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them.

⁴⁸For Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

⁴⁹Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, neither shall you take the sum of them among the children of Israel;

⁵⁰but appoint you the Levites over the tent of the testimony, and over all the furniture of it, and over all that belongs to it: they shall bear the tent, and all the furniture of it; and they shall minister to it, and shall encamp round about the tent.

⁵¹When the tent sets forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tent is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.

⁵²The children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, according to their hosts.

⁵³But the Levites shall encamp round about the tent of the testimony, that there be no wrath on the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tent of the testimony.

⁵⁴Thus did the children of Israel; according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so did they.

2Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

²The children of Israel shall encamp every man by his own standard, with the ensigns of their fathers' houses: over against the tent of meeting shall they encamp round about.

³Those who encamp on the east side toward the sunrise shall be they of the standard of the camp of Judah, according to their hosts: and the prince of the children of Judah shall be Nahshon the son of Amminadab.

⁴His host, and those who were numbered of them, were seventy-four thousand six hundred.

⁵Those who encamp next to him shall be the tribe of Issachar: and the prince of the children of Issachar shall be Nethanel the son of Zuar.

⁶His host, and those who were numbered of it, were fifty-four thousand four hundred.

⁷The tribe of Zebulun: and the prince of the children of Zebulun shall be Eliab the son of Helon.

⁸His host, and those who were numbered of it, were fifty-seven thousand four hundred.

⁹All who were numbered of the camp of Judah were one hundred eighty-six thousand four hundred, according to their hosts. They shall set forth first.

¹⁰On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben according to their hosts: and the prince of the children of Reuben shall be Elizur the son of Shedeur.

¹¹His host, and those who were numbered of it, were forty-six thousand five hundred.

¹²Those who encamp next to him shall be the tribe of Simeon: and the prince of the children of Simeon shall be Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.

¹³His host, and those who were numbered of them, were fifty-nine thousand three hundred.

¹⁴The tribe of Gad: and the prince of the children of Gad shall be Eliasaph the son of Reuel.

¹⁵His host, and those who were numbered of them, were forty-five thousand six hundred fifty.

¹⁶All who were numbered of the camp of Reuben were one hundred fifty-one thousand four hundred fifty, according to their hosts. They shall set forth second.

¹⁷Then the tent of meeting shall set forward, with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camps: as they encamp, so shall they set forward, every man in his place, by their standards.

¹⁸On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim according to their hosts: and the prince of the children of Ephraim shall be Elishama the son of Ammihud.

¹⁹His host, and those who were numbered of them, were forty thousand five hundred.

²⁰Next to him shall be the tribe of Manasseh: and the prince of the children of Manasseh shall be Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.

²¹His host, and those who were numbered of them, were thirty-two thousand and two hundred.

²²The tribe of Benjamin: and the prince of the children of Benjamin shall be Abidan the son of Gideoni.

²³His host, and those who were numbered of them, were thirty-five thousand four hundred.

²⁴All who were numbered of the camp of Ephraim were one hundred eight thousand one hundred, according to their hosts. They shall set forth third.

²⁵On the north side shall be the standard of the camp of Dan according to their hosts: and the prince of the children of Dan shall be Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.

²⁶His host, and those who were numbered of them, were sixty-two thousand seven hundred.

²⁷Those who encamp next to him shall be the tribe of Asher: and the prince of the children of Asher shall be Pagiel the son of Ochran.

²⁸His host, and those who were numbered of them, were forty-one thousand and five hundred.

²⁹The tribe of Naphtali: and the prince of the children of Naphtali shall be Ahira the son of Enan.

³⁰His host, and those who were numbered of them, were fifty-three thousand four hundred.

³¹All who were numbered of the camp of Dan were one hundred fifty-seven thousand six hundred. They shall set forth hindmost by their standards.

³²These are those who were numbered of the children of Israel by their fathers' houses: all who were numbered of the camps according to their hosts were six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty.

³³But the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

³⁴Thus did the children of Israel; according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so they encamped by their standards, and so they set forward, everyone by their families, according to their fathers' houses.

3Now this is the history of the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that Yahweh spoke with Moses in Mount Sinai.

²These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

³These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests who were anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in the priest's office.

⁴Nadab and Abihu died before Yahweh, when they offered strange fire before Yahweh, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children; and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the presence of Aaron their father.

⁵Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

⁶Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him.

⁷They shall keep his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, to do the service of the tent.

⁸They shall keep all the furniture of the tent of meeting, and the charge of the children of Israel, to do the service of the tent.

⁹You shall give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons: they are wholly given to him on the behalf of the children of Israel.

¹⁰You shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall keep their priesthood: and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.

¹¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹²I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn who opens the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be mine:

¹³for all the firstborn are mine; on the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I made holy to me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and animal; mine they shall be: I am Yahweh.

¹⁴Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying,

¹⁵Number the children of Levi by their fathers' houses, by their families: every male from a month old and upward shall you number them.

¹⁶Moses numbered them according to the word of Yahweh, as he was commanded.

¹⁷These were the sons of Levi by their names: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari.

¹⁸These are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei.

¹⁹The sons of Kohath by their families: Amram, and Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.

²⁰The sons of Merari by their families: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites according to their fathers' houses.

²¹Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites, and the family of the Shimeites: these are the families of the Gershonites.

²²Those who were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, even those who were numbered of them were seven thousand and five hundred.

²³The families of the Gershonites shall encamp behind the tent westward.

²⁴The prince of the fathers' house of the Gershonites shall be Eliasaph the son of Lael.

²⁵The charge of the sons of Gershon in the tent of meeting shall be the tent, and the Tent, the covering of it, and the screen for the door of the tent of meeting,

²⁶and the hangings of the court, and the screen for the door of the court, which is by the tent, and by the altar round about, and the cords of it for all the service of it.

²⁷Of Kohath was the family of the Amramites, and the family of the Izharites, and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites: these are the families of the Kohathites.

²⁸According to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, there were eight thousand and six hundred, keeping the charge of the sanctuary.

²⁹The families of the sons of Kohath shall encamp on the side of the tent southward.

³⁰The prince of the fathers' house of the families of the Kohathites shall be Elizaphan the son of Uzziel.

³¹Their charge shall be the ark, and the table, and the lamp stand, and the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary with which they minister, and the screen, and all the service of it.

³²Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be prince of the princes of the Levites, [and have] the oversight of those who keep the charge of the sanctuary.

³³Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites, and the family of the Mushites: these are the families of Merari.

³⁴Those who were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were six thousand and two hundred.

³⁵The prince of the fathers' house of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail: they shall encamp on the side of the tent northward.

³⁶The appointed charge of the sons of Merari shall be the boards of the tent, and the bars of it, and the pillars of it, and the sockets of it, and all the instruments of it, and all the service of it,

³⁷and the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords.

³⁸Those who encamp before the tent eastward, before the tent of meeting toward the sunrise, shall be Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.

³⁹All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of Yahweh, by their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty-two thousand.

⁴⁰Yahweh said to Moses, Number all the firstborn males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.

⁴¹You shall take the Levites for me (I am Yahweh) instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the children of Israel:

⁴²and Moses numbered, as Yahweh commanded him, all the first- born among the children of Israel.

⁴³All the firstborn males according to the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those who were numbered of them, were twenty-two thousand two hundred seventy-three.

⁴⁴Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

⁴⁵Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine: I am Yahweh.

⁴⁶For the redemption of the two hundred seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, that are over and above [the number of] the Levites,

⁴⁷you shall take five shekels apiece by the poll; after the shekel of the sanctuary shall you take them (the shekel is twenty gerahs):

⁴⁸and you shall give the money, with which the odd number of them is redeemed, to Aaron and to his sons.

⁴⁹Moses took the redemption-money from those who were over and above those who were redeemed by the Levites;

⁵⁰from the firstborn of the children of Israel took he the money, one thousand three hundred sixty-five [shekels], after the shekel of the sanctuary:

⁵¹and Moses gave the redemption-money to Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of Yahweh, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

4Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

²Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their families, by their fathers' houses,

³from thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all who enter on the service, to do the work in the tent of meeting.

⁴This is the service of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting, [about] the most holy things:

⁵when the camp sets forward, Aaron shall go in, and his sons, and they shall take down the veil of the screen, and cover the ark of the testimony with it,

⁶and shall put thereon a covering of sealskin, and shall spread over it a cloth all of blue, and shall put in the poles of it.

⁷On the table of show bread they shall spread a cloth of blue, and put thereon the dishes, and the spoons, and the bowls and the cups with which to pour out; and the continual bread shall be thereon:

⁸and they shall spread on them a cloth of scarlet, and cover the same with a covering of sealskin, and shall put in the poles of it.

⁹They shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the lampstand of the light, and its lamps, and its snuffers, and its snuff dishes, and all the oil vessels of it, with which they minister to it:

¹⁰and they shall put it and all the vessels of it within a covering of sealskin, and shall put it on the frame.

¹¹On the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of sealskin, and shall put in the poles of it:

¹²and they shall take all the vessels of ministry, with which they minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover them with a covering of sealskin, and shall put them on the frame.

¹³They shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth thereon:

¹⁴and they shall put on it all the vessels of it, with which they minister about it, the fire pans, the flesh-hooks, and the shovels, and the basins, all the vessels of the altar; and they shall spread on it a covering of sealskin, and put in the poles of it.

¹⁵When Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the furniture of the sanctuary, as the camp is set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch the sanctuary, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting.

¹⁶The charge of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be the oil for the light, and the sweet incense, and the continual meal-offering, and the anointing oil, the charge of all the tent, and of all that therein is, the sanctuary, and the furniture of it.

¹⁷Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

¹⁸Don't cut off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites;

¹⁹but thus do to them, that they may live, and not die, when they approach to the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in, and appoint them everyone to his service and to his burden;

²⁰but they shall not go in to see the sanctuary even for a moment, lest they die.

²¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²²Take the sum of the sons of Gershon also, by their fathers' houses, by their families;

²³from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old shall you number them; all who enter in to wait on the service, to do the work in the tent of meeting.

²⁴This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, in serving and in bearing burdens:

²⁵they shall bear the curtains of the tent, and the tent of meeting, its covering, and the covering of sealskin that is above on it, and the screen for the door of the tent of meeting,

²⁶and the hangings of the court, and the screen for the door of the gate of the court, which is by the tent and by the altar round about, and their cords, and all the instruments of their service, and whatever shall be done with them: therein shall they serve.

²⁷At the commandment of Aaron and his sons shall be all the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their burden, and in all their service; and you shall appoint to them in charge all their burden.

²⁸This is the service of the families of the sons of the Gershonites in the tent of meeting: and their charge shall be under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.

²⁹As for the sons of Merari, you shall number them by their families, by their fathers' houses;

³⁰from thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old shall you number them, everyone who enters on the service, to do the work of the tent of meeting.

³¹This is the charge of their burden, according to all their service in the tent of meeting: the boards of the tent, and the bars of it, and the pillars of it, and the sockets of it,

³²and the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords, with all their instruments, and with all their service: and by name you shall appoint the instruments of the charge of their burden.

³³This is the service of the families of the sons of Merari, according to all their service, in the tent of meeting, under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.

³⁴Moses and Aaron and the princes of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites by their families, and by their fathers' houses,

³⁵from thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered on the service, for work in the tent of meeting:

³⁶and those who were numbered of them by their families were two thousand seven hundred fifty.

³⁷These are those who were numbered of the families of the Kohathites, all who did serve in the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.

³⁸Those who were numbered of the sons of Gershon, their families, and by their fathers' houses,

³⁹from thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered on the service, for work in the tent of meeting,

⁴⁰even those who were numbered of them, by their families, by their fathers' houses, were two thousand six hundred thirty.

⁴¹These are those who were numbered of the families of the sons of Gershon, all who did serve in the tent of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of Yahweh.

⁴²Those who were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, by their families, by their fathers' houses,

⁴³from thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered on the service, for work in the tent of meeting,

⁴⁴even those who were numbered of them by their families, were three thousand and two hundred.

⁴⁵These are those who were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.

⁴⁶All those who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the princes of Israel numbered, by their families, and by their fathers' houses,

⁴⁷from thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered in to do the work of service, and the work of bearing burdens in the tent of meeting,

⁴⁸even those who were numbered of them, were eight thousand five hundred eighty.

⁴⁹According to the commandment of Yahweh they were numbered by Moses, everyone according to his service, and according to his burden: thus were they numbered of him, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

5Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Command the children of Israel, that they put out of the camp every leper, and everyone who has an issue, and whoever is unclean by the dead:

³both male and female shall you put out, outside of the camp shall you put them; that they not defile their camp, in the midst whereof I dwell.

⁴The children of Israel did so, and put them out outside of the camp; as Yahweh spoke to Moses, so did the children of Israel.

⁵Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

⁶Speak to the children of Israel, When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, so as to trespass against Yahweh, and that soul shall be guilty;

⁷then he shall confess his sin which he has done: and he shall make restitution for his guilt in full, and add to it the fifth part of it, and give it to him in respect of whom he has been guilty.

⁸But if the man have no kinsman to whom restitution may be made for the guilt, the restitution for guilt which is made to Yahweh shall be the priest's; besides the ram of the atonement, whereby atonement shall be made for him.

⁹Every heave-offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they present to the priest, shall be his.

¹⁰Every man's holy things shall be his: whatever any man gives the priest, it shall be his.

¹¹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹²Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him,

¹³and a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she is defiled, and there be no witness against her, and she isn't taken in the act;

¹⁴and the spirit of jealousy come on him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she isn't defiled:

¹⁵then shall the man bring his wife to the priest, and shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil on it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is a meal-offering of jealousy, a meal-offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to memory.

¹⁶The priest shall bring her near, and set her before Yahweh:

¹⁷and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is on the floor of the tent the priest shall take, and put it into the water.

¹⁸The priest shall set the woman before Yahweh, and let the hair of the woman's head go loose, and put the meal-offering of memorial in her hands, which is the meal-offering of jealousy: and the priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness that causes the curse.

¹⁹The priest shall cause her to swear, and shall tell the woman, If no man has lain with you, and if you haven't gone aside to uncleanness, being under your husband, be you free from this water of bitterness that causes the curse.

²⁰But if you have gone aside, being under your husband, and if you be defiled, and some man have lain with you besides your husband:

²¹then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall tell the woman, Yahweh make you a curse and an oath among your people, when Yahweh does make your thigh to fall away, and your body to swell;

²²and this water that causes the curse shall go into your bowels, and make your body to swell, and your thigh to fall away. The woman shall say, Amen, Amen.

²³The priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness:

²⁴and he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causes the curse; and the water that causes the curse shall enter into her [and become] bitter.

²⁵The priest shall take the meal-offering of jealousy out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the meal-offering before Yahweh, and bring it to the altar:

²⁶and the priest shall take a handful of the meal-offering, as the memorial of it, and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water.

²⁷When he has made her drink the water, then it shall happen, if she be defiled, and have committed a trespass against her husband, that the water that causes the curse shall enter into her [and become] bitter, and her body shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away: and the woman shall be a curse among her people.

²⁸If the woman isn't defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.

²⁹This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, being under her husband, goes aside, and is defiled;

³⁰or when the spirit of jealousy comes on a man, and he is jealous of his wife; then shall he set the woman before Yahweh, and the priest shall execute on her all this law.

³¹The man shall be free from iniquity, and that woman shall bear her iniquity.

6Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When either man or woman shall make a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to Yahweh,

³he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any juice of grapes, nor eat fresh grapes or dried.

⁴All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the grape-vine, from the kernels even to the husk.

⁵All the days of his vow of separation there shall no razor come on his head: until the days be fulfilled, in which he separates himself to Yahweh, he shall be holy; he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow long.

⁶All the days that he separates himself to Yahweh he shall not come near to a dead body.

⁷He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die; because his separation to God is on his head.

⁸All the days of his separation he is holy to Yahweh.

⁹If any man die very suddenly beside him, and he defile the head of his separation; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it.

¹⁰On the eighth day he shall bring two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tent of meeting:

¹¹and the priest shall offer one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, for that he sinned by reason of the dead, and shall make his head holy that same day.

¹²He shall separate to Yahweh the days of his separation, and shall bring a he-lamb a year old for a trespass-offering; but the former days shall be void, because his separation was defiled.

¹³This is the law of the Nazirite, when the days of his separation are fulfilled: he shall be brought to the door of the tent of meeting:

¹⁴and he shall offer his offering to Yahweh, one he-lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe-lamb a year old without blemish for a sin-offering, and one ram without blemish for peace-offerings,

¹⁵and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their meal-offering, and their drink-offerings.

¹⁶The priest shall present them before Yahweh, and shall offer his sin-offering, and his burnt offering:

¹⁷and he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace-offerings to Yahweh, with the basket of unleavened bread: the priest shall offer also the meal-offering of it, and the drink-offering of it.

¹⁸The Nazirite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tent of meeting, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace-offerings.

¹⁹The priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them on the hands of the Nazirite, after he has shaved [the head of] his separation;

²⁰and the priest shall wave them for a wave-offering before Yahweh; this is holy for the priest, together with the wave-breast and heave-thigh: and after that the Nazirite may drink wine.

²¹This is the law of the Nazirite who vows, [and of] his offering to Yahweh for his separation, besides that which he is able to get: according to his vow which he vows, so he must do after the law of his separation.

²²Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²³Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, On this wise you shall bless the children of Israel: you shall tell them,

²⁴Yahweh bless you, and keep you:

²⁵Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you:

²⁶Yahweh lift up his face toward you, and give you peace.

²⁷So shall they put my name on the children of Israel; and I will bless them.

7It happened on the day that Moses had made an end of setting up the tent, and had anointed it and sanctified it, and all the furniture of it, and the altar and all the vessels of it, and had anointed them and sanctified them;

²that the princes of Israel, the heads of their fathers' houses, offered. These were the princes of the tribes, these are those who were over those who were numbered:

³and they brought their offering before Yahweh, six covered wagons, and twelve oxen; a wagon for every two of the princes, and for each one an ox: and they presented them before the tent.

⁴Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

⁵Take it of them, that they may be [used] in doing the service of the tent of meeting; and you shall give them to the Levites, to every man according to his service.

⁶Moses took the wagons and the oxen, and gave them to the Levites.

⁷Two wagons and four oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon, according to their service:

⁸and four wagons and eight oxen he gave to the sons of Merari, according to their service, under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.

⁹But to the sons of Kohath he gave none, because the service of the sanctuary belonged to them; they bore it on their shoulders.

¹⁰The princes offered for the dedication of the altar in the day that it was anointed, even the princes offered their offering before the altar.

¹¹Yahweh said to Moses, They shall offer their offering, each prince on his day, for the dedication of the altar.

¹²He who offered his offering the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah:

¹³and his offering was one silver platter, the weight whereof was one hundred and thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering;

¹⁴one golden spoon of ten [shekels], full of incense;

¹⁵one young bull, one ram, one he-lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;

¹⁶one male of the goats for a sin-offering;

¹⁷and for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five he-lambs a year old: this was the offering of Nahshon the son of Amminadab.

¹⁸On the second day Nethanel the son of Zuar, prince of Issachar, did offer:

¹⁹he offered for his offering one silver platter, the weight whereof was one hundred and thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering;

²⁰one golden spoon of ten [shekels], full of incense;

²¹one young bull, one ram, one he-lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;

²²one male of the goats for a sin-offering;

²³and for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five he-lambs a year old: this was the offering of Nethanel the son of Zuar.

²⁴On the third day Eliab the son of Helon, prince of the children of Zebulun.:

²⁵his offering was one silver platter, the weight whereof was a hundred and thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering;

²⁶one golden spoon of ten [shekels], full of incense;

²⁷one young bull, one ram, one he-lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;

²⁸one male of the goats for a sin-offering;

²⁹and for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five he-lambs a year old: this was the offering of Eliab the son of Helon.

³⁰On the fourth day Elizur the son of Shedeur, prince of the children of Reuben:

³¹his offering was one silver platter, the weight whereof was a hundred and thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering;

³²one golden spoon of ten [shekels], full of incense;

³³one young bull, one ram, one he-lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;

³⁴one male of the goats for a sin-offering;

³⁵and for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five he-lambs a year old: this was the offering of Elizur the son of Shedeur.

³⁶On the fifth day Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai, prince of the children of Simeon:

³⁷his offering was one silver platter, the weight whereof was one hundred and thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal- offering;

³⁸one golden spoon of ten [shekels], full of incense;

³⁹one young bull, one ram, one he-lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;

⁴⁰one male of the goats for a sin-offering;

⁴¹and for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five he-lambs a year old: this was the offering of Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.

⁴²On the sixth day Eliasaph the son of Deuel, prince of the children of Gad:

⁴³his offering was one silver platter, the weight whereof was one hundred and thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering;

⁴⁴one golden spoon of ten [shekels], full of incense;

⁴⁵one young bull, one ram, one he-lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;

⁴⁶one male of the goats for a sin-offering;

⁴⁷and for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five he-lambs a year old: this was the offering of Eliasaph the son of Deuel.

⁴⁸On the seventh day Elishama the son of Ammihud, prince of the children of Ephraim:

⁴⁹his offering was one silver platter, the weight whereof was one hundred and thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering;

⁵⁰one golden spoon of ten [shekels], full of incense;

⁵¹one young bull, one ram, one he-lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;

⁵²one male of the goats for a sin-offering;

⁵³and for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five he-lambs a year old: this was the offering of Elishama the son of Ammihud.

⁵⁴On the eighth day Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur, prince of the children of Manasseh:

⁵⁵his offering was one silver platter, the weight whereof was one hundred and thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering;

⁵⁶one golden spoon of ten [shekels], full of incense;

⁵⁷one young bull, one ram, one he-lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;

⁵⁸one male of the goats for a sin-offering;

⁵⁹and for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five he-lambs a year old: this was the offering of Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.

⁶⁰On the ninth day Abidan the son of Gideoni, prince of the children of Benjamin:

⁶¹his offering was one silver platter, the weight whereof was a hundred and thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering;

⁶²one golden spoon of ten [shekels], full of incense;

⁶³one young bull, one ram, one he-lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;

⁶⁴one male of the goats for a sin-offering;

⁶⁵and for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five he-lambs a year old: this was the offering of Abidan the son of Gideoni.

⁶⁶On the tenth day Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai, prince of the children of Dan:

⁶⁷his offering was one silver platter, the weight whereof was a hundred and thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering;

⁶⁸one golden spoon of ten [shekels], full of incense;

⁶⁹one young bull, one ram, one he-lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;

⁷⁰one male of the goats for a sin-offering;

⁷¹and for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five he-lambs a year old: this was the offering of Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.

⁷²On the eleventh day Pagiel the son of Ochran, prince of the children of Asher:

⁷³his offering was one silver platter, the weight whereof was a hundred and thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering;

⁷⁴one golden spoon of ten [shekels], full of incense;

⁷⁵one young bull, one ram, one he-lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;

⁷⁶one male of the goats for a sin-offering;

⁷⁷and for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five he-lambs a year old: this was the offering of Pagiel the son of Ochran.

⁷⁸On the twelfth day Ahira the son of Enan, prince of the children of Naphtali:

⁷⁹his offering was one silver platter, the weight whereof was a hundred a thirty [shekels], one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering;

⁸⁰one golden spoon of ten [shekels], full of incense;

⁸¹one young bull, one ram, one he-lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;

⁸²one male of the goats for a sin-offering;

⁸³and for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five he-lambs a year old: this was the offering of Ahira the son of Enan.

⁸⁴This was the dedication of the altar, in the day when it was anointed, by the princes of Israel: twelve silver platters, twelve silver bowls, twelve golden spoons;

⁸⁵each silver platter [weighing] one hundred and thirty [shekels], and each bowl seventy; all the silver of the vessels two thousand and four hundred [shekels], after the shekel of the sanctuary;

⁸⁶the twelve golden spoons, full of incense, [weighing] ten [shekels] apiece, after the shekel of the sanctuary; all the gold of the spoons one hundred and twenty [shekels];

⁸⁷all the oxen for the burnt offering twelve bulls, the rams twelve, the he-lambs a year old twelve, and their meal-offering; and the males of the goats for a sin-offering twelve;

⁸⁸and all the oxen for the sacrifice of peace-offerings twenty-four bulls, the rams sixty, the male goats sixty, the he-lambs a year old sixty. This was the dedication of the altar, after that it was anointed.

⁸⁹When Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with him, then he heard the Voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim: and he spoke to him.

8Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Speak to Aaron, and tell him, When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lamp stand.

³Aaron did so; he lighted the lamps of it [so as to give light] in front of the lampstand, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

⁴This was the work of the lampstand, beaten work of gold; to the base of it, [and] to the flowers of it, it was beaten work: according to the pattern which Yahweh had showed Moses, so he made the lampstand.

⁵Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

⁶Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them.

⁷Thus shall you do to them, to cleanse them: sprinkle the water of expiation on them, and let them cause a razor to pass over all their flesh, and let them wash their clothes, and cleanse themselves.

⁸Then let them take a young bull, and its meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil; and another young bull shall you take for a sin- offering.

⁹You shall present the Levites before the tent of meeting: and you shall assemble the whole congregation of the children of Israel:

¹⁰and you shall present the Levites before Yahweh. The children of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites:

¹¹and Aaron shall offer the Levites before Yahweh for a wave-offering, on the behalf of the children of Israel, that it may be theirs to do the service of Yahweh.

¹²The Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls: and offer you the one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt offering, to Yahweh, to make atonement for the Levites.

¹³You shall set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for a wave-offering to Yahweh.

¹⁴Thus shall you separate the Levites from among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be mine.

¹⁵After that shall the Levites go in to do the service of the tent of meeting: and you shall cleanse them, and offer them for a wave-offering.

¹⁶For they are wholly given to me from among the children of Israel; instead of all who open the womb, even the firstborn of all the children of Israel, have I taken them to me.

¹⁷For all the firstborn among the children of Israel are mine, both man and animal: on the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself.

¹⁸I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel.

¹⁹I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the tent of meeting, and to make atonement for the children of Israel; that there be no plague among the children of Israel, when the children of Israel come near to the sanctuary.

²⁰Thus did Moses, and Aaron, and all the congregation of the children of Israel, to the Levites: according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses touching the Levites, so did the children of Israel to them.

²¹The Levites purified themselves from sin, and they washed their clothes: and Aaron offered them for a wave-offering before Yahweh; and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them.

²²After that went the Levites in to do their service in the tent of meeting before Aaron, and before his sons: as Yahweh had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so did they to them.

²³Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁴This is that which belongs to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they shall go in to wait on the service in the work of the tent of meeting:

²⁵and from the age of fifty years they shall cease waiting on the work, and shall serve no more,

²⁶but shall minister with their brothers in the tent of meeting, to keep the charge, and shall do no service. Thus shall you do to the Levites touching their charges.

9Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

²Moreover let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season.

³In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, you shall keep it in its appointed season: according to all the statutes of it, and according to all the ordinances of it, shall you keep it.

⁴Moses spoke to the children of Israel, that they should keep the Passover.

⁵They kept the Passover in the first [month], on the fourteenth day of the month, at even, in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.

⁶There were certain men, who were unclean by reason of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day:

⁷and those men said to him, We are unclean by reason of the dead body of a man: why are we kept back, that we may not offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season among the children of Israel?

⁸Moses said to them, Stay you, that I may hear what Yahweh will command concerning you.

⁹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁰Speak to the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your generations shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be on a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the Passover to Yahweh.

¹¹In the second month on the fourteenth day at even they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs:

¹²they shall leave none of it to the morning, nor break a bone of it: according to all the statute of the Passover they shall keep it.

¹³But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and forbears to keep the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people; because he didn't offer the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.

¹⁴If a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the Passover to Yahweh; according to the statute of the Passover, and according to the ordinance of it, so shall he do: you shall have one statute, both for the sojourner, and for him who is born in the land.

¹⁵On the day that the tent was reared up the cloud covered the tent, even the tent of the testimony: and at even it was on the tent as it were the appearance of fire, until morning.

¹⁶So it was always: the cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night.

¹⁷Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel encamped.

¹⁸At the commandment of Yahweh the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of Yahweh they encamped: as long as the cloud abode on the tent they remained encamped.

¹⁹When the cloud stayed on the tent many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of Yahweh, and didn't travel.

²⁰Sometimes the cloud was a few days on the tent; then according to the commandment of Yahweh they remained encamped, and according to the commandment of Yahweh they journeyed.

²¹Sometimes the cloud was from evening until morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they journeyed: or [if it continued] by day and by night, when the cloud was taken up, they journeyed.

²²Whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud stayed on the tent, abiding thereon, the children of Israel remained encamped, and didn't travel; but when it was taken up, they traveled.

²³At the commandment of Yahweh they encamped, and at the commandment of Yahweh they journeyed: they kept the charge of Yahweh, at the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.

10Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Make you two trumpets of silver; of beaten work shall you make them: and you shall use them for the calling of the congregation, and for the journeying of the camps.

³When they shall blow them, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the door of the tent of meeting.

⁴If they blow but one, then the princes, the heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves to you.

⁵When you blow an alarm, the camps that lie on the east side shall take their journey.

⁶When you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that lie on the south side shall take their journey: they shall blow an alarm for their journeys.

⁷But when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow, but you shall not sound an alarm.

⁸The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets; and they shall be to you for a statute forever throughout your generations.

⁹When you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets; and you shall be remembered before Yahweh your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.

¹⁰Also in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace-offerings; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God: I am Yahweh your God.

¹¹It happened in the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, that the cloud was taken up from over the tent of the testimony.

¹²The children of Israel set forward according to their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud abode in the wilderness of Paran.

¹³They first took their journey according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.

¹⁴In the first [place] the standard of the camp of the children of Judah set forward according to their hosts: and over his host was Nahshon the son of Amminadab.

¹⁵Over the host of the tribe of the children of Issachar was Nethanel the son of Zuar.

¹⁶Over the host of the tribe of the children of Zebulun was Eliab the son of Helon.

¹⁷The tent was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who bore the tent, set forward.

¹⁸The standard of the camp of Reuben set forward according to their hosts: and over his host was Elizur the son of Shedeur.

¹⁹Over the host of the tribe of the children of Simeon was Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.

²⁰Over the host of the tribe of the children of Gad was Eliasaph the son of Deuel.

²¹The Kohathites set forward, bearing the sanctuary: and [the others] did set up the tent against their coming.

²²The standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their hosts: and over his host was Elishama the son of Ammihud.

²³Over the host of the tribe of the children of Manasseh was Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.

²⁴Over the host of the tribe of the children of Benjamin was Abidan the son of Gideoni.

²⁵The standard of the camp of the children of Dan, which was the rearward of all the camps, set forward according to their hosts: and over his host was Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.

²⁶Over the host of the tribe of the children of Asher was Pagiel the son of Ochran.

²⁷Over the host of the tribe of the children of Naphtali was Ahira the son of Enan.

²⁸Thus were the travels of the children of Israel according to their hosts; and they set forward.

²⁹Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, We are journeying to the place of which Yahweh said, I will give it you: come you with us, and we will do you good; for Yahweh has spoken good concerning Israel.

³⁰He said to him, I will not go; but I will depart to my own land, and to my relatives.

³¹He said, Don't leave us, please; because you know how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and you shall be to us instead of eyes.

³²It shall be, if you go with us, yes, it shall be, that whatever good Yahweh shall do to us, the same will we do to you.

³³They set forward from the Mount of Yahweh three days' journey; and the ark of the covenant of Yahweh went before them three days' journey, to seek out a resting-place for them.

³⁴The cloud of Yahweh was over them by day, when they set forward from the camp.

³⁵It happened, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Yahweh, and let your enemies be scattered; and let those who hate you flee before you.

³⁶When it rested, he said, Return, Yahweh, to the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel.

11The people were as murmurers, [speaking] evil in the ears of Yahweh: and when Yahweh heard it, his anger was kindled; and the fire of Yahweh burnt among them, and devoured in the uttermost part of the camp.

²The people cried to Moses; and Moses prayed to Yahweh, and the fire abated.

³The name of that place was called Taberah, because the fire of Yahweh burnt among them.

⁴The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?

⁵We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic:

⁶but now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all save this manna to look on.

⁷The manna was like coriander seed, and the appearance of it as the appearance of bdellium.

⁸The people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and boiled it in pots, and made cakes of it: and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil.

⁹When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell on it.

¹⁰Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent: and the anger of Yahweh was kindled greatly; and Moses was displeased.

¹¹Moses said to Yahweh, Why have you dealt ill with your servant? and why haven't I found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?

¹²Have I conceived all this people? have I brought them forth, that you should tell me, Carry them in your bosom, as a nursing-father carries the sucking child, to the land which you swore to their fathers?

¹³Whence should I have flesh to give to all this people? for they weep to me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat.

¹⁴I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.

¹⁵If you deal thus with me, please kill me out of hand, if I have found favor in your sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.

¹⁶Yahweh said to Moses, Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you.

¹⁷I will come down and talk with you there: and I will take of the Spirit which is on you, and will put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you not bear it yourself alone.

¹⁸Say you to the people, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, and you shall eat flesh; for you have wept in the ears of Yahweh, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore Yahweh will give you flesh, and you shall eat.

¹⁹You shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days,

²⁰but a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome to you; because that you have rejected Yahweh who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?

²¹Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and you have said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.

²²Shall flocks and herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?

²³Yahweh said to Moses, Has Yahweh's hand grown short? now shall you see whether my word shall happen to you or not.

²⁴Moses went out, and told the people the words of Yahweh: and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the Tent.

²⁵Yahweh came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was on him, and put it on the seventy elders: and it happened that when the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did so no more.

²⁶But there remained two men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the Spirit rested on them; and they were of those who were written, but had not gone out to the Tent; and they prophesied in the camp.

²⁷There ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.

²⁸Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered, My lord Moses, forbid them.

²⁹Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? would that all Yahweh's people were prophets, that Yahweh would put his Spirit on them!

³⁰Moses got him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

³¹There went forth a wind from Yahweh, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day's journey on this side, and a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the earth.

³²The people rose up all that day, and all the night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails: he who gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.

³³While the flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of Yahweh was kindled against the people, and Yahweh struck the people with a very great plague.

³⁴The name of that place was called Kibrothhattaavah, because there they buried the people who lusted.

³⁵From Kibrothhattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth; and they abode at Hazeroth.

12Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.

²They said, Has Yahweh indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn't he spoken also with us? Yahweh heard it.

³Now the man Moses was very humble, above all the men who were on the surface of the earth.

⁴Yahweh spoke suddenly to Moses, and to Aaron, and to Miriam, Come out you three to the tent of meeting. They three came out.

⁵Yahweh came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forth.

⁶He said, Hear now my words: if there be a prophet among you, I Yahweh will make myself known to him in a vision, I will speak with him in a dream.

⁷My servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in all my house:

⁸with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the form of Yahweh shall he see: why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?

⁹The anger of Yahweh was kindled against them; and he departed.

¹⁰The cloud removed from over the Tent; and, behold, Miriam was leprous, as [white as] snow: and Aaron looked at Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.

¹¹Aaron said to Moses, Oh, my lord, please don't lay sin on us, for that we have done foolishly, and for that we have sinned.

¹²Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother's womb.

¹³Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, Heal her, God, I beg you.

¹⁴Yahweh said to Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, shouldn't she be ashamed seven days? let her be shut up outside of the camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought in again.

¹⁵Miriam was shut up outside of the camp seven days: and the people didn't travel until Miriam was brought in again.

¹⁶Afterward the people journeyed from Hazeroth, and encamped in the wilderness of Paran.

13Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Send you men, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, everyone a prince among them.

³Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran according to the commandment of Yahweh: all of them men who were heads of the children of Israel.

⁴These were their names: Of the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur.

⁵Of the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.

⁶Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

⁷Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.

⁸Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun.

⁹Of the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu.

¹⁰Of the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi.

¹¹Of the tribe of Joseph, [namely], of the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi.

¹²Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.

¹³Of the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael.

¹⁴Of the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi.

¹⁵Of the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.

¹⁶These are the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.

¹⁷Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, Get you up this way by the South, and go up into the hill-country:

¹⁸and see the land, what it is; and the people who dwell therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many;

¹⁹and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds;

²⁰and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. Be you of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.

²¹So they went up, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, to the entrance of Hamath.

²²They went up by the South, and came to Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

²³They came to the valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it on a staff between two; [they brought] also of the pomegranates, and of the figs.

²⁴That place was called the valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from there.

²⁵They returned from spying out the land at the end of forty days.

²⁶They went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them, and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.

²⁷They told him, and said, We came to the land where you sent us; and surely it flows with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

²⁸However the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified, [and] very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.

²⁹Amalek dwells in the land of the South: and the Hittite, and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, dwell in the hill-country; and the Canaanite dwells by the sea, and along by the side of the Jordan.

³⁰Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.

³¹But the men who went up with him said, We aren't able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.

³²They brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up the inhabitants of it; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature.

³³There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come of the Nephilim: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

14All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

²All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said to them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would that we had died in this wilderness!

³Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be a prey: wouldn't it be better for us to return into Egypt?

⁴They said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

⁵Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

⁶Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were of those who spied out the land, tore their clothes:

⁷and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.

⁸If Yahweh delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flows with milk and honey.

⁹Only don't rebel against Yahweh, neither fear you the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is removed from over them, and Yahweh is with us: don't fear them.

¹⁰But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. The glory of Yahweh appeared in the tent of meeting to all the children of Israel.

¹¹Yahweh said to Moses, How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?

¹²I will strike them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.

¹³Moses said to Yahweh, Then the Egyptians will hear it; for you brought up this people in your might from among them;

¹⁴and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you Yahweh are in the midst of this people; for you Yahweh are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them, and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night.

¹⁵Now if you shall kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying,

¹⁶Because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.

¹⁷Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying,

¹⁸Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and that will by no means clear [the guilty], visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.

¹⁹Pardon, Please, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your lovingkindness, and according as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

²⁰Yahweh said, I have pardoned according to your word:

²¹but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh;

²²because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice;

²³surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it:

²⁴but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land into which he went; and his seed shall possess it.

²⁵Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.

²⁶Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

²⁷How long [shall I bear] with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

²⁸Tell them, As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you:

²⁹your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,

³⁰surely you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

³¹But your little ones, that you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected.

³²But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.

³³Your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your prostitution, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness.

³⁴After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know my alienation.

³⁵I, Yahweh, have spoken, surely this will I do to all this evil congregation, who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

³⁶The men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land,

³⁷even those men who did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Yahweh.

³⁸But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men who went to spy out the land.

³⁹Moses told these words to all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

⁴⁰They rose up early in the morning, and got them up to the top of the mountain, saying, Behold, we are here, and will go up to the place which Yahweh has promised: for we have sinned.

⁴¹Moses said, Why now do you disobey the commandment of Yahweh, seeing it shall not prosper?

⁴²Don't go up, for Yahweh isn't among you; that you not be struck down before your enemies.

⁴³For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and you shall fall by the sword: because you are turned back from following Yahweh, therefore Yahweh will not be with you.

⁴⁴But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and Moses, didn't depart out of the camp.

⁴⁵Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who lived in that mountain, and struck them and beat them down, even to Hormah.

15Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you are come into the land of your habitations, which I give to you,

³and will make an offering by fire to Yahweh, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or as a freewill-offering, or in your set feasts, to make a sweet savor to Yahweh, of the herd, or of the flock;

⁴then shall he who offers his offering offer to Yahweh a meal-offering of a tenth part [of an ephah] of fine flour mingled with the fourth part of a hin of oil:

⁵and wine for the drink-offering, the fourth part of a hin, shall you prepare with the burnt offering, or for the sacrifice, for each lamb.

⁶Or for a ram, you shall prepare for a meal-offering two tenth parts [of an ephah] of fine flour mingled with the third part of a hin of oil:

⁷and for the drink-offering you shall offer the third part of a hin of wine, of a sweet savor to Yahweh.

⁸When you prepare a bull for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice, to accomplish a vow, or for peace-offerings to Yahweh;

⁹then shall he offer with the bull a meal-offering of three tenth parts [of an ephah] of fine flour mingled with half a hin of oil:

¹⁰and you shall offer for the drink- offering half a hin of wine, for an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh.

¹¹Thus shall it be done for each bull, or for each ram, or for each of the he-lambs, or of the kids.

¹²According to the number that you shall prepare, so shall you do to everyone according to their number.

¹³All who are home-born shall do these things after this manner, in offering an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh.

¹⁴If a stranger sojourn with you, or whoever may be among you throughout your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh; as you do, so he shall do.

¹⁵For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you, and for the stranger who sojourns [with you], a statute forever throughout your generations: as you are, so shall the sojourner be before Yahweh.

¹⁶One law and one ordinance shall be for you, and for the stranger who sojourns with you.

¹⁷Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁸Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you come into the land where I bring you,

¹⁹then it shall be that when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall offer up a heave- offering to Yahweh.

²⁰Of the first of your dough you shall offer up a cake for a heave-offering: as the heave-offering of the threshing floor, so shall you heave it.

²¹Of the first of your dough you shall give to Yahweh a heave-offering throughout your generations.

²²When you shall err, and not observe all these commandments, which Yahweh has spoken to Moses,

²³even all that Yahweh has commanded you by Moses, from the day that Yahweh gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations;

²⁴then it shall be, if it be done unwittingly, without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one young bull for a burnt offering, for a sweet savor to Yahweh, with the meal-offering of it, and the drink-offering of it, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a sin-offering.

²⁵The priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and they shall be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to Yahweh, and their sin-offering before Yahweh, for their error:

²⁶and all the congregation of the children of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them; for in respect of all the people it was done unwittingly.

²⁷If one person sin unwittingly, then he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin-offering.

²⁸The priest shall make atonement for the soul who errs, when he sins unwittingly, before Yahweh, to make atonement for him; and he shall be forgiven.

²⁹You shall have one law for him who does anything unwittingly, for him who is home-born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

³⁰But the soul who does anything with a high hand, whether he be home-born or a sojourner, the same blasphemes Yahweh; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

³¹Because he has despised the word of Yahweh, and has broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.

³²While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.

³³Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation.

³⁴They put him in custody, because it had not been declared what should be done to him.

³⁵Yahweh said to Moses, The man shall surely be put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside of the camp.

³⁶All the congregation brought him outside of the camp, and stoned him to death with stones; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

³⁷Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

³⁸Speak to the children of Israel, and bid those who they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put on the fringe of each border a cord of blue:

³⁹and it shall be to you for a fringe, that you may look on it, and remember all the commandments of Yahweh, and do them; and that you not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to play the prostitute;

⁴⁰that you may remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.

⁴¹I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am Yahweh your God.

16Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took [men]:

²and they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred fifty princes of the congregation, called to the assembly, men of renown;

³and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, You take too much on you, seeing all the congregation are holy, everyone of them, and Yahweh is among them: why then lift you up yourselves above the assembly of Yahweh?

⁴When Moses heard it, he fell on his face:

⁵and he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying, In the morning Yahweh will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to him: even him whom he shall choose will he cause to come near to him.

⁶This do: take you censers, Korah, and all his company;

⁷and put fire in them, and put incense on them before Yahweh tomorrow: and it shall be that the man whom Yahweh does choose, he [shall be] holy: you take too much on you, you sons of Levi.

⁸Moses said to Korah, Hear now, you sons of Levi:

⁹[seems it but] a small thing to you, that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do the service of the tent of Yahweh, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them;

¹⁰and that he has brought you near, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you? and seek you the priesthood also?

¹¹Therefore you and all your company are gathered together against Yahweh: and Aaron, what is he who you murmur against him?

¹²Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; and they said, We won't come up:

¹³is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, but you must needs make yourself also a prince over us?

¹⁴Moreover you haven't brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: will you put out the eyes of these men? we won't come up.

¹⁵Moses was very angry, and said to Yahweh, "Don't respect their offering: I have not taken one donkey from them, neither have I hurt one of them."

¹⁶Moses said to Korah, Be you and all your company before Yahweh, you, and they, and Aaron, tomorrow:

¹⁷and take every man his censer, and put incense on them, and bring you before Yahweh every man his censer, two hundred fifty censers; you also, and Aaron, each his censer.

¹⁸They took every man his censer, and put fire in them, and laid incense thereon, and stood at the door of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron.

¹⁹Korah assembled all the congregation against them to the door of the tent of meeting: and the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the congregation.

²⁰Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

²¹Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.

²²They fell on their faces, and said, God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?

²³Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁴Speak to the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tent of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.

²⁵Moses rose up and went to Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him.

²⁶He spoke to the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins.

²⁷So they got them up from the tent of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood at the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little ones.

²⁸Moses said, Hereby you shall know that Yahweh has sent me to do all these works; for [I have] not [done them] of my own mind.

²⁹If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then Yahweh hasn't sent me.

³⁰But if Yahweh make a new thing, and the ground open its mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain to them, and they go down alive into Sheol; then you shall understand that these men have despised Yahweh.

³¹It happened, as he made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground split apart that was under them;

³²and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who appertained to Korah, and all their goods.

³³So they, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into Sheol: and the earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly.

³⁴All Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them; for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up.

³⁵Fire came forth from Yahweh, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the incense.

³⁶Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

³⁷Speak to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter you the fire yonder; for they are holy,

³⁸even the censers of these sinners against their own lives; and let them be made beaten plates for a covering of the altar: for they offered them before Yahweh; therefore they are holy; and they shall be a sign to the children of Israel.

³⁹Eleazar the priest took the brazen censers, which those who were burnt had offered; and they beat them out for a covering of the altar,

⁴⁰to be a memorial to the children of Israel, to the end that no stranger, who isn't of the seed of Aaron, comes near to burn incense before Yahweh; that he not be as Korah, and as his company: as Yahweh spoke to him by Moses.

⁴¹But on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, You have killed the people of Yahweh.

⁴²It happened, when the congregation was assembled against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tent of meeting: and, behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of Yahweh appeared.

⁴³Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting.

⁴⁴Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

⁴⁵Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. They fell on their faces.

⁴⁶Moses said to Aaron, Take they censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and lay incense thereon, and carry it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from Yahweh; the plague is begun.

⁴⁷Aaron took as Moses spoke, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on the incense, and made atonement for the people.

⁴⁸He stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.

⁴⁹Now those who died by the plague were fourteen thousand and seven hundred, besides those who died about the matter of Korah.

⁵⁰Aaron returned to Moses to the door of the tent of meeting: and the plague was stayed.

17Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Speak to the children of Israel, and take of them rods, one for each fathers' house, of all their princes according to their fathers' houses, twelve rods: write you every man's name on his rod.

³You shall write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi; for there shall be one rod for each head of their fathers' houses.

⁴You shall lay them up in the tent of meeting before the testimony, where I meet with you.

⁵It shall happen, that the rod of the man whom I shall choose shall bud: and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against you.

⁶Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and all their princes gave him rods, for each prince one, according to their fathers' houses, even twelve rods: and the rod of Aaron was among their rods.

⁷Moses laid up the rods before Yahweh in the tent of the testimony.

⁸It happened on the next day, that Moses went into the tent of the testimony; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and put forth buds, and produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds.

⁹Moses brought out all the rods from before Yahweh to all the children of Israel: and they looked, and took every man his rod.

¹⁰Yahweh said to Moses, Put back the rod of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the children of rebellion; that you may make an end of their murmurings against me, that they not die.

¹¹Thus did Moses: as Yahweh commanded him, so did he.

¹²The children of Israel spoke to Moses, saying, Behold, we perish, we are undone, we are all undone.

¹³Everyone who comes near, who comes near to the tent of Yahweh, dies: shall we perish all of us?

18Yahweh said to Aaron, You and your sons and your fathers' house with you shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

²Your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring you near with you, that they may be joined to you, and minister to you: but you and your sons with you shall be before the tent of the testimony.

³They shall keep your charge, and the charge of all the Tent: only they shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary and to the altar, that they not die, neither they, nor you.

⁴They shall be joined to you, and keep the charge of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the Tent: and a stranger shall not come near to you.

⁵You shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar; that there be wrath no more on the children of Israel.

⁶I, behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you they are a gift, given to Yahweh, to do the service of the tent of meeting.

⁷You and your sons with you shall keep your priesthood for everything of the altar, and for that within the veil; and you shall serve: I give you the priesthood as a service of gift: and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.

⁸Yahweh spoke to Aaron, I, behold, I have given you the charge of my heave-offerings, even all the holy things of the children of Israel; to you have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to your sons, as a portion forever.

⁹This shall be your of the most holy things, [reserved] from the fire: every offering of theirs, even every meal-offering of theirs, and every sin-offering of theirs, and every trespass-offering of theirs, which they shall render to me, shall be most holy for you and for your sons.

¹⁰As the most holy things shall you eat of it; every male shall eat of it: it shall be holy to you.

¹¹This is your: the heave-offering of their gift, even all the wave-offerings of the children of Israel; I have given them to you, and to your sons and to your daughters with you, as a portion forever; everyone who is clean in your house shall eat of it.

¹²All the best of the oil, and all the best of the vintage, and of the grain, the first-fruits of them which they give to Yahweh, to you have I given them.

¹³The first-ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to Yahweh, shall be your; everyone who is clean in your house shall eat of it.

¹⁴Everything devoted in Israel shall be your.

¹⁵Everything that opens the womb, of all flesh which they offer to Yahweh, both of man and animal shall be your: nevertheless the firstborn of man shall you surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals shall you redeem.

¹⁶Those who are to be redeemed of them from a month old shall you redeem, according to your estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary (the same is twenty gerahs).

¹⁷But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy: you shall sprinkle their blood on the altar, and shall burn their fat for an offering made by fire, for a sweet savor to Yahweh.

¹⁸The flesh of them shall be your, as the wave-breast and as the right thigh, it shall be your.

¹⁹All the heave-offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to Yahweh, have I given you, and your sons and your daughters with you, as a portion forever: it is a covenant of salt forever before Yahweh to you and to your seed with you.

²⁰Yahweh said to Aaron, You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them: I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.

²¹To the children of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they serve, even the service of the tent of meeting.

²²Henceforth the children of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin, and die.

²³But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations; and among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.

²⁴For the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer as a heave-offering to Yahweh, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance: therefore I have said to them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.

²⁵Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁶Moreover you shall speak to the Levites, and tell them, When you take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave-offering of it for Yahweh, a tithe of the tithe.

²⁷Your heave-offering shall be reckoned to you, as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress.

²⁸Thus you also shall offer a heave-offering to Yahweh of all your tithes, which you receive of the children of Israel; and of it you shall give Yahweh's heave-offering to Aaron the priest.

²⁹Out of all your gifts you shall offer every heave-offering of Yahweh, of all the best of it, even the holy part of it out of it.

³⁰Therefore you shall tell them, When you heave the best of it from it, then it shall be reckoned to the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the wine-press.

³¹You shall eat it in every place, you and your households: for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting.

³²You shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have heaved from it the best of it: and you shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, that you not die.

19Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,

²This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no blemish, [and] on which never came yoke.

³You shall give her to Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her forth outside of the camp, and one shall kill her before his face:

⁴and Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.

⁵One shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn:

⁶and the priest shall take cedar-wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.

⁷Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even.

⁸He who burns her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even.

⁹A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside of the camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water for impurity: it is a sin-offering.

¹⁰He who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be to the children of Israel, and to the stranger who sojourns among them, for a statute forever.

¹¹He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days:

¹²the same shall purify himself therewith on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean: but if he doesn't purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.

¹³Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and doesn't purifies himself, defiles the tent of Yahweh; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet on him.

¹⁴This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.

¹⁵Every open vessel, which has no covering bound on it, is unclean.

¹⁶Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.

¹⁷For the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin-offering; and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel:

¹⁸and a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, and on all the vessels, and on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave:

¹⁹and the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify him; and he shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.

²⁰But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Yahweh: the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean.

²¹It shall be a perpetual statute to them: and he who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until even.

²²Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until even.

20The children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.

²There was no water for the congregation: and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

³The people strove with Moses, and spoke, saying, Would that we had died when our brothers died before Yahweh!

⁴Why have you brought the assembly of Yahweh into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our animals?

⁵Why have you made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.

⁶Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tent of meeting, and fell on their faces: and the glory of Yahweh appeared to them.

⁷Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

⁸Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, you, and Aaron your brother, and speak you to the rock before their eyes, that it give forth its water; and you shall bring forth to them water out of the rock; so you shall give the congregation and their cattle drink.

⁹Moses took the rod from before Yahweh, as he commanded him.

¹⁰Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, Hear now, you rebels; shall we bring you forth water out of this rock?

¹¹Moses lifted up his hand, and struck the rock with his rod twice: and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle.

¹²Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, Because you didn't believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.

¹³These are the waters of Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with Yahweh, and he was sanctified in them.

¹⁴Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, Thus says your brother Israel, You know all the travail that has befallen us:

¹⁵how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and our fathers:

¹⁶and when we cried to Yahweh, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of your border.

¹⁷Please let us pass through your land: we will not pass through field or through vineyard, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go along the king's highway; we will not turn aside to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed your border.

¹⁸Edom said to him, You shall not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against you.

¹⁹The children of Israel said to him, We will go up by the highway; and if we drink of your water, I and my cattle, then will I give the price of it: let me only, without [doing] anything [else], pass through on my feet.

²⁰He said, You shall not pass through. Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand.

²¹Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: why Israel turned away from him.

²²They journeyed from Kadesh: and the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.

²³Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron in Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom, saying,

²⁴Aaron shall be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter into the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against my word at the waters of Meribah.

²⁵Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor;

²⁶and strip Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered [to his people], and shall die there.

²⁷Moses did as Yahweh commanded: and they went up into Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.

²⁸Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them on Eleazar his son; and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.

²⁹When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.

21The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the South, heard tell that Israel came by the way of Atharim; and he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.

²Israel vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.

³Yahweh listened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and the name of the place was called Hormah.

⁴They journeyed from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.

⁵The people spoke against God, and against Moses, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loathes this light bread.

⁶Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

⁷The people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, because we have spoken against Yahweh, and against you; pray to Yahweh, that he take away the serpents from us. Moses prayed for the people.

⁸Yahweh said to Moses, Make you a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard: and it shall happen, that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.

⁹Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it on the standard: and it happened, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked to the serpent of brass, he lived.

¹⁰The children of Israel journeyed, and encamped in Oboth.

¹¹They journeyed from Oboth, and encamped at Iyeabarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrise.

¹²From there they journeyed, and encamped in the valley of Zered.

¹³From there they journeyed, and encamped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness, that comes out of the border of the Amorites: for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

¹⁴Therefore it is said in the book of the Wars of Yahweh, Vaheb in Suphah, The valleys of the Arnon,

¹⁵The slope of the valleys That inclines toward the dwelling of Ar, Leans on the border of Moab.

¹⁶From there [they journeyed] to Beer: that is the well whereof Yahweh said to Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water.

¹⁷Then sang Israel this song: Spring up, well; sing you to it:

¹⁸The well, which the princes dug, Which the nobles of the people dug, With the scepter, [and] with their poles. From the wilderness [they journeyed] to Mattanah;

¹⁹and from Mattanah to Nahaliel; and from Nahaliel to Bamoth;

²⁰and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert.

²¹Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,

²²Let me pass through your land: we will not turn aside into field, or into vineyard; we will not drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king's highway, until we have passed your border.

²³Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into the wilderness, and came to Jahaz; and he fought against Israel.

²⁴Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, even to the children of Ammon; for the border of the children of Ammon was strong.

²⁵Israel took all these cities: and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the towns of it.

²⁶For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even to the Arnon.

²⁷Therefore those who speak in proverbs say, Come you to Heshbon; Let the city of Sihon be built and established:

²⁸For a fire is gone out of Heshbon, A flame from the city of Sihon: It has devoured Ar of Moab, The lords of the high places of the Arnon.

²⁹Woe to you, Moab! You are undone, people of Chemosh: He has given his sons as fugitives, His daughters into captivity, To Sihon king of the Amorites.

³⁰We have shot at them; Heshbon is perished even to Dibon, We have laid waste even to Nophah, Which [reaches] to Medeba.

³¹Thus Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.

³²Moses sent to spy out Jazer; and they took the towns of it, and drove out the Amorites who were there.

³³They turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.

³⁴Yahweh said to Moses, Don't fear him: for I have delivered him into your hand, and all his people, and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.

³⁵So they struck him, and his sons and all his people, until there was none left him remaining: and they possessed his land.

22The children of Israel journeyed, and encamped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho.

²Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.

³Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they were many: and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.

⁴Moab said to the elders of Midian, Now will this multitude lick up all that is round about us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field. Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time.

⁵He sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the surface of the earth, and they abide over against me.

⁶Please come now therefore curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may strike them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.

⁷The elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand; and they came to Balaam, and spoke to him the words of Balak.

⁸He said to them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as Yahweh shall speak to me: and the princes of Moab abode with Balaam.

⁹God came to Balaam, and said, What men are these with you?

¹⁰Balaam said to God, Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, [saying],

¹¹Behold, the people that is come out of Egypt, it covers the surface of the earth: now, come curse me them; peradventure I shall be able to fight against them, and shall drive them out.

¹²God said to Balaam, You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people; for they are blessed.

¹³Balaam rose up in the morning, and said to the princes of Balak, Get you into your land; for Yahweh refuses to give me leave to go with you.

¹⁴The princes of Moab rose up, and they went to Balak, and said, Balaam refuses to come with us.

¹⁵Balak sent yet again princes, more, and more honorable than they.

¹⁶They came to Balaam, and said to him, Thus says Balak the son of Zippor, Please let nothing hinder you from coming to me:

¹⁷for I will promote you to very great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Please come therefore, and curse this people for me.

¹⁸Balaam answered the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I can't go beyond the word of Yahweh my God, to do less or more.

¹⁹Now therefore, please wait also here this night, that I may know what Yahweh will speak to me more.

²⁰God came to Balaam at night, and said to him, If the men are come to call you, rise up, go with them; but only the word which I speak to you, that shall you do.

²¹Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab.

²²God's anger was kindled because he went; and the angel of Yahweh placed himself in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him.

²³The donkey saw the angel of Yahweh standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand; and the donkey turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the way.

²⁴Then the angel of Yahweh stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side.

²⁵The donkey saw the angel of Yahweh, and she thrust herself to the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall: and he struck her again.

²⁶The angel of Yahweh went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.

²⁷The donkey saw the angel of Yahweh, and she lay down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff.

²⁸Yahweh opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?

²⁹Balaam said to the donkey, Because you have mocked me, I would there were a sword in my hand, for now I had killed you.

³⁰The donkey said to Balaam, Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? was I ever wont to do so to you? and he said, No.

³¹Then Yahweh opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of Yahweh standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed his head, and fell on his face.

³²The angel of Yahweh said to him, Why have you struck your donkey these three times? behold, I am come forth for an adversary, because your way is perverse before me:

³³and the donkey saw me, and turned aside before me these three times: unless she had turned aside from me, surely now I had even slain you, and saved her alive.

³⁴Balaam said to the angel of Yahweh, I have sinned; for I didn't know that you stood in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease you, I will get me back again.

³⁵The angel of Yahweh said to Balaam, Go with the men; but only the word that I shall speak to you, that you shall speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

³⁶When Balak heard that Balaam was come, he went out to meet him to the City of Moab, which is on the border of the Arnon, which is in the utmost part of the border.

³⁷Balak said to Balaam, Didn't I earnestly send to you to call you? why didn't you come to me? am I not able indeed to promote you to honor?

³⁸Balaam said to Balak, Behold, I have come to you: have I now any power at all to speak anything? the word that God puts in my mouth, that shall I speak.

³⁹Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kiriath-huzoth.

⁴⁰Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and sent to Balaam, and to the princes who were with him.

⁴¹It happened in the morning, that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal; and he saw from there the utmost part of the people.

23Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.

²Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram.

³Balaam said to Balak, Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: peradventure Yahweh will come to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you. He went to a bare height.

⁴God met Balaam: and he said to him, I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.

⁵Yahweh put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.

⁶He returned to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt- offering, he, and all the princes of Moab.

⁷He took up his parable, and said, From Aram has Balak brought me, The king of Moab from the mountains of the East: Come, curse me Jacob, Come, defy Israel.

⁸How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy, whom Yahweh has not defied?

⁹For from the top of the rocks I see him, From the hills I see him: behold, it is a people that dwells alone, And shall not be reckoned among the nations.

¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, Let my last end be like his!

¹¹Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and, behold, you have blessed them altogether.

¹²He answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?

¹³Balak said to him, Please come with me to another place, from whence you may see them; you shall see but the utmost part of them, and shall not see them all: and curse me them from there.

¹⁴He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.

¹⁵He said to Balak, Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet [Yahweh] yonder.

¹⁶Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.

¹⁷He came to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, What has Yahweh spoken?

¹⁸He took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; Listen to me, you son of Zippor:

¹⁹God is not a man, that he should lie, Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?

²⁰Behold, I have received [commandment] to bless: He has blessed, and I can't reverse it.

²¹He has not saw iniquity in Jacob; Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel: Yahweh his God is with him, The shout of a king is among them.

²²God brings them forth out of Egypt; He has as it were the strength of the wild-ox.

²³Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob; Neither is there any divination with Israel: Now shall it be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God done!

²⁴Behold, the people rises up as a lioness, As a lion does he lift himself up: He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, Drink the blood of the slain.

²⁵Balak said to Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.

²⁶But Balaam answered Balak, Didn't I tell you, saying, All that Yahweh speaks, that I must do?

²⁷Balak said to Balaam, Come now, I will take you to another place; peradventure it will please God that you may curse me them from there.

²⁸Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert.

²⁹Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.

³⁰Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.

24When Balaam saw that it pleased Yahweh to bless Israel, he didn't go, as at the other times, to meet with enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness.

²Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came on him.

³He took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor says, The man whose eye was closed says;

⁴He says, who hears the words of God, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Falling down, and having his eyes open:

⁵How goodly are your tents, Jacob, Your tents, Israel!

⁶As valleys are they spread forth, As gardens by the river-side, As lign-aloes which Yahweh has planted, As cedar-trees beside the waters.

⁷Water shall flow from his buckets, His seed shall be in many waters, His king shall be higher than Agag, His kingdom shall be exalted.

⁸God brings him forth out of Egypt; He has as it were the strength of the wild-ox: He shall eat up the nations his adversaries, Shall break their bones in pieces, Smite [them] through with his arrows.

⁹He couched, he lay down as a lion, As a lioness; who shall rouse him up? Blessed be everyone who blesses you, Cursed be everyone who curses you.

¹⁰Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, I called you to curse my enemies, and, behold, you have altogether blessed them these three times.

¹¹Therefore now flee you to your place: I thought to promote you to great honor; but, behold, Yahweh has kept you back from honor.

¹²Balaam said to Balak, Didn't I also tell your messengers who you sent to me, saying,

¹³If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I can't go beyond the word of Yahweh, to do either good or bad of my own mind; what Yahweh speaks, that will I speak?

¹⁴Now, behold, I go to my people: come, [and] I will advertise you what this people shall do to your people in the latter days.

¹⁵He took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor says, The man whose eye was closed says;

¹⁶He says, who hears the words of God, Knows the knowledge of the Most High, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Falling down, and having his eyes open:

¹⁷I see him, but not now; I see him, but not near: There shall come forth a star out of Jacob, A scepter shall rise out of Israel, Shall strike through the corners of Moab, Break down all the sons of tumult.

¹⁸Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession, [who were] his enemies; While Israel does valiantly.

¹⁹Out of Jacob shall one have dominion, Shall destroy the remnant from the city.

²⁰He looked at Amalek, and took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; But his latter end shall come to destruction.

²¹He looked at the Kenite, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is your dwelling-place, Your nest is set in the rock.

²²Nevertheless Kain shall be wasted, Until Asshur shall carry you away captive.

²³He took up his parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when God does this?

²⁴But ships [shall come] from the coast of Kittim, They shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber; He also shall come to destruction.

²⁵Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place; and Balak also went his way.

25Israel abode in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab:

²for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people ate, and bowed down to their gods.

³Israel joined himself to Baal-peor: and the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel.

⁴Yahweh said to Moses, Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel.

⁵Moses said to the judges of Israel, Kill you everyone his men who have joined themselves to Baal-peor.

⁶Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.

⁷When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand;

⁸and he went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.

⁹Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

¹⁰Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹¹Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn't consume the children of Israel in my jealousy.

¹²Therefore say, Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace:

¹³and it shall be to him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.

¹⁴Now the name of the man of Israel that was slain, who was slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a fathers' house among the Simeonites.

¹⁵The name of the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head of the people of a fathers' house in Midian.

¹⁶Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁷Vex the Midianites, and strike them;

¹⁸for they vex you with their wiles, with which they have deceived you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.

26It happened after the plague, that Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying,

²Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by their fathers' houses, all who are able to go forth to war in Israel.

³Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,

⁴[Take the sum of the people], from twenty years old and upward; as Yahweh commanded Moses and the children of Israel, that came forth out of the land of Egypt.

⁵Reuben, the firstborn of Israel; the sons of Reuben: [of] Hanoch, the family of the Hanochites; of Pallu, the family of the Palluites;

⁶of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites; of Carmi, the family of the Carmites.

⁷These are the families of the Reubenites; and those who were numbered of them were forty-three thousand seven hundred thirty.

⁸The sons of Pallu: Eliab.

⁹The sons of Eliab: Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. These are that Dathan and Abiram, who were called of the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against Yahweh,

¹⁰and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died; what time the fire devoured two hundred fifty men, and they became a sign.

¹¹Notwithstanding, the sons of Korah didn't die.

¹²The sons of Simeon after their families: of Nemuel, the family of the Nemuelites; of Jamin, the family of the Jaminites; of Jachin, the family of the Jachinites;

¹³of Zerah, the family of the Zerahites; of Shaul, the family of the Shaulites.

¹⁴These are the families of the Simeonites, twenty-two thousand two hundred.

¹⁵The sons of Gad after their families: of Zephon, the family of the Zephonites; of Haggi, the family of the Haggites; of Shuni, the family of the Shunites;

¹⁶of Ozni, the family of the Oznites; of Eri, the family of the Erites;

¹⁷of Arod, the family of the Arodites; of Areli, the family of the Arelites.

¹⁸These are the families of the sons of Gad according to those who were numbered of them, forty thousand and five hundred.

¹⁹The sons of Judah: Er and Onan; and Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.

²⁰The sons of Judah after their families were: of Shelah, the family of the Shelanites; of Perez, the family of the Perezites; of Zerah, the family of the Zerahites.

²¹The sons of Perez were: of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites; of Hamul, the family of the Hamulites.

²²These are the families of Judah according to those who were numbered of them, seventy-six thousand five hundred.

²³The sons of Issachar after their families: [of] Tola, the family of the Tolaites; of Puvah, the family of the Punites;

²⁴of Jashub, the family of the Jashubites; of Shimron, the family of the Shimronites.

²⁵These are the families of Issachar according to those who were numbered of them, sixty-four thousand three hundred.

²⁶The sons of Zebulun after their families: of Sered, the family of the Seredites; of Elon, the family of the Elonites; of Jahleel, the family of the Jahleelites.

²⁷These are the families of the Zebulunites according to those who were numbered of them, sixty thousand five hundred.

²⁸The sons of Joseph after their families: Manasseh and Ephraim.

²⁹The sons of Manasseh: of Machir, the family of the Machirites; and Machir became the father of Gilead; of Gilead, the family of the Gileadites.

³⁰These are the sons of Gilead: [of] Iezer, the family of the Iezerites; of Helek, the family of the Helekites;

³¹and [of] Asriel, the family of the Asrielites; and [of] Shechem, the family of the Shechemites;

³²and [of] Shemida, the family of the Shemidaites; and [of] Hepher, the family of the Hepherites.

³³Zelophehad the son of Hepher had no sons, but daughters: and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

³⁴These are the families of Manasseh; and those who were numbered of them were fifty-two thousand seven hundred.

³⁵These are the sons of Ephraim after their families: of Shuthelah, the family of the Shuthelahites; of Becher, the family of the Becherites; of Tahan, the family of the Tahanites.

³⁶These are the sons of Shuthelah: of Eran, the family of the Eranites.

³⁷These are the families of the sons of Ephraim according to those who were numbered of them, thirty-two thousand five hundred. These are the sons of Joseph after their families.

³⁸The sons of Benjamin after their families: of Bela, the family of the Belaites; of Ashbel, the family of the Ashbelites; of Ahiram, the family of the Ahiramites;

³⁹of Shephupham, the family of the Shuphamites; of Hupham, the family of the Huphamites.

⁴⁰The sons of Bela were Ard and Naaman: [of Ard], the family of the Ardites; of Naaman, the family of the Naamites.

⁴¹These are the sons of Benjamin after their families; and those who were numbered of them were forty-five thousand six hundred.

⁴²These are the sons of Dan after their families: of Shuham, the family of the Shuhamites. These are the families of Dan after their families.

⁴³All the families of the Shuhamites, according to those who were numbered of them, were sixty-four thousand four hundred.

⁴⁴The sons of Asher after their families: of Imnah, the family of the Imnites; of Ishvi, the family of the Ishvites; of Beriah, the family of the Berites.

⁴⁵Of the sons of Beriah: of Heber, the family of the Heberites; of Malchiel, the family of the Malchielites.

⁴⁶The name of the daughter of Asher was Serah.

⁴⁷These are the families of the sons of Asher according to those who were numbered of them, fifty-three thousand and four hundred.

⁴⁸The sons of Naphtali after their families: of Jahzeel, the family of the Jahzeelites; of Guni, the family of the Gunites;

⁴⁹of Jezer, the family of the Jezerites; of Shillem, the family of the Shillemites.

⁵⁰These are the families of Naphtali according to their families; and those who were numbered of them were forty-five thousand four hundred.

⁵¹These are those who were numbered of the children of Israel, six hundred one thousand seven hundred thirty.

⁵²Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

⁵³To these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names.

⁵⁴To the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance: to everyone according to those who were numbered of him shall his inheritance be given.

⁵⁵Notwithstanding, the land shall be divided by lot: according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.

⁵⁶According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.

⁵⁷These are those who were numbered of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; of Merari, the family of the Merarites.

⁵⁸These are the families of Levi: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korahites. Kohath became the father of Amram.

⁵⁹The name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt: and she bore to Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.

⁶⁰To Aaron were born Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

⁶¹Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before Yahweh.

⁶²Those who were numbered of them were twenty-three thousand, every male from a month old and upward: for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given them among the children of Israel.

⁶³These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

⁶⁴But among these there was not a man of them who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.

⁶⁵For Yahweh had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. There was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

27Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah.

²They stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, at the door of the tent of meeting, saying,

³Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against Yahweh in the company of Korah: but he died in his own sin; and he had no sons.

⁴Why should the name of our father be taken away from among his family, because he had no son? Give to us a possession among the brothers of our father.

⁵Moses brought their cause before Yahweh.

⁶Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

⁷The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: you shall surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brothers; and you shall cause the inheritance of their father to pass to them.

⁸You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter.

⁹If he have no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers.

¹⁰If he have no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers.

¹¹If his father have no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his kinsman who is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be to the children of Israel a statute [and] ordinance, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

¹²Yahweh said to Moses, Get you up into this mountain of Abarim, and see the land which I have given to the children of Israel.

¹³When you have seen it, you also shall be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered;

¹⁴because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the waters before their eyes. (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)

¹⁵Moses spoke to Yahweh, saying,

¹⁶Let Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation,

¹⁷who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Yahweh not be as sheep which have no shepherd.

¹⁸Yahweh said to Moses, Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him;

¹⁹and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and give him a charge in their sight.

²⁰You shall put of your honor on him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may obey.

²¹He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before Yahweh: at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation.

²²Moses did as Yahweh commanded him; and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation:

²³and he laid his hands on him, and gave him a charge, as Yahweh spoke by Moses.

28Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Command the children of Israel, and tell them, My offering, my food for my offerings made by fire, of a sweet savor to me, shall you observe to offer to me in their due season.

³You shall tell them, This is the offering made by fire which you shall offer to Yahweh: he-lambs a year old without blemish, two day by day, for a continual burnt offering.

⁴The one lamb shall you offer in the morning, and the other lamb shall you offer at even;

⁵and the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a meal-offering, mingled with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil.

⁶It is a continual burnt offering, which was ordained in Mount Sinai for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

⁷The drink-offering of it shall be the fourth part of a hin for the one lamb: in the holy place shall you pour out a drink-offering of strong drink to Yahweh.

⁸The other lamb shall you offer at even: as the meal-offering of the morning, and as the drink-offering of it, you shall offer it, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh.

⁹On the Sabbath day two he-lambs a year old without blemish, and two tenth parts [of an ephah] of fine flour for a meal-offering, mingled with oil, and the drink-offering of it:

¹⁰this is the burnt offering of every Sabbath, besides the continual burnt-offering, and the drink-offering of it.

¹¹In the beginnings of your months you shall offer a burnt offering to Yahweh: two young bulls, and one ram, seven he-lambs a year old without blemish;

¹²and three tenth parts [of an ephah] of fine flour for a meal-offering, mingled with oil, for each bull; and two tenth parts of fine flour for a meal-offering, mingled with oil, for the one ram;

¹³and a tenth part of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal-offering to every lamb; for a burnt offering of a sweet savor, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

¹⁴Their drink-offerings shall be half a hin of wine for a bull, and the third part of a hin for the ram, and the fourth part of a hin for a lamb: this is the burnt offering of every month throughout the months of the year.

¹⁵One male goat for a sin-offering to Yahweh; it shall be offered besides the continual burnt offering, and the drink-offering of it.

¹⁶In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is Yahweh's Passover.

¹⁷On the fifteenth day of this month shall be a feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten.

¹⁸In the first day shall be a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work;

¹⁹but you shall offer an offering made by fire, a burnt offering to Yahweh: two young bulls, and one ram, and seven he-lambs a year old; they shall be to you without blemish;

²⁰and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil: three tenth parts shall you offer for a bull, and two tenth parts for the ram;

²¹a tenth part shall you offer for every lamb of the seven lambs;

²²and one male goat for a sin-offering, to make atonement for you.

²³You shall offer these besides the burnt offering of the morning, which is for a continual burnt offering.

²⁴After this manner you shall offer daily, for seven days, the food of the offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh: it shall be offered besides the continual burnt offering, and the drink-offering of it.

²⁵On the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work.

²⁶Also in the day of the first-fruits, when you offer a new meal-offering to Yahweh in your [feast of] weeks, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work;

²⁷but you shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet savor to Yahweh: two young bulls, one ram, seven he-lambs a year old;

²⁸and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for each bull, two tenth parts for the one ram,

²⁹a tenth part for every lamb of the seven lambs;

³⁰one male goat, to make atonement for you.

³¹Besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal-offering of it, you shall offer them (they shall be to you without blemish), and their drink-offerings.

29In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing of trumpets to you.

²You shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet savor to Yahweh: one young bull, one ram, seven he-lambs a year old without blemish;

³and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for the bull, two tenth parts for the ram,

⁴and one tenth part for every lamb of the seven lambs;

⁵and one male goat for a sin-offering, to make atonement for you;

⁶besides the burnt offering of the new moon, and the meal-offering of it, and the continual burnt offering and the meal-offering of it, and their drink-offerings, according to their ordinance, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

⁷On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; and you shall afflict your souls: you shall do no manner of work;

⁸but you shall offer a burnt offering to Yahweh for a sweet savor: one young bull, one ram, seven he-lambs a year old; they shall be to you without blemish;

⁹and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for the bull, two tenth parts for the one ram,

¹⁰a tenth part for every lamb of the seven lambs:

¹¹one male goat for a sin-offering; besides the sin-offering of atonement, and the continual burnt offering, and the meal-offering of it, and their drink-offerings.

¹²On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work, and you shall keep a feast to Yahweh seven days:

¹³and you shall offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh; thirteen young bulls, two rams, fourteen he-lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish;

¹⁴and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for every bull of the thirteen bulls, two tenth parts for each ram of the two rams,

¹⁵and a tenth part for every lamb of the fourteen lambs;

¹⁶and one male goat for a sin-offering, besides the continual burnt offering, the meal-offering of it, and the drink-offering of it.

¹⁷On the second day [you shall offer] twelve young bulls, two rams, fourteen he-lambs a year old without blemish;

¹⁸and their meal-offering and their drink-offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance;

¹⁹and one male goat for a sin-offering; besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal-offering of it, and their drink-offerings.

²⁰On the third day eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen he-lambs a year old without blemish;

²¹and their meal-offering and their drink-offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance;

²²and one male goat for a sin-offering; besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal-offering of it, and the drink-offering of it.

²³On the fourth day ten bulls, two rams, fourteen he-lambs a year old without blemish;

²⁴their meal-offering and their drink-offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance;

²⁵and one male goat for a sin-offering; besides the continual burnt offering, the meal-offering of it, and the drink- offering of it.

²⁶On the fifth day nine bulls, two rams, fourteen he-lambs a year old without blemish;

²⁷and their meal-offering and their drink-offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance;

²⁸and one male goat for a sin-offering, besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal-offering of it, and the drink-offering of it.

²⁹On the sixth day eight bulls, two rams, fourteen he-lambs a year old without blemish;

³⁰and their meal-offering and their drink-offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance;

³¹and one male goat for a sin-offering; besides the continual burnt offering, the meal-offering of it, and the drink-offerings of it.

³²On the seventh day seven bulls, two rams, fourteen he-lambs a year old without blemish;

³³and their meal-offering and their drink-offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number, after the ordinance;

³⁴and one male goat for a sin-offering; besides the continual burnt offering, the meal-offering of it, and the drink-offering of it.

³⁵On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly: you shall do no servile work;

³⁶but you shall offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh: one bull, one ram, seven he-lambs a year old without blemish;

³⁷their meal-offering and their drink-offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs, shall be according to their number, after the ordinance:

³⁸and one male goat for a sin-offering, besides the continual burnt offering, and the meal-offering of it, and the drink-offering of it.

³⁹These you shall offer to Yahweh in your set feasts, besides your vows, and your freewill-offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your meal-offerings, and for your drink-offerings, and for your peace-offerings.

⁴⁰Moses told the children of Israel according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses.

30Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded.

²When a man vows a vow to Yahweh, or swears an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

³Also when a woman vows a vow to Yahweh, and binds herself by a bond, being in her father's house, in her youth,

⁴and her father hears her vow, and her bond with which she has bound her soul, and her father holds his peace at her; then all her vows shall stand, and every bond with which she has bound her soul shall stand.

⁵But if her father disallow her in the day that he hears, none of her vows, or of her bonds with which she has bound her soul, shall stand: and Yahweh will forgive her, because her father disallowed her.

⁶If she be [married] to a husband, while her vows are on her, or the rash utterance of her lips, with which she has bound her soul,

⁷and her husband hear it, and hold his peace at her in the day that he hears it; then her vows shall stand, and her bonds with which she has bound her soul shall stand.

⁸But if her husband disallow her in the day that he hears it, then he shall make void her vow which is on her, and the rash utterance of her lips, with which she has bound her soul: and Yahweh will forgive her.

⁹But the vow of a widow, or of her who is divorced, [even] everything with which she has bound her soul, shall stand against her.

¹⁰If she vowed in her husband's house, or bound her soul by a bond with an oath,

¹¹and her husband heard it, and held his peace at her, and didn't disallow her; then all her vows shall stand, and every bond with which she bound her soul shall stand.

¹²But if her husband made them null and void in the day that he heard them, then whatever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand: her husband has made them void; and Yahweh will forgive her.

¹³Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void.

¹⁴But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day, then he establishes all her vows, or all her bonds, which are on her: he has established them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard them.

¹⁵But if he shall make them null and void after that he has heard them, then he shall bear her iniquity.

¹⁶These are the statutes, which Yahweh commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between a father and his daughter, being in her youth, in her father's house.

31Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shall you be gathered to your people.

³Moses spoke to the people, saying, Arm you men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian, to execute Yahweh's vengeance on Midian.

⁴Of every tribe one thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall you send to the war.

⁵So there were delivered, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.

⁶Moses sent them, one thousand of every tribe, to the war, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand.

⁷They warred against Midian, as Yahweh commanded Moses; and they killed every male.

⁸They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain: Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they killed with the sword.

⁹The children of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones; and all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods, they took for a prey.

¹⁰All their cities in the places in which they lived, and all their encampments, they burnt with fire.

¹¹They took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of man and of animal.

¹²They brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan at Jericho.

¹³Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them outside of the camp.

¹⁴Moses was angry with the officers of the host, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who came from the service of the war.

¹⁵Moses said to them, Have you saved all the women alive?

¹⁶Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh.

¹⁷Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.

¹⁸But all the girls, who have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

¹⁹Encamp you outside of the camp seven days: whoever has killed any person, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives.

²⁰As to every garment, and all that is made of skin, and all work of goats' [hair], and all things made of wood, you shall purify yourselves.

²¹Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who went to the battle, This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded Moses:

²²however the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

²³everything that may abide the fire, you shall make to go through the fire, and it shall be clean; nevertheless it shall be purified with the water for impurity: and all that doesn't withstand the fire you shall make to go through the water.

²⁴You shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you shall be clean; and afterward you shall come into the camp.

²⁵Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁶Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of animal, you, and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the congregation;

²⁷and divide the prey into two parts: between the men skilled in war, who went out to battle, and all the congregation.

²⁸Levy a tribute to Yahweh of the men of war who went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, [both] of the persons, and of the oxen, and of the donkeys, and of the flocks:

²⁹take it of their half, and give it to Eleazar the priest, for Yahweh's heave-offering.

³⁰Of the children of Israel's half, you shall take one drawn out of every fifty, of the persons, of the oxen, of the donkeys, and of the flocks, [even] of all the cattle, and give them to the Levites, who keep the charge of the tent of Yahweh.

³¹Moses and Eleazar the priest did as Yahweh commanded Moses.

³²Now the prey, over and above the booty which the men of war took, was six hundred seventy-five thousand sheep,

³³and seventy-two thousand oxen,

³⁴and seventy-one thousand donkeys,

³⁵and thirty-two thousand persons in all, of the women who had not known man by lying with him.

³⁶The half, which was the portion of those who went out to war, was in number three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep:

³⁷and Yahweh's tribute of the sheep was six hundred seventy-five.

³⁸The oxen were thirty-six thousand; of which Yahweh's tribute was seventy-two.

³⁹The donkeys were thirty thousand five hundred; of which Yahweh's tribute was sixty-one.

⁴⁰The persons were sixteen thousand; of whom Yahweh's tribute was thirty-two persons.

⁴¹Moses gave the tribute, which was Yahweh's heave-offering, to Eleazar the priest, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

⁴²Of the children of Israel's half, which Moses divided off from the men who warred

⁴³(now the congregation's half was three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep,

⁴⁴and thirty-six thousand oxen,

⁴⁵and thirty thousand five hundred donkeys,

⁴⁶and sixteen thousand persons),

⁴⁷even of the children of Israel's half, Moses took one drawn out of every fifty, both of man and of animal, and gave them to the Levites, who kept the charge of the tent of Yahweh; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

⁴⁸The officers who were over the thousands of the host, the captains of thousands, and the captains of hundreds, came near to Moses;

⁴⁹and they said to Moses, Your servants have taken the sum of the men of war who are under our charge, and there lacks not one man of us.

⁵⁰We have brought Yahweh's offering, what every man has gotten, of jewels of gold, ankle-chains, and bracelets, signet-rings, ear-rings, and armlets, to make atonement for our souls before Yahweh.

⁵¹Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of them, even all worked jewels.

⁵²All the gold of the heave-offering that they offered up to Yahweh, of the captains of thousands, and of the captains of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred fifty shekels.

⁵³([For] the men of war had taken booty, every man for himself.)

⁵⁴Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold of the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tent of meeting, for a memorial for the children of Israel before Yahweh.

32Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that behold, the place was a place for cattle;

²the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying,

³Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Sebam, and Nebo, and Beon,

⁴the land which Yahweh struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle; and your servants have cattle.

⁵They said, If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession; don't bring us over the Jordan.

⁶Moses said to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brothers go to the war, and shall you sit here?

⁷Why discourage you the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Yahweh has given them?

⁸Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land.

⁹For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which Yahweh had given them.

¹⁰Yahweh's anger was kindled in that day, and he swore, saying,

¹¹Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me:

¹²save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun; because they have wholly followed Yahweh.

¹³Yahweh's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, who had done evil in the sight of Yahweh, was consumed.

¹⁴Behold, you are risen up in your fathers' place, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of Yahweh toward Israel.

¹⁵For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all this people.

¹⁶They came near to him, and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones:

¹⁷but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁸We will not return to our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.

¹⁹For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan, and forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastward.

²⁰Moses said to them, If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves to go before Yahweh to the war,

²¹and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before Yahweh, until he has driven out his enemies from before him,

²²and the land is subdued before Yahweh; then afterward you shall return, and be guiltless towards Yahweh, and towards Israel; and this land shall be to you for a possession before Yahweh.

²³But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against Yahweh; and be sure your sin will find you out.

²⁴Build you cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which has proceeded out of your mouth.

²⁵The children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, Your servants will do as my lord commands.

²⁶Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle, shall be there in the cities of Gilead;

²⁷but your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war, before Yahweh to battle, as my lord says.

²⁸So Moses gave charge concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel.

²⁹Moses said to them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over the Jordan, every man who is armed to battle, before Yahweh, and the land shall be subdued before you; then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession:

³⁰but if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.

³¹The children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, As Yahweh has said to your servants, so will we do.

³²We will pass over armed before Yahweh into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance [shall remain] with us beyond the Jordan.

³³Moses gave to them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, according to the cities of it with [their] borders, even the cities of the land round about.

³⁴The children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer,

³⁵and Atrothshophan, and Jazer, and Jogbehah,

³⁶and Beth-nimrah, and Beth-haran: fortified cities, and folds for sheep.

³⁷The children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kiriathaim,

³⁸and Nebo, and Baal-meon, (their names being changed,) and Sibmah: and they gave other names to the cities which they built.

³⁹The children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, and took it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were therein.

⁴⁰Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh; and he lived therein.

⁴¹Jair the son of Manasseh went and took the towns of it, and called them Havvoth-jair.

⁴²Nobah went and took Kenath, and the villages of it, and called it Nobah, after his own name.

33These are the journeys of the children of Israel, when they went forth out of the land of Egypt by their hosts under the hand of Moses and Aaron.

²Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of Yahweh: and these are their journeys according to their goings out.

³They journeyed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the next day after the Passover the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians,

⁴while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom Yahweh had struck among them: on their gods also Yahweh executed judgments.

⁵The children of Israel journeyed from Rameses, and encamped in Succoth.

⁶They journeyed from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness.

⁷They journeyed from Etham, and turned back to Pihahiroth, which is before Baal-zephon: and they encamped before Migdol.

⁸They journeyed from before Hahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness: and they went three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, and encamped in Marah.

⁹They journeyed from Marah, and came to Elim: and in Elim were twelve springs of water, and seventy palm-trees; and they encamped there.

¹⁰They journeyed from Elim, and encamped by the Red Sea.

¹¹They journeyed from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.

¹²They journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, and encamped in Dophkah.

¹³They journeyed from Dophkah, and encamped in Alush.

¹⁴They journeyed from Alush, and encamped in Rephidim, where was no water for the people to drink.

¹⁵They journeyed from Rephidim, and encamped in the wilderness of Sinai.

¹⁶They journeyed from the wilderness of Sinai, and encamped in Kibroth-hattaavah.

¹⁷They journeyed from Kibroth-hattaavah, and encamped in Hazeroth.

¹⁸They journeyed from Hazeroth, and encamped in Rithmah.

¹⁹They journeyed from Rithmah, and encamped in Rimmon-perez.

²⁰They journeyed from Rimmon-perez, and encamped in Libnah.

²¹They journeyed from Libnah, and encamped in Rissah.

²²They journeyed from Rissah, and encamped in Kehelathah.

²³They journeyed from Kehelathah, and encamped in Mount Shepher.

²⁴They journeyed from Mount Shepher, and encamped in Haradah.

²⁵They journeyed from Haradah, and encamped in Makheloth.

²⁶They journeyed from Makheloth, and encamped in Tahath.

²⁷They journeyed from Tahath, and encamped in Terah.

²⁸They journeyed from Terah, and encamped in Mithkah.

²⁹They journeyed from Mithkah, and encamped in Hashmonah.

³⁰They journeyed from Hashmonah, and encamped in Moseroth.

³¹They journeyed from Moseroth, and encamped in Bene-jaakan.

³²They journeyed from Bene-jaakan, and encamped in Hor-haggidgad.

³³They journeyed from Hor-haggidgad, and encamped in Jotbathah.

³⁴They journeyed from Jotbathah, and encamped in Abronah.

³⁵They journeyed from Abronah, and encamped in Ezion-geber.

³⁶They journeyed from Ezion-geber, and encamped in the wilderness of Zin (the same is Kadesh).

³⁷They journeyed from Kadesh, and encamped in Mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom.

³⁸Aaron the priest went up into Mount Hor at the commandment of Yahweh, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fifth month, on the first day of the month.

³⁹Aaron was one hundred twenty-three years old when he died in Mount Hor.

⁴⁰The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the South in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.

⁴¹They journeyed from Mount Hor, and encamped in Zalmonah.

⁴²They journeyed from Zalmonah, and encamped in Punon.

⁴³They journeyed from Punon, and encamped in Oboth.

⁴⁴They journeyed from Oboth, and encamped in Iye-abarim, in the border of Moab.

⁴⁵They journeyed from Iyim, and encamped in Dibon-gad.

⁴⁶They journeyed from Dibon-gad, and encamped in Almon-diblathaim.

⁴⁷They journeyed from Almon-diblathaim, and encamped in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo.

⁴⁸They journeyed from the mountains of Abarim, and encamped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

⁴⁹They encamped by the Jordan, from Beth-jeshimoth even to Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab.

⁵⁰Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,

⁵¹Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

⁵²then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured [stones], and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places:

⁵³and you shall take possession of the land, and dwell therein; for to you have I given the land to possess it.

⁵⁴You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance: wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers shall you inherit.

⁵⁵But if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then shall those who you let remain of them be as pricks in your eyes, and as thorns in your sides, and they shall vex you in the land in which you dwell.

⁵⁶It shall happen that as I thought to do to them, so will I do to you.

34Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²Command the children of Israel, and tell them, When you come into the land of Canaan (this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan according to the borders of it),

³then your south quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin along by the side of Edom, and your south border shall be from the end of the Salt Sea eastward;

⁴and your border shall turn about southward of the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass along to Zin; and the goings out of it shall be southward of Kadesh-barnea; and it shall go forth to Hazar-addar, and pass along to Azmon;

⁵and the border shall turn about from Azmon to the brook of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at the sea.

⁶For the western border, you shall have the great sea and the border [of it]: this shall be your west border.

⁷This shall be your north border: from the great sea you shall mark out for you Mount Hor;

⁸from Mount Hor you shall mark out to the entrance of Hamath; and the goings out of the border shall be at Zedad;

⁹and the border shall go forth to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be at Hazar-enan: this shall be your north border.

¹⁰You shall mark out your east border from Hazar-enan to Shepham;

¹¹and the border shall go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain; and the border shall go down, and shall reach to the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward;

¹²and the border shall go down to the Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land according to the borders of it round about.

¹³Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying, This is the land which you shall inherit by lot, which Yahweh has commanded to give to the nine tribes, and to the half-tribe;

¹⁴for the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their fathers' houses, and the tribe of the children of Gad according to their fathers' houses, have received, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received, their inheritance:

¹⁵the two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, toward the sunrise.

¹⁶Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁷These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun.

¹⁸You shall take one prince of every tribe, to divide the land for inheritance.

¹⁹These are the names of the men: Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

²⁰Of the tribe of the children of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud.

²¹Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon.

²²Of the tribe of the children of Dan a prince, Bukki the son of Jogli.

²³Of the children of Joseph: of the tribe of the children of Manasseh a prince, Hanniel the son of Ephod.

²⁴Of the tribe of the children of Ephraim a prince, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan.

²⁵Of the tribe of the children of Zebulun a prince, Elizaphan the son of Parnach.

²⁶Of the tribe of the children of Issachar a prince, Paltiel the son of Azzan.

²⁷Of the tribe of the children of Asher a prince, Ahihud the son of Shelomi.

²⁸Of the tribe of the children of Naphtali a prince, Pedahel the son of Ammihud.

²⁹These are they whom Yahweh commanded to divide the inheritance to the children of Israel in the land of Canaan.

35Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,

²Command the children of Israel that they give to the Levites of the inheritance of their possession cities to dwell in; and suburbs for the cities round about them shall you give to the Levites.

³The cities shall they have to dwell in; and their suburbs shall be for their cattle, and for their substance, and for all their animals.

⁴The suburbs of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall be from the wall of the city and outward one thousand cubits round about.

⁵You shall measure outside of the city for the east side two thousand cubits, and for the south side two thousand cubits, and for the west side two thousand cubits, and for the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the midst. This shall be to them the suburbs of the cities.

⁶The cities which you shall give to the Levites, they shall be the six cities of refuge, which you shall give for the manslayer to flee to: and besides them you shall give forty-two cities.

⁷All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities; them [shall you give] with their suburbs.

⁸Concerning the cities which you shall give of the possession of the children of Israel, from the many you shall take many; and from the few you shall take few: everyone according to his inheritance which he inherits shall give of his cities to the Levites.

⁹Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁰Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

¹¹then you shall appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.

¹²The cities shall be to you for refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer not die, until he stands before the congregation for judgment.

¹³The cities which you shall give shall be for you six cities of refuge.

¹⁴You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities shall you give in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge.

¹⁵For the children of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, shall these six cities be for refuge; that everyone who kills any person unwittingly may flee there.

¹⁶But if he struck him with an instrument of iron, so that he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷If he struck him with a stone in the hand, whereby a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

¹⁸Or if he struck him with a weapon of wood in the hand, whereby a man may die, and he died, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

¹⁹The avenger of blood shall himself put the murderer to death: when he meets him, he shall put him to death.

²⁰If he thrust him of hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait, so that he died,

²¹or in enmity struck him with his hand, so that he died; he who struck him shall surely be put to death; he is a murderer: the avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death, when he meets him.

²²But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or hurled on him anything without lying in wait,

²³or with any stone, whereby a man may die, not seeing him, and cast it on him, so that he died, and he was not his enemy, neither sought his harm;

²⁴then the congregation shall judge between the striker and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances;

²⁵and the congregation shall deliver the manslayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he was fled: and he shall dwell therein until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

²⁶But if the manslayer shall at any time go beyond the border of his city of refuge, where he flees,

²⁷and the avenger of blood find him outside of the border of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kill the manslayer; he shall not be guilty of blood,

²⁸because he should have remained in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest: but after the death of the high priest the manslayer shall return into the land of his possession.

²⁹These things shall be for a statute [and] ordinance to you throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

³⁰Whoever kills any person, the murderer shall be slain at the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person that he die.

³¹Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death; but he shall surely be put to death.

³²You shall take no ransom for him who is fled to his city of refuge, that he may come again to dwell in the land, until the death of the priest.

³³So you shall not pollute the land in which you are: for blood, it pollutes the land; and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him who shed it.

³⁴You shall not defile the land which you inhabit, in the midst of which I dwell: for I, Yahweh, dwell in the midst of the children of Israel.

36The heads of the fathers' [houses] of the family of the children of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near, and spoke before Moses, and before the princes, the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the children of Israel:

²and they said, Yahweh commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the children of Israel: and my lord was commanded by Yahweh to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.

³If they be married to any of the sons of the [other] tribes of the children of Israel, then will their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of our fathers, and will be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will it be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.

⁴When the jubilee of the children of Israel shall be, then will their inheritance be added to the inheritance of the tribe whereunto they shall belong: so will their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.

⁵Moses commanded the children of Israel according to the word of Yahweh, saying, The tribe of the sons of Joseph speaks right.

⁶This is the thing which Yahweh does command concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, saying, Let them be married to whom they think best; only into the family of the tribe of their father shall they be married.

⁷So shall no inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe; for the children of Israel shall cleave everyone to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

⁸Every daughter, who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife to one of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children of Israel may possess every man the inheritance of his fathers.

⁹So shall no inheritance remove from one tribe to another tribe; for the tribes of the children of Israel shall cleave everyone to his own inheritance.

¹⁰Even as Yahweh commanded Moses, so did the daughters of Zelophehad:

¹¹for Mahlah, Tirzah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to their father's brothers' sons.

¹²They were married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph; and their inheritance remained in the tribe of the family of their father.

¹³These are the commandments and the ordinances which Yahweh commanded by Moses to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

1These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zahab.

²It is eleven days' [journey] from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.

³It happened in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that Yahweh had given him in commandment to them;

⁴after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei.

⁵Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying,

⁶Yahweh our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, You have lived long enough in this mountain:

⁷turn you, and take your journey, and go to the hill-country of the Amorites, and to all [the places] near thereunto, in the Arabah, in the hill-country, and in the lowland, and in the South, and by the sea-shore, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

⁸Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.

⁹I spoke to you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone:

¹⁰Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and, behold, you are this day as the stars of the sky for multitude.

¹¹Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you!

¹²How can I myself alone bear your encumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?

¹³Take wise men of understanding and well known according to your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.

¹⁴You answered me, and said, The thing which you have spoken is good [for us] to do.

¹⁵So I took the heads of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, and captains of hundreds, and captains of fifties, and captains of tens, and officers, according to your tribes.

¹⁶I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear [the causes] between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the sojourner who is with him.

¹⁷You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.

¹⁸I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.

¹⁹We journeyed from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill-country of the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.

²⁰I said to you, You are come to the hill-country of the Amorites, which Yahweh our God gives to us.

²¹Behold, Yahweh your God has set the land before you: go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you; don't be afraid, neither be dismayed.

²²You came near to me everyone of you, and said, Let us send men before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we shall come.

²³The thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one man for every tribe:

²⁴and they turned and went up into the hill-country, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.

²⁵They took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which Yahweh our God gives to us.

²⁶Yet you wouldn't go up, but rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God:

²⁷and you murmured in your tents, and said, Because Yahweh hated us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

²⁸Where are we going up? our brothers have made our heart to melt, saying, The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to the sky; and moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.

²⁹Then I said to you, Don't dread, neither be afraid of them.

³⁰Yahweh your God who goes before you, he will fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

³¹and in the wilderness, where you have seen how that Yahweh your God bore you, as a man does bear his son, in all the way that you went, until you came to this place.

³²Yet in this thing you didn't believe Yahweh your God,

³³who went before you in the way, to seek you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and in the cloud by day.

³⁴Yahweh heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore, saying,

³⁵Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers,

³⁶save Caleb the son of Jephunneh: he shall see it; and to him will I give the land that he has trodden on, and to his children, because he has wholly followed Yahweh.

³⁷Also Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, saying, You also shall not go in there:

³⁸Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there: encourage you him; for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

³⁹Moreover your little ones, whom you said should be a prey, and your children, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there, and to them will I give it, and they shall possess it.

⁴⁰But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.

⁴¹Then you answered and said to me, We have sinned against Yahweh, we will go up and fight, according to all that Yahweh our God commanded us. You girded on every man his weapons of war, and were forward to go up into the hill-country.

⁴²Yahweh said to me, Tell them, Don't go up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest you be struck before your enemies.

⁴³So I spoke to you, and you didn't listen; but you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh, and were presumptuous, and went up into the hill-country.

⁴⁴The Amorites, who lived in that hill-country, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and beat you down in Seir, even to Hormah.

⁴⁵You returned and wept before Yahweh; but Yahweh didn't listen to your voice, nor gave ear to you.

⁴⁶So you abode in Kadesh many days, according to the days that you abode [there].

2Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me; and we compassed Mount Seir many days.

²Yahweh spoke to me, saying,

³You have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward.

⁴Command you the people, saying, You are to pass through the border of your brothers the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you: take good heed to yourselves therefore;

⁵don't contend with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on; because I have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession.

⁶You shall purchase food of them for money, that you may eat; and you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink.

⁷For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; he has known your walking through this great wilderness: these forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.

⁸So we passed by from our brothers the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion-geber. We turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

⁹Yahweh said to me, Don't bother Moab, neither contend with them in battle; for I will not give you of his land for a possession; because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession.

¹⁰(The Emim lived therein before, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim:

¹¹these also are accounted Rephaim, as the Anakim; but the Moabites call them Emim.

¹²The Horites also lived in Seir before, but the children of Esau succeeded them; and they destroyed them from before them, and lived in their place; as Israel did to the land of his possession, which Yahweh gave to them.)

¹³Now rise up, and get you over the brook Zered. We went over the brook Zered.

¹⁴The days in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, were thirty-eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were consumed from the midst of the camp, as Yahweh swore to them.

¹⁵Moreover the hand of Yahweh was against them, to destroy them from the midst of the camp, until they were consumed.

¹⁶So it happened, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people,

¹⁷that Yahweh spoke to me, saying,

¹⁸You are this day to pass over Ar, the border of Moab:

¹⁹and when you come near over against the children of Ammon, don't bother them, nor contend with them; for I will not give you of the land of the children of Ammon for a possession; because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession.

²⁰(That also is accounted a land of Rephaim: Rephaim lived therein before; but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim,

²¹a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim; but Yahweh destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place;

²²as he did for the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites from before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place even to this day:

²³and the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and lived in their place.)

²⁴Rise you up, take your journey, and pass over the valley of the Arnon: behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.

²⁵This day will I begin to put the dread of you and the fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole sky, who shall hear the report of you, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of you.

²⁶I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,

²⁷Let me pass through your land: I will go along by the highway, I will turn neither to the right hand nor to the left.

²⁸You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink: only let me pass through on my feet,

²⁹as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who dwell in Ar, did to me; until I shall pass over the Jordan into the land which Yahweh our God gives us.

³⁰But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as at this day.

³¹Yahweh said to me, Behold, I have begun to deliver up Sihon and his land before you: begin to possess, that you may inherit his land.

³²Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz.

³³Yahweh our God delivered him up before us; and we struck him, and his sons, and all his people.

³⁴We took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones; we left none remaining:

³⁵only the cattle we took for a prey to ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we had taken.

³⁶From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and [from] the city that is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was not a city too high for us; Yahweh our God delivered up all before us:

³⁷only to the land of the children of Ammon you didn't come near; all the side of the river Jabbok, and the cities of the hill-country, and wherever Yahweh our God forbade us.

3Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.

²Yahweh said to me, Don't fear him; for I have delivered him, and all his people, and his land, into your hand; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.

³So Yahweh our God delivered into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we struck him until none was left to him remaining.

⁴We took all his cities at that time; there was not a city which we didn't take from them; sixty cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

⁵All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides the unwalled towns a great many.

⁶We utterly destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, utterly destroying every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones.

⁷But all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves.

⁸We took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon;

⁹([which] Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amorites call it Senir;)

¹⁰all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, to Salecah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.

¹¹(For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; isn't it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length of it, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.)

¹²This land we took in possession at that time: from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, and half the hill-country of Gilead, and the cities of it, gave I to the Reubenites and to the Gadites:

¹³and the rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, gave I to the half-tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, even all Bashan. (The same is called the land of Rephaim.

¹⁴Jair the son of Manasseh took all the region of Argob, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called them, even Bashan, after his own name, Havvoth-jair, to this day.)

¹⁵I gave Gilead to Machir.

¹⁶To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley, and the border [of it], even to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;

¹⁷the Arabah also, and the Jordan and the border [of it], from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward.

¹⁸I commanded you at that time, saying, Yahweh your God has given you this land to possess it: you shall pass over armed before your brothers the children of Israel, all the men of valor.

¹⁹But your wives, and your little ones, and your cattle, (I know that you have much cattle,) shall abide in your cities which I have given you,

²⁰until Yahweh give rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also possess the land which Yahweh your God gives them beyond the Jordan: then shall you return every man to his possession, which I have given you.

²¹I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Your eyes have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to these two kings: so shall Yahweh do to all the kingdoms where you go over.

²²You shall not fear them; for Yahweh your God, he it is who fights for you.

²³I begged Yahweh at that time, saying,

²⁴Lord Yahweh, you have begun to show your servant your greatness, and your strong hand: for what god is there in heaven or in earth, that can do according to your works, and according to your mighty acts?

²⁵Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.

²⁶But Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and didn't listen to me; and Yahweh said to me, Let it suffice you; speak no more to me of this matter.

²⁷Get you up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes: for you shall not go over this Jordan.

²⁸But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which you shall see.

²⁹So we abode in the valley over against Beth-peor.

4Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and to the ordinances, which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, gives you.

²You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from it, that you may keep the commandments of Yahweh your God which I command you.

³Your eyes have seen what Yahweh did because of Baal-peor; for all the men who followed Baal-peor, Yahweh your God has destroyed them from the midst of you.

⁴But you who did cleave to Yahweh your God are alive everyone of you this day.

⁵Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should do so in the midst of the land where you go in to possess it.

⁶Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

⁷For what great nation is there, that has a god so near to them, as Yahweh our God is whenever we call on him?

⁸What great nation is there, that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

⁹Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children's children;

¹⁰the day that you stood before Yahweh your God in Horeb, when Yahweh said to me, Assemble me the people, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.

¹¹You came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.

¹²Yahweh spoke to you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; only [you heard] a voice.

¹³He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments; and he wrote them on two tables of stone.

¹⁴Yahweh commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it.

¹⁵Take therefore good heed to yourselves; for you saw no manner of form on the day that Yahweh spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire.

¹⁶Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make yourself an engraved image in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female,

¹⁷the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky,

¹⁸the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth;

¹⁹and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of the sky, you be drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.

²⁰But Yahweh has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance, as at this day.

²¹Furthermore Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, and swore that I should not go over the Jordan, and that I should not go in to that good land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance:

²²but I must die in this land, I must not go over the Jordan; but you shall go over, and possess that good land.

²³Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he made with you, and make you an engraved image in the form of anything which Yahweh your God has forbidden you.

²⁴For Yahweh your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

²⁵When you shall father children, and children's children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make an engraved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, to provoke him to anger;

²⁶I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto you go over the Jordan to possess it; you shall not prolong your days on it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

²⁷Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in number among the nations, where Yahweh shall lead you away.

²⁸There you shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.

²⁹But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

³⁰When you are in oppression, and all these things are come on you, in the latter days you shall return to Yahweh your God, and listen to his voice:

³¹for Yahweh your God is a merciful God; he will not fail you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them.

³²For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been [any such thing] as this great thing is, or has been heard like it?

³³Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?

³⁴Or has God tried to go and take him a nation from the midst of [another] nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

³⁵To you it was showed, that you might know that Yahweh he is God; there is none else besides him.

³⁶Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you: and on earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire.

³⁷Because he loved your fathers, therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought you out with his presence, with his great power, out of Egypt;

³⁸to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as at this day.

³⁹Know therefore this day, and lay it to your heart, that Yahweh he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is none else.

⁴⁰You shall keep his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh your God gives you, forever.

⁴¹Then Moses set apart three cities beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;

⁴²that the manslayer might flee there, who kills his neighbor unawares, and didn't hate him in time past; and that fleeing to one of these cities he might live:

⁴³[namely], Bezer in the wilderness, in the plain country, for the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

⁴⁴This is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel:

⁴⁵these are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Moses spoke to the children of Israel, when they came forth out of Egypt,

⁴⁶beyond the Jordan, in the valley over against Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel struck, when they came forth out of Egypt.

⁴⁷They took his land in possession, and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise;

⁴⁸from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, even to Mount Sion (the same is Hermon),

⁴⁹and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.

5Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, Hear, Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them, and observe to do them.

²Yahweh our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.

³Yahweh didn't make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.

⁴Yahweh spoke with you face to face on the mountain out of the midst of the fire,

⁵(I stood between Yahweh and you at that time, to show you the word of Yahweh: for you were afraid because of the fire, and didn't go up onto the mountain;) saying,

⁶"I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

⁷You shall have no other gods before me.

⁸"You shall not make an engraved image for yourself, [nor] any likeness [of anything] that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

⁹you shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them; for I, Yahweh, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me;

¹⁰and showing lovingkindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

¹¹"You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain: for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

¹²"Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Yahweh your God commanded you.

¹³Six days shall you labor, and do all your work;

¹⁴but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God: [in it] you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your man-servant and your maid-servant may rest as well as you.

¹⁵You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm: therefore Yahweh your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

¹⁶"Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you; that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

¹⁷"You shall not murder.

¹⁸"Neither shall you commit adultery.

¹⁹"Neither shall you steal.

²⁰"Neither shall you give false testimony against your neighbor.

²¹"Neither shall you covet your neighbor's wife; neither shall you desire your neighbor's house, his field, or his man-servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's."

²²These words Yahweh spoke to all your assembly on the mountain out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. He wrote them on two tables of stone, and gave them to me.

²³It happened, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;

²⁴and you said, Behold, Yahweh our God has showed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God does speak with man, and he lives.

²⁵Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of Yahweh our God any more, then we shall die.

²⁶For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?

²⁷Go you near, and hear all that Yahweh our God shall say: and speak you to us all that Yahweh our God shall speak to you; and we will hear it, and do it.

²⁸Yahweh heard the voice of your words, when you spoke to me; and Yahweh said to me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you: they have well said all that they have spoken.

²⁹Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!

³⁰Go tell them, Return you to your tents.

³¹But as for you, stand you here by me, and I will speak to you all the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.

³²You shall observe to do therefore as Yahweh your God has commanded you: you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

³³You shall walk in all the way which Yahweh your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

6Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it;

²that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.

³Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God; Yahweh is one:

⁵and you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

⁶These words, which I command you this day, shall be on your heart;

⁷and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.

⁸You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes.

⁹You shall write them on the door-posts of your house, and on your gates.

¹⁰It shall be, when Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and goodly cities, which you didn't build,

¹¹and houses full of all good things, which you didn't fill, and cisterns dug out, which you didn't dig, vineyards and olive-trees, which you didn't plant, and you shall eat and be full;

¹²then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

¹³You shall fear Yahweh your God; and him shall you serve, and shall swear by his name.

¹⁴You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are round about you;

¹⁵for Yahweh your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

¹⁶You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah.

¹⁷You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you.

¹⁸You shall do that which is right and good in the sight of Yahweh; that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers,

¹⁹to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken.

²⁰When your son asks you in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh our God has commanded you?

²¹then you shall tell your son, We were Pharaoh's bondservants in Egypt: and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand;

²²and Yahweh showed signs and wonders, great and sore, on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes;

²³and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers.

²⁴Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day.

²⁵It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us.

7When Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, and shall cast out many nations before you, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you;

²and when Yahweh your God shall deliver them up before you, and you shall strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them: you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them;

³neither shall you make marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son, nor his daughter shall you take to your son.

⁴For he will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you, and he will destroy you quickly.

⁵But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their engraved images with fire.

⁶For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God: Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

⁷Yahweh didn't set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples:

⁸but because Yahweh loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, has Yahweh brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹Know therefore that Yahweh your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,

¹⁰and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him who hates him, he will repay him to his face.

¹¹You shall therefore keep the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command you this day, to do them.

¹²It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances, and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the lovingkindness which he swore to your fathers:

¹³and he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you.

¹⁴You shall be blessed above all peoples: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

¹⁵Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, will he put on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you.

¹⁶You shall consume all the peoples who Yahweh your God shall deliver to you; your eye shall not pity them: neither shall you serve their gods; for that will be a snare to you.

¹⁷If you shall say in your heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?

¹⁸you shall not be afraid of them: you shall well remember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt;

¹⁹the great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, whereby Yahweh your God brought you out: so shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

²⁰Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you.

²¹You shall not be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is in the midst of you, a great and awesome God.

²²Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you by little and little: you may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you.

²³But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they be destroyed.

²⁴He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name to perish from under the sky: there shall no man be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them.

²⁵The engraved images of their gods shall you burn with fire: you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it to you, lest you be snared therein; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God.

²⁶You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it: you shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.

8All the commandment which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers.

²You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not.

³He humbled you, and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you didn't know, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh does man live.

⁴Your clothing didn't grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years.

⁵You shall consider in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so Yahweh your God chastens you.

⁶You shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

⁷For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills;

⁸a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey;

⁹a land in which you shall eat bread without scarceness, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper.

¹⁰You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless Yahweh your God for the good land which he has given you.

¹¹Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God, in not keeping his commandments, and his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you this day:

¹²lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses, and lived therein;

¹³and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied;

¹⁴then your heart be lifted up, and you forget Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;

¹⁵who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, [in which were] fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where was no water; who brought you forth water out of the rock of flint;

¹⁶who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers didn't know; that he might humble you, and that he might prove you, to do you good at your latter end:

¹⁷and [lest] you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.

¹⁸But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day.

¹⁹It shall be, if you shall forget Yahweh your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish.

²⁰As the nations that Yahweh makes to perish before you, so shall you perish; because you wouldn't listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

9Hear, Israel: you are to pass over the Jordan this day, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to the sky,

²a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard say, Who can stand before the sons of Anak?

³Know therefore this day, that Yahweh your God is he who goes over before you as a devouring fire; he will destroy them, and he will bring them down before you: so shall you drive them out, and make them to perish quickly, as Yahweh has spoken to you.

⁴Don't speak in your heart, after that Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land; whereas for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh does drive them out from before you.

⁵Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

⁶Know therefore, that Yahweh your God doesn't give you this good land to possess it for your righteousness; for you are a stiff-necked people.

⁷Remember, don't forget, how you provoked Yahweh your God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that you went forth out of the land of Egypt, until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against Yahweh.

⁸Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you.

⁹When I was gone up onto the mountain to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water.

¹⁰Yahweh delivered to me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them [was written] according to all the words, which Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

¹¹It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that Yahweh gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.

¹²Yahweh said to me, Arise, get you down quickly from hence; for your people whom you have brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they have quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.

¹³Furthermore Yahweh spoke to me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people:

¹⁴let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the sky; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.

¹⁵So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.

¹⁶I looked, and, behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God; you had made you a molten calf: you had turned aside quickly out of the way which Yahweh had commanded you.

¹⁷I took hold of the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes.

¹⁸I fell down before Yahweh, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water; because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger.

¹⁹For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, with which Yahweh was angry against you to destroy you. But Yahweh listened to me that time also.

²⁰Yahweh was very angry with Aaron to destroy him: and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.

²¹I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust: and I cast the dust of it into the brook that descended out of the mountain.

²²At Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, you provoked Yahweh to wrath.

²³When Yahweh sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then you rebelled against the commandment of Yahweh your God, and you didn't believe him, nor listen to his voice.

²⁴You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you.

²⁵So I fell down before Yahweh the forty days and forty nights that I fell down, because Yahweh had said he would destroy you.

²⁶I prayed to Yahweh, and said, Lord Yahweh, don't destroy your people and your inheritance, that you have redeemed through your greatness, that you have brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

²⁷Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; don't look to the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin,

²⁸lest the land whence you brought us out say, Because Yahweh was not able to bring them into the land which he promised to them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.

²⁹Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.

10At that time Yahweh said to me, Hew you two tables of stone like the first, and come up to me onto the mountain, and make an ark of wood.

²I will write on the tables the words that were on the first tables which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.

³So I made an ark of acacia wood, and hewed two tables of stone like the first, and went up onto the mountain, having the two tables in my hand.

⁴He wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and Yahweh gave them to me.

⁵I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they are as Yahweh commanded me.

⁶(The children of Israel journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the priest's office in his place.

⁷From there they journeyed to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water.

⁸At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day.

⁹Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; Yahweh is his inheritance, according as Yahweh your God spoke to him.)

¹⁰I stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights: and Yahweh listened to me that time also; Yahweh would not destroy you.

¹¹Yahweh said to me, Arise, take your journey before the people; and they shall go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give to them.

¹²Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹³to keep the commandments of Yahweh, and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good?

¹⁴Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein.

¹⁵Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day.

¹⁶Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.

¹⁷For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn't regard persons, nor takes reward.

¹⁸He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the sojourner, in giving him food and clothing.

¹⁹Love you therefore the sojourner; for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

²⁰You shall fear Yahweh your God; him shall you serve; and to him shall you cleave, and by his name shall you swear.

²¹He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which your eyes have seen.

²²Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.

11Therefore you shall love Yahweh your God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments, always.

²Know you this day: for I don't speak with your children who have not known, and who have not seen the chastisement of Yahweh your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm,

³and his signs, and his works, which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land;

⁴and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how Yahweh has destroyed them to this day;

⁵and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place;

⁶and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; how the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel:

⁷but your eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh which he did.

⁸Therefore shall you keep all the commandment which I command you this day, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you go over to possess it;

⁹and that you may prolong your days in the land, which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give to them and to their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰For the land, where you go in to possess it, isn't as the land of Egypt, from whence you came out, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs;

¹¹but the land, where you go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, [and] drinks water of the rain of the sky,

¹²a land which Yahweh your God cares for: the eyes of Yahweh your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.

¹³It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹⁴that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, and your new wine, and your oil.

¹⁵I will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and be full.

¹⁶Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;

¹⁷and the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you, and he shut up the sky, so that there shall be no rain, and the land shall not yield its fruit; and you perish quickly from off the good land which Yahweh gives you.

¹⁸Therefore shall you lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul; and you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes.

¹⁹You shall teach them your children, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.

²⁰You shall write them on the door-posts of your house, and on your gates;

²¹that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.

²²For if you shall diligently keep all this commandment which I command you, to do it, to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave to him;

²³then will Yahweh drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves.

²⁴Every place whereon the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the hinder sea shall be your border.

²⁵There shall no man be able to stand before you: Yahweh your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread on, as he has spoken to you.

²⁶Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse:

²⁷the blessing, if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day;

²⁸and the curse, if you shall not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known.

²⁹It shall happen, when Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.

³⁰Aren't they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?

³¹For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall possess it, and dwell therein.

³²You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you this day.

12These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess it, all the days that you live on the earth.

²You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree:

³and you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods; and you shall destroy their name out of that place.

⁴You shall not do so to Yahweh your God.

⁵But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, even to his habitation shall you seek, and there you shall come;

⁶and there you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill-offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock:

⁷and there you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.

⁸You shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatever is right in his own eyes;

⁹for you haven't yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which Yahweh your God gives you.

¹⁰But when you go over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety;

¹¹then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there shall you bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh.

¹²You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your sons, and your daughters, and your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

¹³Take heed to yourself that you don't offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see;

¹⁴but in the place which Yahweh shall choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

¹⁵Notwithstanding, you may kill and eat flesh within all your gates, after all the desire of your soul, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which he has given you: the unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle, and as of the hart.

¹⁶Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth as water.

¹⁷You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, or of your new wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, nor any of your vows which you vow, nor your freewill-offerings, nor the heave-offering of your hand;

¹⁸but you shall eat them before Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite who is within your gates: and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God in all that you put your hand to.

¹⁹Take heed to yourself that you don't forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.

²⁰When Yahweh your God shall enlarge your border, as he has promised you, and you shall say, I will eat flesh, because your soul desires to eat flesh; you may eat flesh, after all the desire of your soul.

²¹If the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to put his name there, be too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul.

²²Even as the gazelle and as the hart is eaten, so you shall eat of it: the unclean and the clean may eat of it alike.

²³Only be sure that you don't eat the blood: for the blood is the life; and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.

²⁴You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth as water.

²⁵You shall not eat it; that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh.

²⁶Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take, and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose:

²⁷and you shall offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of Yahweh your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of Yahweh your God; and you shall eat the flesh.

²⁸Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.

²⁹When Yahweh your God shall cut off the nations from before you, where you go in to dispossess them, and you dispossess them, and dwell in their land;

³⁰take heed to yourself that you not be ensnared to follow them, after that they are destroyed from before you; and that you not inquire after their gods, saying, How do these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.

³¹You shall not do so to Yahweh your God: for every abomination to Yahweh, which he hates, have they done to their gods; for even their sons and their daughters do they burn in the fire to their gods.

³²Whatever thing I command you, that shall you observe to do: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

13If there arise in the midst of you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and he give you a sign or a wonder,

²and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spoke to you, saying, Let us go after other gods, which you have not known, and let us serve them;

³you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams: for Yahweh your God proves you, to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

⁴You shall walk after Yahweh your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and you shall serve him, and cleave to him.

⁵That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to draw you aside out of the way which Yahweh your God commanded you to walk in. So shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.

⁶If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend, who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known, you, nor your fathers;

⁷of the gods of the peoples who are round about you, near to you, or far off from you, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth;

⁸you shall not consent to him, nor listen to him; neither shall your eye pity him, neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him:

⁹but you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

¹⁰You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

¹¹All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more such wickedness as this is in the midst of you.

¹²If you shall hear tell concerning one of your cities, which Yahweh your God gives you to dwell there, saying,

¹³Certain base fellows are gone out from the midst of you, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which you have not known;

¹⁴then shall you inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in the midst of you,

¹⁵you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein and the cattle of it, with the edge of the sword.

¹⁶You shall gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street of it, and shall burn with fire the city, and all the spoil of it every whit, to Yahweh your God: and it shall be a heap forever; it shall not be built again.

¹⁷There shall cleave nothing of the devoted thing to your hand; that Yahweh may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he has sworn to your fathers;

¹⁸when you shall listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep all his commandments which I command you this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh your God.

14You are the children of Yahweh your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.

²For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Yahweh has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.

³You shall not eat any abominable thing.

⁴These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,

⁵the hart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the gazelle, and the antelope, and the chamois.

⁶Every animal that parts the hoof, and has the hoof cloven in two, [and] chews the cud, among the animals, that may you eat.

⁷Nevertheless these you shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of those who have the hoof cloven: the camel, and the hare, and the rabbit; because they chew the cud but don't part the hoof, they are unclean to you.

⁸The pig, because he doesn't part the hoof but doesn't chew the cud, he is unclean to you: of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.

⁹These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales may you eat;

¹⁰and whatever doesn't have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean to you.

¹¹Of all clean birds you may eat.

¹²But these are they of which you shall not eat: the eagle, and the gier-eagle, and the ospray,

¹³and the red kite, and the falcon, and the kite after its kind,

¹⁴and every raven after its kind,

¹⁵and the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew, and the hawk after its kind,

¹⁶the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl,

¹⁷and the pelican, and the vulture, and the cormorant,

¹⁸and the stork, and the heron after its kind, and the hoopoe, and the bat.

¹⁹All winged creeping things are unclean to you: they shall not be eaten.

²⁰Of all clean birds you may eat.

²¹You shall not eat of anything that dies of itself: you may give it to the sojourner who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner: for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

²²You shall surely tithe all the increase of your seed, that which comes forth from the field year by year.

²³You shall eat before Yahweh your God, in the place which he shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock; that you may learn to fear Yahweh your God always.

²⁴If the way be too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, because the place is too far from you, which Yahweh your God shall choose, to set his name there, when Yahweh your God shall bless you;

²⁵then shall you turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose:

²⁶and you shall bestow the money for whatever your soul desires, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever your soul asks of you; and you shall eat there before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

²⁷The Levite who is within your gates, you shall not forsake him; for he has no portion nor inheritance with you.

²⁸At the end of every three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall lay it up within your gates:

²⁹and the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

15At the end of every seven years you shall make a release.

²This is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release that which he has lent to his neighbor; he shall not exact it of his neighbor and his brother; because Yahweh's release has been proclaimed.

³Of a foreigner you may exact it: but whatever of your is with your brother your hand shall release.

⁴However there shall be no poor with you; (for Yahweh will surely bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it;)

⁵if only you diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all this commandment which I command you this day.

⁶For Yahweh your God will bless you, as he promised you: and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you.

⁷If there be with you a poor man, one of your brothers, within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother;

⁸but you shall surely open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need [in that] which he wants.

⁹Beware that there not be a base thought in your heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing; and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you.

¹⁰You shall surely give him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him; because that for this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work, and in all that you put your hand to.

¹¹For the poor will never cease out of the land: therefore I command you, saying, You shall surely open your hand to your brother, to your needy, and to your poor, in your land.

¹²If your brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, be sold to you, and serve you six years; then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.

¹³When you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty:

¹⁴you shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, and out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress; as Yahweh your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.

¹⁵You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you: therefore I command you this thing today.

¹⁶It shall be, if he tell you, I will not go out from you; because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you;

¹⁷then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your maid-servant you shall do likewise.

¹⁸It shall not seem hard to you, when you let him go free from you; for to the double of the hire of a hireling has he served you six years: and Yahweh your God will bless you in all that you do.

¹⁹All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock you shall sanctify to Yahweh your God: you shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock.

²⁰You shall eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh shall choose, you and your household.

²¹If it have any blemish, [as if it be] lame or blind, any ill blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to Yahweh your God.

²²You shall eat it within your gates: the unclean and the clean [shall eat it] alike, as the gazelle, and as the hart.

²³Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out on the ground as water.

16Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God; for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night.

²You shall sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahweh shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.

³You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that you may remember the day when you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

⁴There shall be no yeast seen with you in all your borders seven days; neither shall any of the flesh, which you sacrifice the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.

⁵You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you;

⁶but at the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came forth out of Egypt.

⁷You shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose: and you shall turn in the morning, and go to your tents.

⁸Six days you shall eat unleavened bread; and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God; you shall do no work [therein].

⁹Seven weeks shall you number to you: from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain shall you begin to number seven weeks.

¹⁰You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill-offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you:

¹¹and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite who is within your gates, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are in the midst of you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.

¹²You shall remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt: and you shall observe and do these statutes.

¹³You shall keep the feast of tents seven days, after that you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your winepress:

¹⁴and you shall rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates.

¹⁵Seven days shall you keep a feast to Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh shall choose; because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase, and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful.

¹⁶Three times in a year shall all your males appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he shall choose: in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents; and they shall not appear before Yahweh empty:

¹⁷every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God which he has given you.

¹⁸Judges and officers shall you make you in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

¹⁹You shall not wrest justice: you shall not respect persons; neither shall you take a bribe; for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.

²⁰That which is altogether just shall you follow, that you may live, and inherit the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

²¹You shall not plant you an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of Yahweh your God, which you shall make you.

²²Neither shall you set you up a pillar; which Yahweh your God hates.

17You shall not sacrifice to Yahweh your God an ox, or a sheep, in which is a blemish, [or] anything evil; for that is an abomination to Yahweh your God.

²If there be found in the midst of you, within any of your gates which Yahweh your God gives you, man or woman, who does that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, in transgressing his covenant,

³and has gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the host of the sky, which I have not commanded;

⁴and it be told you, and you have heard of it, then shall you inquire diligently; and, behold, if it be true, and the thing certain, that such abomination is done in Israel,

⁵then shall you bring forth that man or that woman, who has done this evil thing, to your gates, even the man or the woman; and you shall stone them to death with stones.

⁶At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he who is to die be put to death; at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

⁷The hand of the witnesses shall be first on him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

⁸If there arise a matter too hard for you in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within your gates; then shall you arise, and get you up to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose;

⁹and you shall come to the priests the Levites, and to the judge who shall be in those days: and you shall inquire; and they shall show you the sentence of judgment.

¹⁰You shall do according to the tenor of the sentence which they shall show you from that place which Yahweh shall choose; and you shall observe to do according to all that they shall teach you:

¹¹according to the tenor of the law which they shall teach you, and according to the judgment which they shall tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the sentence which they shall show you, to the right hand, nor to the left.

¹²The man who does presumptuously, in not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Yahweh your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die: and you shall put away the evil from Israel.

¹³All the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously.

¹⁴When you are come to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are round about me;

¹⁵you shall surely set him king over you, whom Yahweh your God shall choose: one from among your brothers shall you set king over you; you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

¹⁶Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because Yahweh has said to you, You shall henceforth return no more that way.

¹⁷Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

¹⁸It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of [that which is] before the priests the Levites:

¹⁹and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;

²⁰that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.

18The priests the Levites, [even] all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of Yahweh made by fire, and his inheritance.

²They shall have no inheritance among their brothers: Yahweh is their inheritance, as he has spoken to them.

³This shall be the priests' due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, that they shall give to the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.

⁴The first-fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, shall you give him.

⁵For Yahweh your God has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand to minister in the name of Yahweh, him and his sons for ever.

⁶If a Levite come from any of your gates out of all Israel, where he sojourns, and come with all the desire of his soul to the place which Yahweh shall choose;

⁷then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before Yahweh.

⁸They shall have like portions to eat, besides that which comes of the sale of his patrimony.

⁹When you are come into the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

¹⁰There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,

¹¹or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

¹²For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh: and because of these abominations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you.

¹³You shall be perfect with Yahweh your God.

¹⁴For these nations, that you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice sorcery, and to diviners; but as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you so to do.

¹⁵Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from the midst of you, of your brothers, like me; to him you shall listen;

¹⁶according to all that you desired of Yahweh your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I not die.

¹⁷Yahweh said to me, They have well said that which they have spoken.

¹⁸I will raise them up a prophet from among their brothers, like you; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I shall command him.

¹⁹It shall happen, that whoever will not listen to my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

²⁰But the prophet, who shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.

²¹If you say in your heart, How shall we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?

²²when a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing doesn't follow, nor happen, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken: the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you shall not be afraid of him.

19When Yahweh your God shall cut off the nations, whose land Yahweh your God gives you, and you succeed them, and dwell in their cities, and in their houses;

²you shall set apart three cities for you in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it.

³You shall prepare you the way, and divide the borders of your land, which Yahweh your God causes you to inherit, into three parts, that every manslayer may flee there.

⁴This is the case of the manslayer, that shall flee there and live: whoever kills his neighbor unawares, and didn't hate him in time past;

⁵as when a man goes into the forest with his neighbor to hew wood, and his hand fetches a stroke with the ax to cut down the tree, and the head slips from the handle, and lights on his neighbor, so that he dies; he shall flee to one of these cities and live:

⁶lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally; whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he didn't hate him in time past.

⁷Therefore I command you, saying, You shall set apart three cities for you.

⁸If Yahweh your God enlarge your border, as he has sworn to your fathers, and give you all the land which he promised to give to your fathers;

⁹if you shall keep all this commandment to do it, which I command you this day, to love Yahweh your God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shall you add three cities more for you, besides these three:

¹⁰that innocent blood not be shed in the midst of your land, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, and so blood be on you.

¹¹But if any man hate his neighbor, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and strike him mortally so that he dies, and he flee into one of these cities;

¹²then the elders of his city shall send and bring him there, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die.

¹³Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall put away the innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with you.

¹⁴You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which they of old time have set, in your inheritance which you shall inherit, in the land that Yahweh your God gives you to possess it.

¹⁵One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sins: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall a matter be established.

¹⁶If an unrighteous witness rise up against any man to testify against him of wrong-doing,

¹⁷then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days;

¹⁸and the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother;

¹⁹then shall you do to him, as he had thought to do to his brother: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.

²⁰Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil in the midst of you.

²¹Your eyes shall not pity; life [shall go] for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

20When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and see horses, and chariots, [and] a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

²It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people,

³and shall tell them, Hear, Israel, you draw near this day to battle against your enemies: don't let your heart faint; don't be afraid, nor tremble, neither be you scared of them;

⁴for Yahweh your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.

⁵The officers shall speak to the people, saying, What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it.

⁶What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used the fruit of it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use the fruit of it.

⁷What man is there who has pledged to be married a wife, and has not taken her? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.

⁸The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? let him go and return to his house, lest his brother's heart melt as his heart.

⁹It shall be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of hosts at the head of the people.

¹⁰When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.

¹¹It shall be, if it make you answer of peace, and open to you, then it shall be, that all the people who are found therein shall become tributary to you, and shall serve you.

¹²If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it:

¹³and when Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword:

¹⁴but the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil of it, shall you take for a prey to yourself; and you shall eat the spoil of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you.

¹⁵Thus shall you do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.

¹⁶But of the cities of these peoples, that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes;

¹⁷but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; as Yahweh your God has commanded you;

¹⁸that they not teach you to do after all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God.

¹⁹When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy the trees of it by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged of you?

²⁰Only the trees of which you know that they are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down; and you shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it fall.

21If one be found slain in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it, lying in the field, and it isn't known who has struck him;

²then your elders and your judges shall come forth, and they shall measure to the cities which are round about him who is slain:

³and it shall be, that the city which is nearest to the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn't been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke;

⁴and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer's neck there in the valley.

⁵The priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in the name of Yahweh; and according to their word shall every controversy and every stroke be.

⁶All the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley;

⁷and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it.

⁸Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don't allow innocent blood [to remain] in the midst of your people Israel. The blood shall be forgiven them.

⁹So shall you put away the innocent blood from the midst of you, when you shall do that which is right in the eyes of Yahweh.

¹⁰When you go forth to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive,

¹¹and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire to her, and would take her to you as wife;

¹²then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;

¹³and she shall put the clothing of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that you shall go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.

¹⁴It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her at all for money, you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.

¹⁵If a man have two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers who was hated;

¹⁶then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn:

¹⁷but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

¹⁸If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and, though they chasten him, will not listen to them;

¹⁹then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place;

²⁰and they shall tell the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.

²¹All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

²²If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and you hang him on a tree;

²³his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God; that you don't defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.

22You shall not see your brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and hide yourself from them: you shall surely bring them again to your brother.

²If your brother isn't near to you, or if you don't know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother seek after it, and you shall restore it to him.

³So shall you do with his donkey; and so shall you do with his garment; and so shall you do with every lost thing of your brother's, which he has lost, and you have found: you may not hide yourself.

⁴You shall not see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them: you shall surely help him to lift them up again.

⁵A woman shall not wear that which pertains to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God.

⁶If a bird's nest chance to be before you in the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young:

⁷you shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take to yourself; that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.

⁸When you build a new house, then you shall make a battlement for your roof, that you don't bring blood on your house, if any man fall from there.

⁹You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole fruit be forfeited, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard.

¹⁰You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.

¹¹You shall not wear a mingled stuff, wool and linen together.

¹²You shall make you fringes on the four borders of your cloak, with which you cover yourself.

¹³If any man take a wife, and go in to her, and hate her,

¹⁴and lay shameful things to her charge, and bring up an evil name on her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn't find in her the tokens of virginity;

¹⁵then shall the father of the young lady, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the young lady's virginity to the elders of the city in the gate;

¹⁶and the young lady's father shall tell the elders, I gave my daughter to this man to wife, and he hates her;

¹⁷and, behold, he has laid shameful things [to her charge], saying, I didn't find in your daughter the tokens of virginity; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. They shall spread the garment before the elders of the city.

¹⁸The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him;

¹⁹and they shall fine him one hundred [shekels] of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has brought up an evil name on a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days.

²⁰But if this thing be true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady;

²¹then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father's house: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.

²²If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman: so shall you put away the evil from Israel.

²³If there be a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her;

²⁴then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn't cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor's wife: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you.

²⁵But if the man find the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her; then the man only who lay with her shall die:

²⁶but to the lady you shall do nothing; there is in the lady no sin worthy of death: for as when a man rises against his neighbor, and kills him, even so is this matter;

²⁷for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was none to save her.

²⁸If a man find a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;

²⁹then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady's father fifty [shekels] of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has humbled her; he may not put her away all his days.

³⁰A man shall not take his father's wife, and shall not uncover his father's skirt.

23He who is wounded in the stones, or has his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh.

²A bastard shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of Yahweh.

³An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none belonging to them enter into the assembly of Yahweh forever:

⁴because they didn't meet you with bread and with water in the way, when you came forth out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

⁵Nevertheless Yahweh your God wouldn't listen to Balaam; but Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because Yahweh your God loved you.

⁶You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.

⁷You shall not abhor an Edomite; for he is your brother: you shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land.

⁸The children of the third generation who are born to them shall enter into the assembly of Yahweh.

⁹When you go forth in camp against your enemies, then you shall keep you from every evil thing.

¹⁰If there be among you any man, who is not clean by reason of that which happens him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp:

¹¹but it shall be, when evening comes on, he shall bathe himself in water; and when the sun is down, he shall come within the camp.

¹²You shall have a place also outside of the camp, where you shall go forth abroad:

¹³and you shall have a paddle among your weapons; and it shall be, when you sit down abroad, you shall dig therewith, and shall turn back and cover that which comes from you:

¹⁴for Yahweh your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you, and to give up your enemies before you; therefore shall your camp be holy, that he may not see an unclean thing in you, and turn away from you.

¹⁵You shall not deliver to his master a servant who is escaped from his master to you:

¹⁶he shall dwell with you, in the midst of you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best: you shall not oppress him.

¹⁷There shall be no prostitute of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a sodomite of the sons of Israel.

¹⁸You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the wages of a dog, into the house of Yahweh your God for any vow: for even both these are an abomination to Yahweh your God.

¹⁹You shall not lend on interest to your brother; interest of money, interest of victuals, interest of anything that is lent on interest:

²⁰to a foreigner you may lend on interest; but to your brother you shall not lend on interest, that Yahweh your God may bless you in all that you put your hand to, in the land where you go in to possess it.

²¹When you shall vow a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not be slack to pay it: for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; and it would be sin in you.

²²But if you shall forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in you.

²³That which is gone out of your lips you shall observe and do; according as you have vowed to Yahweh your God, a freewill-offering, which you have promised with your mouth.

²⁴When you come into your neighbor's vineyard, then you may eat of grapes your fill at your own pleasure; but you shall not put any in your vessel.

²⁵When you come into your neighbor's standing grain, then you may pluck the ears with your hand; but you shall not move a sickle to your neighbor's standing grain.

24When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

²When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's [wife].

³If the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife;

⁴her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.

⁵When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the host, neither shall he be charged with any business: he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken.

⁶No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge; for he takes [a man's] life to pledge.

⁷If a man be found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deal with him as a slave, or sell him; then that thief shall die: so shall you put away the evil from the midst of you.

⁸Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so you shall observe to do.

⁹Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam, by the way as you came forth out of Egypt.

¹⁰When you do lend your neighbor any manner of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge.

¹¹You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you do lend shall bring forth the pledge outside to you.

¹²If he be a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge;

¹³you shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless you: and it shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God.

¹⁴You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers, or of your sojourners who are in your land within your gates:

¹⁵in his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it: lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.

¹⁶The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

¹⁷You shall not wrest the justice [due] to the sojourner, [or] to the fatherless, nor take the widow's clothing to pledge;

¹⁸but you shall remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there: therefore I command you to do this thing.

¹⁹When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgot a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it: it shall be for the sojourner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

²⁰When you beat your olive-tree, you shall not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the sojourner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

²¹When you gather [the grapes of] your vineyard, you shall not glean it after you: it shall be for the sojourner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

²²You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt: therefore I command you to do this thing.

25If there be a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, and [the judges] judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked;

²and it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number.

³Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then your brother should seem vile to you.

⁴You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out [the grain].

⁵If brothers dwell together, and one of them die, and have no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in to her, and take her to him as wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

⁶It shall be, that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel.

⁷If the man doesn't want to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.

⁸Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him: and if he stand, and say, I don't want to take her;

⁹then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.

¹⁰His name shall be called in Israel, The house of him who has his shoe loosed.

¹¹When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts forth her hand, and takes him by the secrets;

¹²then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity.

¹³You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, a great and a small.

¹⁴You shall not have in your house diverse measures, a great and a small.

¹⁵A perfect and just weight shall you have; a perfect and just measure shall you have: that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

¹⁶For all who do such things, [even] all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to Yahweh your God.

¹⁷Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came forth out of Egypt;

¹⁸how he met you by the way, and struck the hindmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn't fear God.

¹⁹Therefore it shall be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies round about, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky; you shall not forget.

26It shall be, when you are come in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, and possess it, and dwell therein,

²that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you; and you shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.

³You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, I profess this day to Yahweh your God, that I am come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us.

⁴The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the altar of Yahweh your God.

⁵You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

⁶The Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and laid on us hard bondage:

⁷and we cried to Yahweh, the God of our fathers, and Yahweh heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression;

⁸and Yahweh brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror, and with signs, and with wonders;

⁹and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, Yahweh, have given me. You shall set it down before Yahweh your God, and worship before Yahweh your God:

¹¹and you shall rejoice in all the good which Yahweh your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is in the midst of you.

¹²When you have made an end of tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates, and be filled.

¹³You shall say before Yahweh your God, I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, and to the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me: I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them:

¹⁴I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I put away of it, being unclean, nor given of it for the dead: I have listened to the voice of Yahweh my God; I have done according to all that you have commanded me.

¹⁵Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the ground which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁶This day Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances: you shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart, and with all your soul.

¹⁷You have declared Yahweh this day to be your God, and that you would walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice:

¹⁸and Yahweh has declared you this day to be a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments;

¹⁹and to make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, and in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as he has spoken.

27Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandment which I command you this day.

²It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set you up great stones, and plaster them with plaster:

³and you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you are passed over; that you may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

⁴It shall be, when you are passed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster.

⁵There shall you build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones: you shall lift up no iron [tool] on them.

⁶You shall build the altar of Yahweh your God of uncut stones; and you shall offer burnt offerings thereon to Yahweh your God:

⁷and you shall sacrifice peace-offerings, and shall eat there; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God.

⁸You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.

⁹Moses and the priests the Levites spoke to all Israel, saying, Keep silence, and listen, Israel: this day you are become the people of Yahweh your God.

¹⁰You shall therefore obey the voice of Yahweh your God, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you this day.

¹¹Moses charged the people the same day, saying,

¹²These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you are passed over the Jordan: Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin.

¹³These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

¹⁴The Levites shall answer, and tell all the men of Israel with a loud voice,

¹⁵Cursed be the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret. All the people shall answer and say, Amen.

¹⁶Cursed be he who sets light by his father or his mother. All the people shall say, Amen.

¹⁷Cursed be he who removes his neighbor's landmark. All the people shall say, Amen.

¹⁸Cursed be he who makes the blind to wander out of the way. All the people shall say, Amen.

¹⁹Cursed be he who wrests the justice [due] to the sojourner, fatherless, and widow. All the people shall say, Amen.

²⁰Cursed be he who lies with his father's wife, because he has uncovered his father's skirt. All the people shall say, Amen.

²¹Cursed be he who lies with any manner of animal. All the people shall say, Amen.

²²Cursed be he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. All the people shall say, Amen.

²³Cursed be he who lies with his mother-in-law. All the people shall say, Amen.

²⁴Cursed be he who strikes his neighbor in secret. All the people shall say, Amen.

²⁵Cursed be he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person. All the people shall say, Amen.

²⁶Cursed be he who doesn't confirm the words of this law to do them. All the people shall say, Amen.

28It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you this day, who Yahweh your God will set you on high above all the nations of the earth:

²and all these blessings shall come on you, and overtake you, if you shall listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

³Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.

⁴Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your animals, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.

⁵Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough.

⁶Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

⁷Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you: they shall come out against you one way, and shall flee before you seven ways.

⁸Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to; and he will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.

⁹Yahweh will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you; if you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and walk in his ways.

¹⁰All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of Yahweh; and they shall be afraid of you.

¹¹Yahweh will make you plenteous for good, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you.

¹²Yahweh will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand: and you shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow.

¹³Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath; if you shall listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day, to observe and to do [them],

¹⁴and shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

¹⁵But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come on you, and overtake you.

¹⁶Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.

¹⁷Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough.

¹⁸Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock.

¹⁹Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

²⁰Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you be destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, whereby you have forsaken me.

²¹Yahweh will make the pestilence cleave to you, until he have consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it.

²²Yahweh will strike you with consumption, and with fever, and with inflammation, and with fiery heat, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue you until you perish.

²³Your sky that is over your head shall be brass, and the earth that is under you shall be iron.

²⁴Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust: from the sky shall it come down on you, until you are destroyed.

²⁵Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them, and shall flee seven ways before them: and you shall be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.

²⁶Your dead body shall be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there shall be none to frighten them away.

²⁷Yahweh will strike you with the boil of Egypt, and with the tumors, and with the scurvy, and with the itch, whereof you can not be healed.

²⁸Yahweh will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart;

²⁹and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you.

³⁰You shall betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: you shall build a house, and you shall not dwell therein: you shall plant a vineyard, and shall not use the fruit of it.

³¹Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it: your donkey shall be violently taken away from before your face, and shall not be restored to you: your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have none to save you.

³²Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people; and your eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day: and there shall be nothing in the power of your hand.

³³The fruit of your ground, and all your labors, shall a nation which you don't know eat up; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always;

³⁴so that you shall be mad for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.

³⁵Yahweh will strike you in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore boil, whereof you can not be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

³⁶Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you shall set over you, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods, wood and stone.

³⁷You shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples where Yahweh shall lead you away.

³⁸You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather little in; for the locust shall consume it.

³⁹You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine, nor gather [the grapes]; for the worm shall eat them.

⁴⁰You shall have olive-trees throughout all your borders, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olive shall cast [its fruit].

⁴¹You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity.

⁴²All your trees and the fruit of your ground shall the locust possess.

⁴³The sojourner who is in the midst of you shall mount up above you higher and higher; and you shall come down lower and lower.

⁴⁴He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him: he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

⁴⁵All these curses shall come on you, and shall pursue you, and overtake you, until you be destroyed; because you didn't listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you:

⁴⁶and they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever.

⁴⁷Because you didn't serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things;

⁴⁸therefore shall you serve your enemies whom Yahweh shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron on your neck, until he have destroyed you.

⁴⁹Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you shall not understand;

⁵⁰a nation of fierce facial expressions, that shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young,

⁵¹and shall eat the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your ground, until you be destroyed; that also shall not leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your cattle, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

⁵²They shall besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which Yahweh your God has given you.

⁵³You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.

⁵⁴The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining;

⁵⁵so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your gates.

⁵⁶The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,

⁵⁷and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your gates.

⁵⁸If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, YAHWEH YOUR GOD;

⁵⁹then Yahweh will make your plagues wonderful, and the plagues of your seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.

⁶⁰He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they shall cleave to you.

⁶¹Also every sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them will Yahweh bring on you, until you be destroyed.

⁶²You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you didn't listen to the voice of Yahweh your God.

⁶³It shall happen that as Yahweh rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so Yahweh will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and you shall be plucked from off the land where you go in to possess it.

⁶⁴Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone.

⁶⁵Among these nations shall you find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of your foot: but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul;

⁶⁶and your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you shall fear night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life.

⁶⁷In the morning you shall say, Would it were even! and at even you shall say, Would it were morning! for the fear of your heart which you shall fear, and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.

⁶⁸Yahweh will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I said to you, You shall see it no more again: and there you shall sell yourselves to your enemies for bondservants and for bondmaids, and no man shall buy you.

29These are the words of the covenant which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

²Moses called to all Israel, and said to them, You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land;

³the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders:

⁴but Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.

⁵I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes have not grown old on you, and your shoe has not grown old on your foot.

⁶You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.

⁷When you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we struck them:

⁸and we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites.

⁹Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

¹⁰You stand this day all of you before Yahweh your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel,

¹¹your little ones, your wives, and your sojourner who is in the midst of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water;

¹²that you may enter into the covenant of Yahweh your God, and into his oath, which Yahweh your God makes with you this day;

¹³that he may establish you this day to himself for a people, and that he may be to you a God, as he spoke to you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

¹⁴Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath,

¹⁵but with him who stands here with us this day before Yahweh our God, and also with him who is not here with us this day

¹⁶(for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed;

¹⁷and you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them);

¹⁸lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;

¹⁹and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry.

²⁰Yahweh will not pardon him, but then the anger of Yahweh and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book shall lie on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under the sky.

²¹Yahweh will set him apart to evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that is written in this book of the law.

²²The generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which Yahweh has made it sick;

²³[and that] the whole land of it is sulfur, and salt, [and] a burning, [that] it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

²⁴even all the nations shall say, Why has Yahweh done thus to this land? what means the heat of this great anger?

²⁵Then men shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt,

²⁶and went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods that they didn't know, and that he had not given to them:

²⁷therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse that is written in this book;

²⁸and Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day.

²⁹The secret things belong to Yahweh our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

30It shall happen, when all these things are come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where Yahweh your God has driven you,

²and shall return to Yahweh your God, and shall obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul;

³that then Yahweh your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples, where Yahweh your God has scattered you.

⁴If [any of] your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there will Yahweh your God gather you, and from there will he bring you back:

⁵and Yahweh your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and he will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers.

⁶Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.

⁷Yahweh your God will put all these curses on your enemies, and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.

⁸You shall return and obey the voice of Yahweh, and do all his commandments which I command you this day.

⁹Yahweh your God will make you plenteous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, for good: for Yahweh will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers;

¹⁰if you shall obey the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law; if you turn to Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.

¹¹For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.

¹²It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?

¹³Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?

¹⁴But the word is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.

¹⁵Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil;

¹⁶in that I command you this day to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it.

¹⁷But if your heart turn away, and you will not hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

¹⁸I denounce to you this day, that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land, where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it.

¹⁹I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your seed;

²⁰to love Yahweh your God, to obey his voice, and to cleave to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days; that you may dwell in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

31Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.

²He said to them, I am one hundred twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: and Yahweh has said to me, You shall not go over this Jordan.

³Yahweh your God, he will go over before you; he will destroy these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess them: [and] Joshua, he shall go over before you, as Yahweh has spoken.

⁴Yahweh will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land; whom he destroyed.

⁵Yahweh will deliver them up before you, and you shall do to them according to all the commandment which I have commanded you.

⁶Be strong and of good courage, don't be afraid, nor be scared of them: for Yahweh your God, he it is who does go with you; he will not fail you, nor forsake you.

⁷Moses called to Joshua, and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of good courage: for you shall go with this people into the land which Yahweh has sworn to their fathers to give them; and you shall cause them to inherit it.

⁸Yahweh, he it is who does go before you; he will be with you, he will not fail you, neither forsake you: don't be afraid, neither be dismayed.

⁹Moses wrote this law, and delivered it to the priests the sons of Levi, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and to all the elders of Israel.

¹⁰Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of [every] seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of tents,

¹¹when all Israel is come to appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he shall choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

¹²Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and your sojourner who is within your gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear Yahweh your God, and observe to do all the words of this law;

¹³and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear Yahweh your God, as long as you live in the land where you go over the Jordan to possess it.

¹⁴Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, your days approach that you must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, that I may give him a charge. Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tent of meeting.

¹⁵Yahweh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud: and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the Tent.

¹⁶Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers; and this people will rise up, and play the prostitute after the strange gods of the land, where they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

¹⁷Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall come on them; so that they will say in that day, Haven't these evils come on us because our God is not among us?

¹⁸I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evil which they shall have worked, in that they are turned to other gods.

¹⁹Now therefore write you this song for you, and teach you it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.

²⁰For when I shall have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and grown fat; then will they turn to other gods, and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant.

²¹It shall happen, when many evils and troubles are come on them, that this song shall testify before them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they frame this day, before I have brought them into the land which I swore.

²²So Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.

²³He gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to them: and I will be with you.

²⁴It happened, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,

²⁵that Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, saying,

²⁶Take this book of the law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.

²⁷For I know your rebellion, and your stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, you have been rebellious against Yahweh; and how much more after my death?

²⁸Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them.

²⁹For I know that after my death you will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because you will do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.

³⁰Moses spoke in the ears of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were finished.

32Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak; Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

²My doctrine shall drop as the rain; My speech shall condense as the dew, As the small rain on the tender grass, As the showers on the herb.

³For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh: Ascribe you greatness to our God.

⁴The Rock, his work is perfect; For all his ways are justice: A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, Just and right is he.

⁵They have dealt corruptly with him, [they are] not his children, [it is] their blemish; [They are] a perverse and crooked generation.

⁶Do you thus requite Yahweh, Foolish people and unwise? Isn't he your father who has bought you? He has made you, and established you.

⁷Remember the days of old, Consider the years of many generations: Ask your father, and he will show you; Your elders, and they will tell you.

⁸When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, When he separated the children of men, He set the bounds of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel.

⁹For Yahweh's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

¹⁰He found him in a desert land, In the waste howling wilderness; He compassed him about, he cared for him, He kept him as the apple of his eye.

¹¹As an eagle that stirs up her nest, That flutters over her young, He spread abroad his wings, he took them, He bore them on his pinions.

¹²Yahweh alone did lead him, There was no foreign god with him.

¹³He made him ride on the high places of the earth, He ate the increase of the field; He made him to suck honey out of the rock, Oil out of the flinty rock;

¹⁴Butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, With fat of lambs, Rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, With the finest of the wheat; Of the blood of the grape you drank wine.

¹⁵But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked: You have grown fat, you are grown thick, you are become sleek; Then he forsook God who made him, Lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁶They moved him to jealousy with strange [gods]; With abominations provoked they him to anger.

¹⁷They sacrificed to demons, [which were] no God, To gods that they didn't know, To new [gods] that came up of late, Which your fathers didn't dread.

¹⁸Of the Rock that became your father, you are unmindful, Have forgotten God who gave you birth.

¹⁹Yahweh saw [it], and abhorred [them], Because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.

²⁰He said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: For they are a very perverse generation, Children in whom is no faithfulness.

²¹They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; They have provoked me to anger with their vanities: I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

²²For a fire is kindled in my anger, Burns to the lowest Sheol, Devours the earth with its increase, Sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.

²³I will heap evils on them; I will spend my arrows on them:

²⁴[They shall be] wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat Bitter destruction; The teeth of animals will I send on them, With the poison of crawling things of the dust.

²⁵Outside shall the sword bereave, In the chambers terror; [It shall destroy] both young man and virgin, The suckling with the man of gray hairs.

²⁶I said, I would scatter them afar, I would make the memory of them to cease from among men;

²⁷Were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, Lest their adversaries should judge amiss, Lest they should say, Our hand is exalted, Yahweh has not done all this.

²⁸For they are a nation void of counsel, There is no understanding in them.

²⁹Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, That they would consider their latter end!

³⁰How should one chase a thousand, Two put ten thousand to flight, Except their Rock had sold them, Yahweh had delivered them up?

³¹For their rock is not as our Rock, Even our enemies themselves being judges.

³²For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, Of the fields of Gomorrah: Their grapes are grapes of gall, Their clusters are bitter:

³³Their wine is the poison of serpents, The cruel venom of asps.

³⁴Isn't this laid up in store with me, Sealed up among my treasures?

³⁵Vengeance is mine, and recompense, At the time when their foot shall slide: For the day of their calamity is at hand, The things that are to come on them shall make haste.

³⁶For Yahweh will judge his people, Repent himself for his servants; When he sees that [their] power is gone, There is none [remaining], shut up or left at large.

³⁷He will say, Where are their gods, The rock in which they took refuge;

³⁸Which ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink-offering? Let them rise up and help you, Let them be your protection.

³⁹See now that I, even I, am he, There is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; There is none who can deliver out of my hand.

⁴⁰For I lift up my hand to heaven, And say, As I live forever,

⁴¹If I whet my glittering sword, My hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to my adversaries, Will recompense those who hate me.

⁴²I will make my arrows drunk with blood, My sword shall devour flesh; With the blood of the slain and the captives, From the head of the leaders of the enemy.

⁴³Rejoice, you nations, [with] his people: For he will avenge the blood of his servants, Will render vengeance to his adversaries, Will make expiation for his land, for his people.

⁴⁴Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.

⁴⁵Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel;

⁴⁶He said to them, Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you this day, which you shall command your children to observe to do, [even] all the words of this law.

⁴⁷For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, where you go over the Jordan to possess it.

⁴⁸Yahweh spoke to Moses that same day, saying,

⁴⁹Get you up into this mountain of Abarim, to Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and see the land of Canaan, which I give to the children of Israel for a possession;

⁵⁰and die on the mountain where you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor, and was gathered to his people:

⁵¹because you trespassed against me in the midst of the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you didn't sanctify me in the midst of the children of Israel.

⁵²For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go there into the land which I give the children of Israel.

33This is the blessing, with which Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death.

²He said, Yahweh came from Sinai, Rose from Seir to them; He shined forth from Mount Paran, He came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them.

³Yes, he loves the people; All his saints are in your hand: They sat down at your feet; [Everyone] shall receive of your words.

⁴Moses commanded us a law, An inheritance for the assembly of Jacob.

⁵He was king in Jeshurun, When the heads of the people were gathered, All the tribes of Israel together.

⁶Let Reuben live, and not die; Nor let his men be few.

⁷This is [the blessing] of Judah: and he said, Hear, Yahweh, the voice of Judah, Bring him in to his people. With his hands he contended for himself; You shall be a help against his adversaries.

⁸Of Levi he said, Your Thummim and your Urim are with your godly one, Whom you did prove at Massah, With whom you did strive at the waters of Meribah;

⁹Who said of his father, and of his mother, I have not seen him; Neither did he acknowledge his brothers, Nor knew he his own children: For they have observed your word, Keep your covenant.

¹⁰They shall teach Jacob your ordinances, Israel your law: They shall put incense before you, Whole burnt offering on your altar.

¹¹Bless, Yahweh, his substance, Accept the work of his hands: Smite through the loins of those who rise up against him, Of those who hate him, that they not rise again.

¹²Of Benjamin he said, The beloved of Yahweh shall dwell in safety by him; He covers him all the day long, He dwells between his shoulders.

¹³Of Joseph he said, Blessed of Yahweh be his land, For the precious things of the heavens, for the dew, For the deep that couches beneath,

¹⁴For the precious things of the fruits of the sun, For the precious things of the growth of the moons,

¹⁵For the chief things of the ancient mountains, For the precious things of the everlasting hills,

¹⁶For the precious things of the earth and the fullness of it, The good will of him who lived in the bush. Let [the blessing] come on the head of Joseph, On the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.

¹⁷The firstborn of his herd, majesty is his; His horns are the horns of the wild-ox: With them he shall push the peoples all of them, [even] the ends of the earth: They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, They are the thousands of Manasseh.

¹⁸Of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; Issachar, in your tents.

¹⁹They shall call the peoples to the mountain; There shall they offer sacrifices of righteousness: For they shall suck the abundance of the seas, The hidden treasures of the sand.

²⁰Of Gad he said, Blessed be he who enlarges Gad: He dwells as a lioness, Tears the arm, yes, the crown of the head.

²¹He provided the first part for himself, For there was the lawgiver's portion reserved; He came [with] the heads of the people; He executed the righteousness of Yahweh, His ordinances with Israel.

²²Of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp, That leaps forth from Bashan.

²³Of Naphtali he said, Naphtali, satisfied with favor, Full with the blessing of Yahweh, Possess you the west and the south.

²⁴Of Asher he said, Blessed be Asher with children; Let him be acceptable to his brothers, Let him dip his foot in oil.

²⁵Your bars shall be iron and brass; As your days, so shall your strength be.

²⁶There is none like God, Jeshurun, Who rides on the heavens for your help, In his excellency on the skies.

²⁷The eternal God is [your] dwelling-place, Underneath are the everlasting arms. He thrust out the enemy from before you, Said, Destroy.

²⁸Israel dwells in safety, The fountain of Jacob alone, In a land of grain and new wine; Yes, his heavens drop down dew.

²⁹Happy are you, Israel: Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh, The shield of your help, The sword of your excellency! Your enemies shall submit themselves to you; You shall tread on their high places.

34Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. Yahweh showed him all the land of Gilead, to Dan,

²and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, to the hinder sea,

³and the South, and the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm-trees, to Zoar.

⁴Yahweh said to him, This is the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, I will give it to your seed: I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.

⁵So Moses the servant of Yahweh died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Yahweh.

⁶He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab over against Beth-peor: but no man knows of his tomb to this day.

⁷Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.

⁸The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping in the mourning for Moses were ended.

⁹Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands on him: and the children of Israel listened to him, and did as Yahweh commanded Moses.

¹⁰There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom Yahweh knew face to face,

¹¹in all the signs and the wonders, which Yahweh sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land,

¹²and in all the mighty hand, and in all the great terror, which Moses worked in the sight of all Israel.

1Now it happened after the death of Moses the servant of Yahweh, that Yahweh spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying,

²Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you, and all this people, to the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.

³Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread on, to you have I given it, as I spoke to Moses.

⁴From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border.

⁵There shall not any man be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you, nor forsake you.

⁶Be strong and of good courage; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

⁷Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded you: don't turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

⁸This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate thereon day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.

⁹Haven't I commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; don't be afraid, neither be dismayed: for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go.

¹⁰Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying,

¹¹Pass through the midst of the camp, and command the people, saying, Prepare you victuals; for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which Yahweh your God gives you to possess it.

¹²To the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, spoke Joshua, saying,

¹³Remember the word which Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, saying, Yahweh your God gives you rest, and will give you this land.

¹⁴Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall abide in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan; but you shall pass over before your brothers armed, all the mighty men of valor, and shall help them;

¹⁵until Yahweh have given your brothers rest, as [he has given] you, and they also have possessed the land which Yahweh your God gives them: then you shall return to the land of your possession, and possess it, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise.

¹⁶They answered Joshua, saying, All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go.

¹⁷According as we listened to Moses in all things, so will we listen to you: only Yahweh your God be with you, as he was with Moses.

¹⁸Whoever he be who shall rebel against your commandment, and shall not listen to your words in all that you command him, he shall be put to death: only be strong and of good courage.

2Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men as spies secretly, saying, Go, view the land, and Jericho. They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and lay there.

²It was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in here tonight of the children of Israel to search out the land.

³The king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men who are come to you, who have entered into your house; for they have come to search out all the land.

⁴The woman took the two men, and hid them; and she said, Yes, the men came to me, but I didn't know whence they were:

⁵and it happened about the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out; where the men went I don't know: pursue after them quickly; for you will overtake them.

⁶But she had brought them up to the roof, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order on the roof.

⁷The men pursued after them the way to the Jordan to the fords: and as soon as those who pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.

⁸Before they were laid down, she came up to them on the roof;

⁹and she said to the men, I know that Yahweh has given you the land, and that the fear of you is fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.

¹⁰For we have heard how Yahweh dried up the water of the Red Sea before you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

¹¹As soon as we had heard it, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more spirit in any man, because of you: for Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.

¹²Now therefore, please swear to me by Yahweh, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father's house, and give me a true token;

¹³and that you will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brothers, and my sisters, and all that they have, and will deliver our lives from death.

¹⁴The men said to her, Our life for yours, if you don't utter this our business; and it shall be, when Yahweh gives us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you.

¹⁵Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was on the side of the wall, and she lived on the wall.

¹⁶She said to them, Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers light on you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned: and afterward may you go your way.

¹⁷The men said to her, We will be guiltless of this your oath which you have made us to swear.

¹⁸Behold, when we come into the land, you shall bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which you did let us down by: and you shall gather to you into the house your father, and your mother, and your brothers, and all your father's household.

¹⁹It shall be, that whoever shall go out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his head, and we shall be guiltless: and whoever shall be with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be on him.

²⁰But if you utter this our business, then we shall be guiltless of your oath which you have made us to swear.

²¹She said, According to your words, so be it. She sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window.

²²They went, and came to the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned: and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but didn't find them.

²³Then the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun; and they told him all that had befallen them.

²⁴They said to Joshua, Truly Yahweh has delivered into our hands all the land; and moreover all the inhabitants of the land do melt away before us.

3Joshua rose up early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel; and they lodged there before they passed over.

²It happened after three days, that the officers went through the midst of the camp;

³and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from your place, and go after it.

⁴Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: don't come near to it, that you may know the way by which you must go; for you have not passed this way heretofore.

⁵Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow Yahweh will do wonders among you.

⁶Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. They took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.

⁷Yahweh said to Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

⁸You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When you are come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.

⁹Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come here, and hear the words of Yahweh your God.

¹⁰Joshua said, Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Hivite, and the Perizzite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Jebusite.

¹¹Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into the Jordan.

¹²Now therefore take twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, for every tribe a man.

¹³It shall come to pass, when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, even the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand in one heap.

¹⁴It happened, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over the Jordan, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant being before the people;

¹⁵and when those who bore the ark were come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the time of harvest,)

¹⁶that the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap, a great way off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went down toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.

¹⁷The priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel passed over on dry ground, until all the nation were passed clean over the Jordan.

4It happened, when all the nation were clean passed over the Jordan, that Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying,

²Take twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,

³and command you them, saying, Take hence out of the midst of the Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging-place, where you shall lodge this night.

⁴Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man:

⁵and Joshua said to them, Pass over before the ark of Yahweh your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up every man of you a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel;

⁶that this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask in time to come, saying, What do you mean by these stones?

⁷then you shall tell them, Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh; when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.

⁸The children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, as Yahweh spoke to Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel; and they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there.

⁹Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there to this day.

¹⁰For the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan, until everything was finished that Yahweh commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses commanded Joshua: and the people hurried and passed over.

¹¹It happened, when all the people had completely passed over, that the ark of Yahweh passed over, with the priests, in the presence of the people.

¹²The children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spoke to them:

¹³about forty thousand ready armed for war passed over before Yahweh to battle, to the plains of Jericho.

¹⁴On that day Yahweh magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life.

¹⁵Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying,

¹⁶Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of the Jordan.

¹⁷Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come you up out of the Jordan.

¹⁸It happened, when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh were come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks, as before.

¹⁹The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the east border of Jericho.

²⁰Those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, did Joshua set up in Gilgal.

²¹He spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?

²²Then you shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.

²³For Yahweh your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you, until you were passed over, as Yahweh your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were passed over;

²⁴that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of Yahweh, that it is mighty; that you may fear Yahweh your God forever.

5It happened, when all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard how that Yahweh had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.

²At that time Yahweh said to Joshua, Make you flint knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.

³Joshua made himself flint knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

⁴This is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: all the people who came forth out of Egypt, who were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came forth out of Egypt.

⁵For all the people who came out were circumcised; but all the people who were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, they had not circumcised.

⁶For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, even the men of war who came forth out of Egypt, were consumed, because they didn't listen to the voice of Yahweh: to whom Yahweh swore that he wouldn't let them see the land which Yahweh swore to their fathers that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁷Their children, whom he raised up in their place, them did Joshua circumcise: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way.

⁸It happened, when they had done circumcising all the nation, that they abode in their places in the camp, until they were whole.

⁹Yahweh said to Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Therefore the name of that place was called Gilgal, to this day.

¹⁰The children of Israel encamped in Gilgal; and they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.

¹¹They ate of the produce of the land on the next day after the Passover, unleavened cakes and parched grain, in the same day.

¹²The manna ceased on the next day, after they had eaten of the produce of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

¹³It happened, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went to him, and said to him, Are you for us, or for our adversaries?

¹⁴He said, No; but [as] prince of the host of Yahweh am I now come. Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said to him, What says my lord to his servant?

¹⁵The prince of Yahweh's host said to Joshua, Put off your shoe from off your foot; for the place whereon you stand is holy. Joshua did so.

6Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.

²Yahweh said to Joshua, Behold, I have given into your hand Jericho, and the king of it, and the mighty men of valor.

³You shall compass the city, all the men of war, going about the city once. Thus shall you do six days.

⁴Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark: and the seventh day you shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.

⁵It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him.

⁶Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of Yahweh.

⁷They said to the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let the armed men pass on before the ark of Yahweh.

⁸It was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before Yahweh passed on, and blew the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of Yahweh followed them.

⁹The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rearward went after the ark, [the priests] blowing the trumpets as they went.

¹⁰Joshua commanded the people, saying, You shall not shout, nor let your voice be heard, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall you shout.

¹¹So he caused the ark of Yahweh to compass the city, going about it once: and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp.

¹²Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of Yahweh.

¹³The seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of Yahweh went on continually, and blew the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; and the rearward came after the ark of Yahweh, [the priests] blowing the trumpets as they went.

¹⁴The second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days.

¹⁵It happened on the seventh day, that they rose early at the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on the day they compassed the city seven times.

¹⁶It happened at the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, Shout; for Yahweh has given you the city.

¹⁷The city shall be devoted, even it and all that is therein, to Yahweh: only Rahab the prostitute shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.

¹⁸But as for you, only keep yourselves from the devoted thing, lest when you have devoted it, you take of the devoted thing; so would you make the camp of Israel accursed, and trouble it.

¹⁹But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are holy to Yahweh: they shall come into the treasury of Yahweh.

²⁰So the people shouted, and [the priests] blew the trumpets; and it happened, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

²¹They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, both young and old, and ox, and sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword.

²²Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, Go into the prostitute's house, and bring out there the woman, and all that she has, as you swore to her.

²³The young men the spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brothers, and all that she had; all her relatives also they brought out; and they set them outside of the camp of Israel.

²⁴They burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein; only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of Yahweh.

²⁵But Rahab the prostitute, and her father's household, and all that she had, did Joshua save alive; and she lived in the midst of Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers, whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

²⁶Joshua charged them with an oath at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before Yahweh, that rises up and builds this city Jericho: with the loss of his firstborn shall he lay the foundation of it, and with the loss of his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.

²⁷So Yahweh was with Joshua; and his fame was in all the land.

7But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted thing; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the devoted thing: and the anger of Yahweh was kindled against the children of Israel.

²Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, Go up and spy out the land. The men went up and spied out Ai.

³They returned to Joshua, and said to him, Don't let all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and strike Ai; don't make all the people to toil there; for they are but few.

⁴So there went up there of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai.

⁵The men of Ai struck of them about thirty-six men; and they chased them [from] before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent; and the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.

⁶Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of Yahweh until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.

⁷Joshua said, Alas, Lord Yahweh, why have you at all brought this people over the Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish? would that we had been content and lived beyond the Jordan!

⁸Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after that Israel has turned their backs before their enemies!

⁹For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will compass us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what will you do for your great name?

¹⁰Yahweh said to Joshua, Get you up; why are you thus fallen on your face?

¹¹Israel has sinned; yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: yes, they have even taken of the devoted thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also; and they have even put it among their own stuff.

¹²Therefore the children of Israel can't stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, because they are become accursed: I will not be with you any more, except you destroy the devoted thing from among you.

¹³Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow: for thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, There is a devoted thing in the midst of you, Israel; you can not stand before your enemies, until you take away the devoted thing from among you.

¹⁴In the morning therefore you shall be brought near by your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which Yahweh takes shall come near by families; and the family which Yahweh shall take shall come near by households; and the household which Yahweh shall take shall come near man by man.

¹⁵It shall be, that he who is taken with the devoted thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he has; because he has transgressed the covenant of Yahweh, and because he has done folly in Israel.

¹⁶So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel near by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken:

¹⁷and he brought near the family of Judah; and he took the family of the Zerahites: and he brought near the family of the Zerahites man by man; and Zabdi was taken:

¹⁸and he brought near his household man by man; and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.

¹⁹Joshua said to Achan, My son, please give glory to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and make confession to him; and tell me now what you have done; don't hide it from me.

²⁰Achan answered Joshua, and said, Of a truth I have sinned against Yahweh, the God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:

²¹when I saw among the spoil a goodly Babylonian mantle, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.

²²So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it.

²³They took them from the midst of the tent, and brought them to Joshua, and to all the children of Israel; and they laid them down before Yahweh.

²⁴Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the mantle, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his donkeys, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them up to the valley of Achor.

²⁵Joshua said, Why have you troubled us? Yahweh shall trouble you this day. All Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire, and stoned them with stones.

²⁶They raised over him a great heap of stones, to this day; and Yahweh turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place was called "The valley of Achor" to this day.

8Yahweh said to Joshua, Don't be afraid, neither be you dismayed: take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai; behold, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land;

²You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king: only the spoil of it, and the cattle of it, shall you take for a prey to yourselves: set you an ambush for the city behind it.

³So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up to Ai: and Joshua chose out thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them forth by night.

⁴He commanded them, saying, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city; don't go very far from the city, but be you all ready:

⁵and I, and all the people who are with me, will approach to the city. It shall happen, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them;

⁶and they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: so we will flee before them;

⁷and you shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city: for Yahweh your God will deliver it into your hand.

⁸It shall be, when you have seized on the city, that you shall set the city on fire; according to the word of Yahweh shall you do: behold, I have commanded you.

⁹Joshua sent them forth; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people.

¹⁰Joshua arose up early in the morning, and mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.

¹¹All the people, [even] the [men of] war who were with him, went up, and drew near, and came before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai: now there was a valley between him and Ai.

¹²He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.

¹³So they set the people, even all the host who was on the north of the city, and their liers-in-wait who were on the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

¹⁴It happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the Arabah; but he didn't know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.

¹⁵Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

¹⁶All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.

¹⁷There was not a man left in Ai or Beth-el, who didn't go out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.

¹⁸Yahweh said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai; for I will give it into your hand. Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.

¹⁹The ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and entered into the city, and took it; and they hurried and set the city on fire.

²⁰When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way: and the people who fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.

²¹When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and killed the men of Ai.

²²The others came forth out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they struck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

²³The king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.

²⁴It happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they were all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword.

²⁵All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

²⁶For Joshua didn't draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.

²⁷Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for prey to themselves, according to the word of Yahweh which he commanded Joshua.

²⁸So Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day.

²⁹The king of Ai he hanged on a tree until the evening: and at the going down of the sun Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised thereon a great heap of stones, to this day.

³⁰Then Joshua built an altar to Yahweh, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal,

³¹as Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones, on which no man had lifted up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings to Yahweh, and sacrificed peace-offerings.

³²He wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote, in the presence of the children of Israel.

³³All Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, as well the sojourner as the native; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.

³⁴Afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law.

³⁵There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua didn't read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who were among them.

9It happened, when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill-country, and in the lowland, and on all the shore of the great sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard of it;

²that they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.

³But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,

⁴they also resorted to a ruse, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks on their donkeys, and wine-skins, old and torn and bound up,

⁵and old and patched shoes on their feet, and old garments on them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and was become moldy.

⁶They went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him, and to the men of Israel, We are come from a far country: now therefore make you a covenant with us.

⁷The men of Israel said to the Hivites, What if you dwell among us; and how shall we make a covenant with you?

⁸They said to Joshua, We are your servants. Joshua said to them, Who are you? and from whence come you?

⁹They said to him, From a very far country your servants are come because of the name of Yahweh your God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt,

¹⁰and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth.

¹¹Our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, Take provision in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them, and tell them, We are your servants: and now make you a covenant with us.

¹²This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go to you; but now, behold, it is dry, and is become moldy:

¹³and these wine-skins, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they are torn: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey.

¹⁴The men took of their provision, and didn't ask counsel at the mouth of Yahweh.

¹⁵Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation swore to them.

¹⁶It happened at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they lived among them.

¹⁷The children of Israel journeyed, and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.

¹⁸The children of Israel didn't strike them, because the princes of the congregation had sworn to them by Yahweh, the God of Israel. All the congregation murmured against the princes.

¹⁹But all the princes said to all the congregation, We have sworn to them by Yahweh, the God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them.

²⁰This we will do to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them.

²¹The princes said to them, Let them live: so they became wood cutters and drawers of water to all the congregation, as the princes had spoken to them.

²²Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, Why have you deceived us, saying, We are very far from you; when you dwell among us?

²³Now therefore you are cursed, and there shall never fail to be of you bondservants, both wood cutters and drawers of water for the house of my God.

²⁴They answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told your servants, how that Yahweh your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you; therefore we were sore afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing.

²⁵Now, behold, we are in your hand: as it seems good and right to you to do to us, do.

²⁶So did he to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they didn't kill them.

²⁷That day Joshua made those wood cutters and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of Yahweh, to this day, in the place which he should choose.

10Now it happened, when Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them;

²that they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men of it were mighty.

³Therefore Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, and to Piram king of Jarmuth, and to Japhia king of Lachish, and to Debir king of Eglon, saying,

⁴Come up to me, and help me, and let us strike Gibeon; for it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.

⁵Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped against Gibeon, and made war against it.

⁶The men of Gibeon sent to Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Don't slack your hand from your servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the hill-country are gathered together against us.

⁷So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor.

⁸Yahweh said to Joshua, Don't fear them: for I have delivered them into your hands; there shall not a man of them stand before you.

⁹Joshua therefore came on them suddenly; [for] he went up from Gilgal all the night.

¹⁰Yahweh confused them before Israel, and he killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth-horon, and struck them to Azekah, and to Makkedah.

¹¹It happened, as they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth-horon, that Yahweh cast down great stones from the sky on them to Azekah, and they died: they were more who died with the hailstones than they whom the children of Israel killed with the sword.

¹²Then spoke Joshua to Yahweh in the day when Yahweh delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand you still on Gibeon; You, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.

¹³The sun stood still, and the moon stayed, Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Isn't this written in the book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the midst of the sky, and didn't hurry to go down about a whole day.

¹⁴There was no day like that before it or after it, that Yahweh listened to the voice of a man: for Yahweh fought for Israel.

¹⁵Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp to Gilgal.

¹⁶These five kings fled, and hid themselves in the cave at Makkedah.

¹⁷It was told Joshua, saying, The five kings are found, hidden in the cave at Makkedah.

¹⁸Joshua said, Roll great stones to the mouth of the cave, and set men by it to keep them:

¹⁹but don't stay; pursue after your enemies, and strike the hindmost of them; don't allow them to enter into their cities: for Yahweh your God has delivered them into your hand.

²⁰It happened, when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of killing them with a very great slaughter, until they were consumed, and the remnant which remained of them had entered into the fortified cities,

²¹that all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makkedah in peace: none moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel.

²²Then said Joshua, Open the mouth of the cave, and bring forth those five kings to me out of the cave.

²³They did so, and brought forth those five kings to him out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon.

²⁴It happened, when they brought forth those kings to Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said to the chiefs of the men of war who went with him, Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings. They came near, and put their feet on the necks of them.

²⁵Joshua said to them, Don't be afraid, nor be dismayed; be strong and of good courage: for thus shall Yahweh do to all your enemies against whom you fight.

²⁶Afterward Joshua struck them, and put them to death, and hanged them on five trees: and they were hanging on the trees until the evening.

²⁷It happened at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave in which they had hidden themselves, and laid great stones on the mouth of the cave, to this very day.

²⁸Joshua took Makkedah on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and the king of it: he utterly destroyed them and all the souls who were therein; he left none remaining; and he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.

²⁹Joshua passed from Makkedah, and all Israel with him, to Libnah, and fought against Libnah:

³⁰and Yahweh delivered it also, and the king of it, into the hand of Israel; and he struck it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls who were therein; he left none remaining in it; and he did to the king of it as he had done to the king of Jericho.

³¹Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, to Lachish, and encamped against it, and fought against it:

³²and Yahweh delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel; and he took it on the second day, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls who were therein, according to all that he had done to Libnah.

³³Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish; and Joshua struck him and his people, until he had left him none remaining.

³⁴Joshua passed from Lachish, and all Israel with him, to Eglon; and they encamped against it, and fought against it;

³⁵and they took it on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword; and all the souls who were therein he utterly destroyed that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish.

³⁶Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, to Hebron; and they fought against it:

³⁷and they took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and the king of it, and all the cities of it, and all the souls who were therein; he left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon; but he utterly destroyed it, and all the souls who were therein.

³⁸Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir, and fought against it:

³⁹and he took it, and the king of it, and all the cities of it; and they struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls who were therein; he left none remaining: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to the king of it; as he had done also to Libnah, and to the king of it.

⁴⁰So Joshua struck all the land, the hill-country, and the South, and the lowland, and the slopes, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but he utterly destroyed all that breathed, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded.

⁴¹Joshua struck them from Kadesh-barnea even to Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even to Gibeon.

⁴²All these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because Yahweh, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.

⁴³Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp to Gilgal.

11It happened, when Jabin king of Hazor heard of it, that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph,

²and to the kings who were on the north, in the hill-country, and in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, and in the lowland, and in the heights of Dor on the west,

³to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the hill-country, and the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpah.

⁴They went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many.

⁵All these kings met together; and they came and encamped together at the waters of Merom, to fight with Israel.

⁶Yahweh said to Joshua, Don't be afraid because of them; for tomorrow at this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: you shall hamstring their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.

⁷So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly, and fell on them.

⁸Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Israel, and they struck them, and chased them to great Sidon, and to Misrephoth-maim, and to the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they struck them, until they left them none remaining.

⁹Joshua did to them as Yahweh bade him: he hamstrung their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.

¹⁰Joshua turned back at that time, and took Hazor, and struck the king of it with the sword: for Hazor before was the head of all those kingdoms.

¹¹They struck all the souls who were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them; there was none left who breathed: and he burnt Hazor with fire.

¹²All the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and he struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed them; as Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded.

¹³But as for the cities that stood on their mounds, Israel burned none of them, save Hazor only; that did Joshua burn.

¹⁴All the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey to themselves; but every man they struck with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any who breathed.

¹⁵As Yahweh commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua: and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that Yahweh commanded Moses.

¹⁶So Joshua took all that land, the hill-country, and all the South, and all the land of Goshen, and the lowland, and the Arabah, and the hill-country of Israel, and the lowland of the same;

¹⁷from Mount Halak, that goes up to Seir, even to Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon: and all their kings he took, and struck them, and put them to death.

¹⁸Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.

¹⁹There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon: they took all in battle.

²⁰For it was of Yahweh to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them, that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as Yahweh commanded Moses.

²¹Joshua came at that time, and cut off the Anakim from the hill-country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill-country of Judah, and from all the hill-country of Israel: Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities.

²²There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the children of Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, did some remain.

²³So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that Yahweh spoke to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. The land had rest from war.

12Now these are the kings of the land, whom the children of Israel struck, and possessed their land beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, from the valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon, and all the Arabah eastward:

²Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and [the city that is in] the middle of the valley, and half Gilead, even to the river Jabbok, the border of the children of Ammon;

³and the Arabah to the sea of Chinneroth, eastward, and to the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, eastward, the way to Beth-jeshimoth; and on the south, under the slopes of Pisgah:

⁴and the border of Og king of Bashan, of the remnant of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,

⁵and ruled in Mount Hermon, and in Salecah, and in all Bashan, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

⁶Moses the servant of Yahweh and the children of Israel struck them: and Moses the servant of Yahweh gave it for a possession to the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

⁷These are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the children of Israel struck beyond the Jordan westward, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon even to Mount Halak, that goes up to Seir; and Joshua gave it to the tribes of Israel for a possession according to their divisions;

⁸in the hill-country, and in the lowland, and in the Arabah, and in the slopes, and in the wilderness, and in the South; the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

⁹the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one;

¹⁰the king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one;

¹¹the king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one;

¹²the king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one;

¹³the king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one;

¹⁴the king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one;

¹⁵the king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one;

¹⁶the king of Makkedah, one; the king of Bethel, one;

¹⁷the king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one;

¹⁸the king of Aphek, one; the king of Lassharon, one;

¹⁹the king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one;

²⁰the king of Shimron-meron, one; the king of Achshaph, one;

²¹the king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;

²²the king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam in Carmel, one;

²³the king of Dor in the height of Dor, one; the king of Goiim in Gilgal, one;

²⁴the king of Tirzah, one: all the kings thirty-one.

13Now Joshua was old and well stricken in years; and Yahweh said to him, You are old and well stricken in years, and there remains yet very much land to be possessed.

²This is the land that yet remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all the Geshurites;

³from the Shihor, which is before Egypt, even to the border of Ekron northward, [which] is reckoned to the Canaanites; the five lords of the Philistines; the Gazites, and the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avvim,

⁴on the south; all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the border of the Amorites;

⁵and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal-gad under Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath;

⁶all the inhabitants of the hill-country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, even all the Sidonians; them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only allot you it to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you.

⁷Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

⁸With him the Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance, which Moses gave them, beyond the Jordan eastward, even as Moses the servant of Yahweh gave them:

⁹from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain of Medeba to Dibon;

¹⁰and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, to the border of the children of Ammon;

¹¹and Gilead, and the border of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan to Salecah;

¹²all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei (the same was left of the remnant of the Rephaim); for these did Moses strike, and drove them out.

¹³Nevertheless the children of Israel didn't drive out the Geshurites, nor the Maacathites: but Geshur and Maacath dwell in the midst of Israel to this day.

¹⁴Only to the tribe of Levi he gave no inheritance; the offerings of Yahweh, the God of Israel, made by fire are his inheritance, as he spoke to him.

¹⁵Moses gave to the tribe of the children of Reuben according to their families.

¹⁶Their border was from Aroer, that is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain by Medeba;

¹⁷Heshbon, and all its cities that are in the plain; Dibon, and Bamoth-baal, and Beth-baal-meon,

¹⁸and Jahaz, and Kedemoth, and Mephaath,

¹⁹and Kiriathaim, and Sibmah, and Zereth-shahar in the mount of the valley,

²⁰and Beth-peor, and the slopes of Pisgah, and Beth-jeshimoth,

²¹and all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses struck with the chiefs of Midian, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the princes of Sihon, who lived in the land.

²²Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel kill with the sword among the rest of their slain.

²³The border of the children of Reuben was the Jordan, and the border [of it]. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben according to their families, the cities and the villages of it.

²⁴Moses gave to the tribe of Gad, to the children of Gad, according to their families.

²⁵Their border was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, to Aroer that is before Rabbah;

²⁶and from Heshbon to Ramath-mizpeh, and Betonim; and from Mahanaim to the border of Debir;

²⁷and in the valley, Beth-haram, and Beth-nimrah, and Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon, the Jordan and the border [of it], to the uttermost part of the sea of Chinnereth beyond the Jordan eastward.

²⁸This is the inheritance of the children of Gad according to their families, the cities and the villages of it.

²⁹Moses gave [inheritance] to the half-tribe of Manasseh: and it was for the half-tribe of the children of Manasseh according to their families.

³⁰Their border was from Mahanaim, all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair, which are in Bashan, sixty cities:

³¹and half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, even for the half of the children of Machir according to their families.

³²These are the inheritances which Moses distributed in the plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan at Jericho, eastward.

³³But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance: Yahweh, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, as he spoke to them.

14These are the inheritances which the children of Israel took in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed to them,

²by the lot of their inheritance, as Yahweh commanded by Moses, for the nine tribes, and for the half-tribe.

³For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe beyond the Jordan: but to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them.

⁴For the children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim: and they gave no portion to the Levites in the land, save cities to dwell in, with the suburbs of it for their cattle and for their substance.

⁵As Yahweh commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did; and they divided the land.

⁶Then the children of Judah drew near to Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, You know the thing that Yahweh spoke to Moses the man of God concerning me and concerning you in Kadesh-barnea.

⁷Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of Yahweh sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in my heart.

⁸Nevertheless my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; but I wholly followed Yahweh my God.

⁹Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have wholly followed Yahweh my God.

¹⁰Now, behold, Yahweh has kept me alive, as he spoke, these forty-five years, from the time that Yahweh spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness: and now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old.

¹¹As yet I am as strong this day as I as in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, and to go out and to come in.

¹²Now therefore give me this hill-country, whereof Yahweh spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and cities great and fortified: it may be that Yahweh will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as Yahweh spoke.

¹³Joshua blessed him; and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance.

¹⁴Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day; because that he wholly followed Yahweh, the God of Israel.

¹⁵Now the name of Hebron before was Kiriath-arba; [which Arba was] the greatest man among the Anakim. The land had rest from war.

15The lot for the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families was to the border of Edom, even to the wilderness of Zin southward, at the uttermost part of the south.

²Their south border was from the uttermost part of the Salt Sea, from the bay that looks southward;

³and it went out southward of the ascent of Akrabbim, and passed along to Zin, and went up by the south of Kadesh-barnea, and passed along by Hezron, and went up to Addar, and turned about to Karka;

⁴and it passed along to Azmon, and went out at the brook of Egypt; and the goings out of the border were at the sea: this shall be your south border.

⁵The east border was the Salt Sea, even to the end of the Jordan. The border of the north quarter was from the bay of the sea at the end of the Jordan;

⁶and the border went up to Beth-hoglah, and passed along by the north of Beth-arabah; and the border went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben;

⁷and the border went up to Debir from the valley of Achor, and so northward, looking toward Gilgal, that is over against the ascent of Adummim, which is on the south side of the river; and the border passed along to the waters of En-shemesh, and the goings out of it were at En-rogel;

⁸and the border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom to the side of the Jebusite southward (the same is Jerusalem); and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lies before the valley of Hinnom westward, which is at the uttermost part of the vale of Rephaim northward;

⁹and the border extended from the top of the mountain to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah, and went out to the cities of Mount Ephron; and the border extended to Baalah (the same is Kiriath-jearim);

¹⁰and the border turned about from Baalah westward to Mount Seir, and passed along to the side of Mount Jearim on the north (the same is Chesalon), and went down to Beth-shemesh, and passed along by Timnah;

¹¹and the border went out to the side of Ekron northward; and the border extended to Shikkeron, and passed along to Mount Baalah, and went out at Jabneel; and the goings out of the border were at the sea.

¹²The west border was to the great sea, and the border [of it]. This is the border of the children of Judah round about according to their families.

¹³To Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a portion among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of Yahweh to Joshua, even Kiriath-arba, [which Arba was] the father of Anak (the same is Hebron).

¹⁴Caleb drove out there the three sons of Anak: Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak.

¹⁵He went up there against the inhabitants of Debir: now the name of Debir before was Kiriath-sepher.

¹⁶Caleb said, He who strikes Kiriath-sepher, and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife.

¹⁷Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife.

¹⁸It happened, when she came [to him], that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she alighted from off her donkey; and Caleb said, What would you?

¹⁹She said, Give me a blessing; for that you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water. He gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.

²⁰This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah according to their families.

²¹The uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the border of Edom in the South were Kabzeel, and Eder, and Jagur,

²²and Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah,

²³and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Ithnan,

²⁴Ziph, and Telem, and Bealoth,

²⁵and Hazor-hadattah, and Kerioth-hezron (the same is Hazor),

²⁶Amam, and Shema, and Moladah,

²⁷and Hazar-gaddah, and Heshmon, and Beth-pelet,

²⁸and Hazar-shual, and Beersheba, and Biziothiah,

²⁹Baalah, and Iim, and Ezem,

³⁰and Eltolad, and Chesil, and Hormah,

³¹and Ziklag, and Madmannah, and Sansannah,

³²and Lebaoth, and Shilhim, and Ain, and Rimmon: all the cities are twenty-nine, with their villages.

³³In the lowland, Eshtaol, and Zorah, and Ashnah,

³⁴and Zanoah, and En-gannim, Tappuah, and Enam,

³⁵Jarmuth, and Adullam, Socoh, and Azekah,

³⁶and Shaaraim, and Adithaim, and Gederah, and Gederothaim; fourteen cities with their villages.

³⁷Zenan, and Hadashah, and Migdal-gad,

³⁸and Dilean, and Mizpeh, and Joktheel,

³⁹Lachish, and Bozkath, and Eglon,

⁴⁰and Cabbon, and Lahmam, and Chitlish,

⁴¹and Gederoth, Beth-dagon, and Naamah, and Makkedah; sixteen cities with their villages.

⁴²Libnah, and Ether, and Ashan,

⁴³and Iphtah, and Ashnah, and Nezib,

⁴⁴and Keilah, and Achzib, and Mareshah; nine cities with their villages.

⁴⁵Ekron, with its towns and its villages;

⁴⁶from Ekron even to the sea, all that were by the side of Ashdod, with their villages.

⁴⁷Ashdod, its towns and its villages; Gaza, its towns and its villages; to the brook of Egypt, and the great sea, and the border [of it].

⁴⁸In the hill-country, Shamir, and Jattir, and Socoh,

⁴⁹and Dannah, and Kiriath-sannah (the same is Debir),

⁵⁰and Anab, and Eshtemoh, and Anim,

⁵¹and Goshen, and Holon, and Giloh; eleven cities with their villages.

⁵²Arab, and Dumah, and Eshan,

⁵³and Janim, and Beth-tappuah, and Aphekah,

⁵⁴and Humtah, and Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), and Zior; nine cities with their villages.

⁵⁵Maon, Carmel, and Ziph, and Jutah,

⁵⁶and Jezreel, and Jokdeam, and Zanoah,

⁵⁷Kain, Gibeah, and Timnah; ten cities with their villages.

⁵⁸Halhul, Beth-zur, and Gedor,

⁵⁹and Maarath, and Beth-anoth, and Eltekon; six cities with their villages.

⁶⁰Kiriath-baal (the same is Kiriath-jearim), and Rabbah; two cities with their villages.

⁶¹In the wilderness, Beth-arabah, Middin, and Secacah,

⁶²and Nibshan, and the City of Salt, and En-gedi; six cities with their villages.

⁶³As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah couldn't drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.

16The lot came out for the children of Joseph from the Jordan at Jericho, at the waters of Jericho on the east, even the wilderness, going up from Jericho through the hill-country to Bethel;

²and it went out from Bethel to Luz, and passed along to the border of the Archites to Ataroth;

³and it went down westward to the border of the Japhletites, to the border of Beth-horon the nether, even to Gezer; and the goings out of it were at the sea.

⁴The children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.

⁵The border of the children of Ephraim according to their families was [thus]: the border of their inheritance eastward was Ataroth-addar, to Beth-horon the upper;

⁶and the border went out westward at Michmethath on the north; and the border turned about eastward to Taanath-shiloh, and passed along it on the east of Janoah;

⁷and it went down from Janoah to Ataroth, and to Naarah, and reached to Jericho, and went out at the Jordan.

⁸From Tappuah the border went along westward to the brook of Kanah; and the goings out of it were at the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim according to their families;

⁹together with the cities which were set apart for the children of Ephraim in the midst of the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages.

¹⁰They didn't drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer: but the Canaanites dwell in the midst of Ephraim to this day, and are become servants to do forced labor.

17[This] was the lot for the tribe of Manasseh; for he was the firstborn of Joseph. As for Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, because he was a man of war, therefore he had Gilead and Bashan.

²So [the lot] was for the rest of the children of Manasseh according to their families: for the children of Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem, and for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these were the male children of Manasseh the son of Joseph according to their families.

³But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters: and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

⁴They came near before Eleazar the priest, and before Joshua the son of Nun, and before the princes, saying, Yahweh commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers: therefore according to the commandment of Yahweh he gave them an inheritance among the brothers of their father.

⁵There fell ten parts to Manasseh, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is beyond the Jordan;

⁶because the daughters of Manasseh had an inheritance among his sons. The land of Gilead belonged to the rest of the sons of Manasseh.

⁷The border of Manasseh was from Asher to Michmethath, which is before Shechem; and the border went along to the right hand, to the inhabitants of En-tappuah.

⁸The land of Tappuah belonged to Manasseh; but Tappuah on the border of Manasseh belonged to the children of Ephraim.

⁹The border went down to the brook of Kanah, southward of the brook: these cities belonged to Ephraim among the cities of Manasseh: and the border of Manasseh was on the north side of the brook, and the goings out of it were at the sea:

¹⁰southward it was Ephraim's, and northward it was Manasseh's, and the sea was his border; and they reached to Asher on the north, and to Issachar on the east.

¹¹Manasseh had in Issachar and in Asher Beth-shean and its towns, and Ibleam and its towns, and the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, and the inhabitants of En-dor and its towns, and the inhabitants of Taanach and its towns, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns, even the three heights.

¹²Yet the children of Manasseh couldn't drive out [the inhabitants of] those cities; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.

¹³It happened, when the children of Israel had grown strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and didn't utterly drive them out.

¹⁴The children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, Why have you given me but one lot and one part for an inheritance, seeing I am a great people, because hitherto Yahweh has blessed me?

¹⁵Joshua said to them, If you be a great people, get you up to the forest, and cut down for yourself there in the land of the Perizzites and of the Rephaim; since the hill-country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.

¹⁶The children of Joseph said, The hill-country is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites who dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are in Beth-shean and its towns, and they who are in the valley of Jezreel.

¹⁷Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, even to Ephraim and to Manasseh, saying, You are a great people, and have great power; you shall not have one lot only:

¹⁸but the hill-country shall be yours; for though it is a forest, you shall cut it down, and the goings out of it shall be your; for you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.

18The whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled themselves together at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there: and the land was subdued before them.

²There remained among the children of Israel seven tribes, which had not yet divided their inheritance.

³Joshua said to the children of Israel, How long are you slack to go in to possess the land, which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you?

⁴Appoint for you three men of each tribe: and I will send them, and they shall arise, and walk through the land, and describe it according to their inheritance; and they shall come to me.

⁵They shall divide it into seven portions: Judah shall abide in his border on the south, and the house of Joseph shall abide in their border on the north.

⁶You shall describe the land into seven portions, and bring [the description] here to me; and I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh our God.

⁷For the Levites have no portion among you; for the priesthood of Yahweh is their inheritance: and Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan eastward, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave them.

⁸The men arose, and went: and Joshua charged those who went to describe the land, saying, Go and walk through the land, and describe it, and come again to me; and I will cast lots for you here before Yahweh in Shiloh.

⁹The men went and passed through the land, and described it by cities into seven portions in a book; and they came to Joshua to the camp at Shiloh.

¹⁰Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before Yahweh: and there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions.

¹¹The lot of the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up according to their families: and the border of their lot went out between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.

¹²Their border on the north quarter was from the Jordan; and the border went up to the side of Jericho on the north, and went up through the hill-country westward; and the goings out of it were at the wilderness of Beth-aven.

¹³The border passed along from there to Luz, to the side of Luz (the same is Bethel), southward; and the border went down to Ataroth-addar, by the mountain that lies on the south of Beth-horon the nether.

¹⁴The border extended [there], and turned about on the west quarter southward, from the mountain that lies before Beth-horon southward; and the goings out of it were at Kiriath-baal (the same is Kiriath-jearim), a city of the children of Judah: this was the west quarter.

¹⁵The south quarter was from the uttermost part of Kiriath-jearim; and the border went out westward, and went out to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah;

¹⁶and the border went down to the uttermost part of the mountain that lies before the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is in the vale of Rephaim northward; and it went down to the valley of Hinnom, to the side of the Jebusite southward, and went down to En-rogel;

¹⁷and it extended northward, and went out at En-shemesh, and went out to Geliloth, which is over against the ascent of Adummim; and it went down to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben;

¹⁸and it passed along to the side over against the Arabah northward, and went down to the Arabah;

¹⁹and the border passed along to the side of Beth-hoglah northward; and the goings out of the border were at the north bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan: this was the south border.

²⁰The Jordan was the border of it on the east quarter. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, by the borders of it round about, according to their families.

²¹Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho, and Beth-hoglah, and Emek-keziz,

²²and Beth-arabah, and Zemaraim, and Bethel,

²³and Avvim, and Parah, and Ophrah,

²⁴and Chephar-ammoni, and Ophni, and Geba; twelve cities with their villages:

²⁵Gibeon, and Ramah, and Beeroth,

²⁶and Mizpeh, and Chephirah, and Mozah,

²⁷and Rekem, and Irpeel, and Taralah,

²⁸and Zelah, Eleph, and the Jebusite (the same is Jerusalem), Gibeath, [and] Kiriath; fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families.

19The second lot came out for Simeon, even for the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families: and their inheritance was in the midst of the inheritance of the children of Judah.

²They had for their inheritance Beersheba, or Sheba, and Moladah,

³and Hazar-shual, and Balah, and Ezem,

⁴and Eltolad, and Bethul, and Hormah,

⁵and Ziklag, and Beth-marcaboth, and Hazar-susah,

⁶and Beth-lebaoth, and Sharuhen; thirteen cities with their villages:

⁷Ain, Rimmon, and Ether, and Ashan; four cities with their villages:

⁸and all the villages that were round about these cities to Baalath-beer, Ramah of the South. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families.

⁹Out of the part of the children of Judah was the inheritance of the children of Simeon; for the portion of the children of Judah was too much for them: therefore the children of Simeon had inheritance in the midst of their inheritance.

¹⁰The third lot came up for the children of Zebulun according to their families; and the border of their inheritance was to Sarid;

¹¹and their border went up westward, even to Maralah, and reached to Dabbesheth; and it reached to the brook that is before Jokneam;

¹²and it turned from Sarid eastward toward the sunrise to the border of Chisloth-tabor; and it went out to Daberath, and went up to Japhia;

¹³and from there it passed along eastward to Gath-hepher, to Eth-kazin; and it went out at Rimmon which stretches to Neah;

¹⁴and the border turned about it on the north to Hannathon; and the goings out of it were at the valley of Iphtah-el;

¹⁵and Kattath, and Nahalal, and Shimron, and Idalah, and Bethlehem: twelve cities with their villages.

¹⁶This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun according to their families, these cities with their villages.

¹⁷The fourth lot came out for Issachar, even for the children of Issachar according to their families.

¹⁸Their border was to Jezreel, and Chesulloth, and Shunem,

¹⁹and Hapharaim, and Shion, and Anaharath,

²⁰and Rabbith, and Kishion, and Ebez,

²¹and Remeth, and Engannim, and En-haddah, and Beth-pazzez,

²²and the border reached to Tabor, and Shahazumah, and Beth-shemesh; and the goings out of their border were at the Jordan: sixteen cities with their villages.

²³This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Issachar according to their families, the cities with their villages.

²⁴The fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families.

²⁵Their border was Helkath, and Hali, and Beten, and Achshaph,

²⁶and Allammelech, and Amad, and Mishal; and it reached to Carmel westward, and to Shihor-libnath;

²⁷and it turned toward the sunrise to Beth-dagon, and reached to Zebulun, and to the valley of Iphtah-el northward to Beth-emek and Neiel; and it went out to Cabul on the left hand,

²⁸and Ebron, and Rehob, and Hammon, and Kanah, even to great Sidon;

²⁹and the border turned to Ramah, and to the fortified city of Tyre; and the border turned to Hosah; and the goings out of it were at the sea by the region of Achzib;

³⁰Ummah also, and Aphek, and Rehob: twenty-two cities with their villages.

³¹This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Asher according to their families, these cities with their villages.

³²The sixth lot came out for the children of Naphtali, even for the children of Naphtali according to their families.

³³Their border was from Heleph, from the oak in Zaanannim, and Adaminekeb, and Jabneel, to Lakkum; and the goings out of it were at the Jordan;

³⁴and the border turned westward to Aznoth-tabor, and went out from there to Hukkok; and it reached to Zebulun on the south, and reached to Asher on the west, and to Judah at the Jordan toward the sunrise.

³⁵The fortified cities were Ziddim, Zer, and Hammath, Rakkath, and Chinnereth,

³⁶and Adamah, and Ramah, and Hazor,

³⁷and Kedesh, and Edrei, and En-hazor,

³⁸Iron, and Migdal-el, Horem, and Beth-anath, and Beth-shemesh; nineteen cities with their villages.

³⁹This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Naphtali according to their families, the cities with their villages.

⁴⁰The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families.

⁴¹The border of their inheritance was Zorah, and Eshtaol, and Ir-shemesh,

⁴²and Shaalabbin, and Aijalon, and Ithlah,

⁴³and Elon, and Timnah, and Ekron,

⁴⁴and Eltekeh, and Gibbethon, and Baalath,

⁴⁵and Jehud, and Bene-berak, and Gath-rimmon,

⁴⁶and Me-jarkon, and Rakkon, with the border over against Joppa.

⁴⁷The border of the children of Dan went out beyond them; for the children of Dan went up and fought against Leshem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and lived therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father.

⁴⁸This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages.

⁴⁹So they made an end of distributing the land for inheritance by the borders of it; and the children of Israel gave an inheritance to Joshua the son of Nun in the midst of them:

⁵⁰according to the commandment of Yahweh they gave him the city which he asked, even Timnath-serah in the hill-country of Ephraim; and he built the city, and lived therein.

⁵¹These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel, distributed for inheritance by lot in Shiloh before Yahweh, at the door of the tent of meeting. So they made an end of dividing the land.

20Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying,

²Speak to the children of Israel, saying, Assign you the cities of refuge, whereof I spoke to you by Moses,

³that the manslayer who kills any person unwittingly [and] unawares may flee there: and they shall be to you for a refuge from the avenger of blood.

⁴He shall flee to one of those cities, and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city; and they shall take him into the city to them, and give him a place, that he may dwell among them.

⁵If the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver up the manslayer into his hand; because he struck his neighbor unawares, and didn't hate him before.

⁶He shall dwell in that city, until he stand before the congregation for judgment, until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days: then shall the manslayer return, and come to his own city, and to his own house, to the city from whence he fled.

⁷They set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill-country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron) in the hill-country of Judah.

⁸Beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness in the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.

⁹These were the appointed cities for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them, that whoever kills any person unwittingly might flee there, and not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, until he stood before the congregation.

21Then came near the heads of fathers' [houses] of the Levites to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of fathers' [houses] of the tribes of the children of Israel;

²and they spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, Yahweh commanded Moses to give us cities to dwell in, with the suburbs of it for our cattle.

³The children of Israel gave to the Levites out of their inheritance, according to the commandment of Yahweh, these cities with their suburbs.

⁴The lot came out for the families of the Kohathites: and the children of Aaron the priest, who were of the Levites, had by lot out of the tribe of Judah, and out of the tribe of the Simeonites, and out of the tribe of Benjamin, thirteen cities.

⁵The rest of the children of Kohath had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim, and out of the tribe of Dan, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, ten cities.

⁶The children of Gershon had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.

⁷The children of Merari according to their families had out of the tribe of Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve cities.

⁸The children of Israel gave by lot to the Levites these cities with their suburbs, as Yahweh commanded by Moses.

⁹They gave out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are [here] mentioned by name:

¹⁰and they were for the children of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites, who were of the children of Levi; for theirs was the first lot.

¹¹They gave them Kiriath-arba, [which Arba was] the father of Anak (the same is Hebron), in the hill-country of Judah, with the suburbs of it round about it.

¹²But the fields of the city, and the villages of it, gave they to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession.

¹³To the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Libnah with its suburbs,

¹⁴and Jattir with its suburbs, and Eshtemoa with its suburbs,

¹⁵and Holon with its suburbs, and Debir with its suburbs,

¹⁶and Ain with its suburbs, and Juttah with its suburbs, [and] Beth-shemesh with its suburbs; nine cities out of those two tribes.

¹⁷Out of the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with its suburbs, Geba with its suburbs,

¹⁸Anathoth with its suburbs, and Almon with its suburbs; four cities.

¹⁹All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their suburbs.

²⁰The families of the children of Kohath, the Levites, even the rest of the children of Kohath, they had the cities of their lot out of the tribe of Ephraim.

²¹They gave them Shechem with its suburbs in the hill-country of Ephraim, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Gezer with its suburbs,

²²and Kibzaim with its suburbs, and Beth-horon with its suburbs; four cities.

²³Out of the tribe of Dan, Elteke with its suburbs, Gibbethon with its suburbs,

²⁴Aijalon with its suburbs, Gath-rimmon with its suburbs; four cities.

²⁵Out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Taanach with its suburbs, and Gath-rimmon with its suburbs; two cities.

²⁶All the cities of the families of the rest of the children of Kohath were ten with their suburbs.

²⁷To the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the half-tribe of Manasseh [they gave] Golan in Bashan with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Be-eshterah with its suburbs; two cities.

²⁸Out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishion with its suburbs, Daberath with its suburbs,

²⁹Jarmuth with its suburbs, En-gannim with its suburbs; four cities.

³⁰Out of the tribe of Asher, Mishal with its suburbs, Abdon with its suburbs,

³¹Helkath with its suburbs, and Rehob with its suburbs; four cities.

³²Out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Hammoth-dor with its suburbs, and Kartan with its suburbs; three cities.

³³All the cities of the Gershonites according to their families were thirteen cities with their suburbs.

³⁴To the families of the children of Merari, the rest of the Levites, out of the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with its suburbs, and Kartah with its suburbs,

³⁵Dimnah with its suburbs, Nahalal with its suburbs; four cities.

³⁶Out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with its suburbs, and Jahaz with its suburbs,

³⁷Kedemoth with its suburbs, and Mephaath with its suburbs; four cities.

³⁸Out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Mahanaim with its suburbs,

³⁹Heshbon with its suburbs, Jazer with its suburbs; four cities in all.

⁴⁰All [these were] the cities of the children of Merari according to their families, even the rest of the families of the Levites; and their lot was twelve cities.

⁴¹All the cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the children of Israel were forty-eight cities with their suburbs.

⁴²These cities were every one with their suburbs round about them: thus it was with all these cities.

⁴³So Yahweh gave to Israel all the land which he swore to give to their fathers; and they possessed it, and lived therein.

⁴⁴Yahweh gave them rest round about, according to all that he swore to their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; Yahweh delivered all their enemies into their hand.

⁴⁵There failed not anything of any good thing which Yahweh had spoken to the house of Israel; all came to pass.

22Then Joshua called the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh,

²and said to them, You have kept all that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, and have listened to my voice in all that I commanded you:

³you have not left your brothers these many days to this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of Yahweh your God.

⁴Now Yahweh your God has given rest to your brothers, as he spoke to them: therefore now turn you, and get you to your tents, to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave you beyond the Jordan.

⁵Only take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded you, to love Yahweh your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

⁶So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away; and they went to their tents.

⁷Now to the one half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given [inheritance] in Bashan; but to the other half gave Joshua among their brothers beyond the Jordan westward; moreover when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he blessed them,

⁸and spoke to them, saying, Return with much wealth to your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver, and with gold, and with brass, and with iron, and with very much clothing: divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.

⁹The children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned, and departed from the children of Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their possession, whereof they were possessed, according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.

¹⁰When they came to the region about the Jordan, that is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, a great altar to look on.

¹¹The children of Israel heard say, Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar in the forefront of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that pertains to the children of Israel.

¹²When the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up against them to war.

¹³The children of Israel sent to the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest,

¹⁴and with him ten princes, one prince of a fathers' house for each of the tribes of Israel; and they were everyone of them head of their fathers' houses among the thousands of Israel.

¹⁵They came to the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, and they spoke with them, saying,

¹⁶Thus says the whole congregation of Yahweh, What trespass is this that you have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following Yahweh, in that you have built you an altar, to rebel this day against Yahweh?

¹⁷Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, although there came a plague on the congregation of Yahweh,

¹⁸that you must turn away this day from following Yahweh? and it will be, seeing you rebel today against Yahweh, that tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.

¹⁹However, if the land of your possession be unclean, then pass you over to the land of the possession of Yahweh, in which Yahweh's tent dwells, and take possession among us: but don't rebel against Yahweh, nor rebel against us, in building you an altar besides the altar of Yahweh our God.

²⁰Didn't Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the devoted thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? and that man didn't perish alone in his iniquity.

²¹Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered, and spoke to the heads of the thousands of Israel,

²²The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, the Mighty One, God, Yahweh, he knows; and Israel he shall know: if it be in rebellion, or if in trespass against Yahweh (don't save us this day,)

²³that we have built us an altar to turn away from following Yahweh; or if to offer thereon burnt offering or meal-offering, or if to offer sacrifices of peace-offerings thereon, let Yahweh himself require it;

²⁴and if we have not [rather] out of carefulness done this, [and] of purpose, saying, In time to come your children might speak to our children, saying, What have you to do with Yahweh, the God of Israel?

²⁵for Yahweh has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you children of Reuben and children of Gad; you have no portion in Yahweh: so might your children make our children cease from fearing Yahweh.

²⁶Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice:

²⁷but it shall be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we may do the service of Yahweh before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace-offerings; that your children may not tell our children in time to come, You have no portion in Yahweh.

²⁸Therefore said we, It shall be, when they so tell us or to our generations in time to come, that we shall say, Behold the pattern of the altar of Yahweh, which our fathers made, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice; but it is a witness between us and you.

²⁹Far be it from us that we should rebel against Yahweh, and turn away this day from following Yahweh, to build an altar for burnt-offering, for meal-offering, or for sacrifice, besides the altar of Yahweh our God that is before his tent.

³⁰When Phinehas the priest, and the princes of the congregation, even the heads of the thousands of Israel that were with him, heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them well.

³¹Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the children of Manasseh, This day we know that Yahweh is in the midst of us, because you have not committed this trespass against Yahweh: now have you delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of Yahweh.

³²Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes, returned from the children of Reuben, and from the children of Gad, out of the land of Gilead, to the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word again.

³³The thing pleased the children of Israel; and the children of Israel blessed God, and spoke no more of going up against them to war, to destroy the land in which the children of Reuben and the children of Gad lived.

³⁴The children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar [Ed]: For, [said they], it is a witness between us that Yahweh is God.

23It happened after many days, when Yahweh had given rest to Israel from all their enemies round about, and Joshua was old and well stricken in years;

²that Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders and for their heads, and for their judges and for their officers, and said to them, I am old and well stricken in years:

³and you have seen all that Yahweh your God has done to all these nations because of you; for Yahweh your God, he it is that has fought for you.

⁴Behold, I have allotted to you these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea toward the going down of the sun.

⁵Yahweh your God, he will thrust them out from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and you shall possess their land, as Yahweh your God spoke to you.

⁶Therefore be you very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that you not turn aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left;

⁷that you not come among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear [by them], neither serve them, nor bow down yourselves to them;

⁸but cleave to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day.

⁹For Yahweh has driven out from before you great nations and strong: but as for you, no man has stood before you to this day.

¹⁰One man of you shall chase a thousand; for Yahweh your God, he it is who fights for you, as he spoke to you.

¹¹Take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love Yahweh your God.

¹²Else if you do at all go back, and cleave to the remnant of these nations, even these who remain among you, and make marriages with them, and go in to them, and they to you;

¹³know for a certainty that Yahweh your God will no more drive these nations from out of your sight; but they shall be a snare and a trap to you, and a scourge in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.

¹⁴Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing has failed of all the good things which Yahweh your God spoke concerning you; all are happen to you, not one thing has failed of it.

¹⁵It shall happen, that as all the good things are come on you of which Yahweh your God spoke to you, so will Yahweh bring on you all the evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you.

¹⁶When you disobey the covenant of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down yourselves to them; then will the anger of Yahweh be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land which he has given to you.

24Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God.

²Joshua said to all the people, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods.

³I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac.

⁴I gave to Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave to Esau Mount Seir, to possess it: and Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.

⁵I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did in the midst of it: and afterward I brought you out.

⁶I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and with horsemen to the Red Sea.

⁷When they cried out to Yahweh, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea on them, and covered them; and your eyes saw what I did in Egypt: and you lived in the wilderness many days.

⁸I brought you into the land of the Amorites, that lived beyond the Jordan: and they fought with you; and I gave them into your hand, and you possessed their land; and I destroyed them from before you.

⁹Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel: and he sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you;

¹⁰but I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand.

¹¹You went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered them into your hand.

¹²I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; not with your sword, nor with your bow.

¹³I gave you a land whereon you had not labored, and cities which you didn't build, and you dwell therein; of vineyards and olive groves which you didn't plant do you eat.

¹⁴Now therefore fear Yahweh, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt; and serve you Yahweh.

¹⁵If it seem evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.

¹⁶The people answered, Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods;

¹⁷for Yahweh our God, he it is who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of whom we passed;

¹⁸and Yahweh drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land: therefore we also will serve Yahweh; for he is our God.

¹⁹Joshua said to the people, You can't serve Yahweh; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins.

²⁰If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after that he has done you good.

²¹The people said to Joshua, No; but we will serve Yahweh.

²²Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen you Yahweh, to serve him. They said, We are witnesses.

²³Now therefore put away, [said he], the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

²⁴The people said to Joshua, Yahweh our God will we serve, and to his voice will we listen.

²⁵So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

²⁶Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Yahweh.

²⁷Joshua said to all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of Yahweh which he spoke to us: it shall be therefore a witness against you, lest you deny your God.

²⁸So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

²⁹It happened after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred ten years old.

³⁰They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathserah, which is in the hill-country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.

³¹Israel served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, and had known all the work of Yahweh, that he had worked for Israel.

³²The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money: and they became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.

³³Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hill-country of Ephraim.

1It happened after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked of Yahweh, saying, Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?

²Yahweh said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.

³Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with you into your lot. So Simeon went with him.

⁴Judah went up; and Yahweh delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they struck of them in Bezek ten thousand men.

⁵They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek; and they fought against him, and they struck the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

⁶But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.

⁷Adoni-bezek said, "Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered [their food] under my table: as I have done, so God has requited me." They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

⁸The children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.

⁹Afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill-country, and in the South, and in the lowland.

¹⁰Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron before was Kiriath-arba); and they struck Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai.

¹¹From there he went against the inhabitants of Debir. (Now the name of Debir before was Kiriath-sepher.)

¹²Caleb said, He who strikes Kiriath-sepher, and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife.

¹³Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife.

¹⁴It happened, when she came [to him], that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she alighted from off her donkey; and Caleb said to her, What would you?

¹⁵She said to him, Give me a blessing; for that you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water. Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.

¹⁶The children of the Kenite, Moses' brother-in-law, went up out of the city of palm-trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people.

¹⁷Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they struck the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. The name of the city was called Hormah.

¹⁸Also Judah took Gaza with the border of it, and Ashkelon with the border of it, and Ekron with the border of it.

¹⁹Yahweh was with Judah; and drove out [the inhabitants of] the hill-country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

²⁰They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had spoken: and he drove out there the three sons of Anak.

²¹The children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

²²The house of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel; and Yahweh was with them.

²³The house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. (Now the name of the city before was Luz.)

²⁴The watchers saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said to him, Show us, we pray you, the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with you.

²⁵He showed them the entrance into the city; and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man go and all his family.

²⁶The man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called the name of it Luz, which is the name of it to this day.

²⁷Manasseh did not drive out [the inhabitants of] Beth-shean and its towns, nor [of] Taanach and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.

²⁸It happened, when Israel had grown strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and did not utterly drive them out.

²⁹Ephraim didn't drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.

³⁰Zebulun didn't drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites lived among them, and became subject to forced labor.

³¹Asher didn't drive out the inhabitants of Acco, nor the inhabitants of Sidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob;

³²but the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.

³³Naphtali didn't drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth-anath; but he lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor.

³⁴The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the hill-country; for they would not allow them to come down to the valley;

³⁵but the Amorites would dwell in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim: yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became subject to forced labor.

³⁶The border of the Amorites was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.

2The angel of Yahweh came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you:

²and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars. But you have not listened to my voice: why have you done this?

³Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be [as thorns] in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.

⁴It happened, when the angel of Yahweh spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.

⁵They called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there to Yahweh.

⁶Now when Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel went every man to his inheritance to possess the land.

⁷The people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of Yahweh that he had worked for Israel.

⁸Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred ten years old.

⁹They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill- country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash.

¹⁰Also all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, who didn't know Yahweh, nor yet the work which he had worked for Israel.

¹¹The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals;

¹²and they forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked Yahweh to anger.

¹³They forsook Yahweh, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.

¹⁴The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers who despoiled them; and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

¹⁵Wherever they went out, the hand of Yahweh was against them for evil, as Yahweh had spoken, and as Yahweh had sworn to them: and they were sore distressed.

¹⁶Yahweh raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who despoiled them.

¹⁷Yet they didn't listen to their judges; for they played the prostitute after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them: they turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of Yahweh; [but] they didn't do so.

¹⁸When Yahweh raised them up judges, then Yahweh was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented Yahweh because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and vexed them.

¹⁹But it happened, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they didn't cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way.

²⁰The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel; and he said, Because this nation have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not listened to my voice;

²¹I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations that Joshua left when he died;

²²that by them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of Yahweh to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.

²³So Yahweh left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.

3Now these are the nations which Yahweh left, to prove Israel by them, even as many [of Israel] as had not known all the wars of Canaan;

²only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing of it:

³[namely], the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon to the entrance of Hamath.

⁴They were [left], to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would listen to the commandments of Yahweh, which he commanded their fathers by Moses.

⁵The children of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites:

⁶and they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods.

⁷The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and forgot Yahweh their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth.

⁸Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.

⁹When the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior to the children of Israel, who saved them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.

¹⁰The Spirit of Yahweh came on him, and he judged Israel; and he went out to war, and Yahweh delivered Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand: and his hand prevailed against Cushan- rishathaim.

¹¹The land had rest forty years. Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

¹²The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

¹³He gathered to him the children of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of palm-trees.

¹⁴The children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.

¹⁵But when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised them up a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a man left-handed. The children of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab.

¹⁶Ehud made him a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length; and he girded it under his clothing on his right thigh.

¹⁷He offered the tribute to Eglon king of Moab: now Eglon was a very fat man.

¹⁸When he had made an end of offering the tribute, he sent away the people who bore the tribute.

¹⁹But he himself turned back from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand to you, king. He said, Keep silence. All who stood by him went out from him.

²⁰Ehud came to him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. Ehud said, I have a message from God to you. He arose out of his seat.

²¹Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his body:

²²and the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed on the blade, for he didn't draw the sword out of his body; and it came out behind.

²³Then Ehud went forth into the porch, and shut the doors of the upper room on him, and locked them.

²⁴Now when he was gone out, his servants came; and they saw, and, behold, the doors of the upper room were locked; and they said, Surely he is covering his feet in the upper chamber.

²⁵They waited until they were ashamed; and, behold, he didn't open the doors of the upper room: therefore they took the key, and opened [them], and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.

²⁶Ehud escaped while they waited, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped to Seirah.

²⁷It happened, when he had come, that he blew a trumpet in the hill-country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel went down with him from the hill-country, and he before them.

²⁸He said to them, Follow after me; for Yahweh has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. They went down after him, and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and didn't allow a man to pass over.

²⁹They struck of Moab at that time about ten thousand men, every lusty man, and every man of valor; and there escaped not a man.

³⁰So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. The land had rest eighty years.

³¹After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad: and he also saved Israel.

4The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, when Ehud was dead.

²Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles.

³The children of Israel cried to Yahweh: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.

⁴Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time.

⁵She lived under the palm-tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill-country of Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

⁶She sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, Hasn't Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded, [saying], Go and draw to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?

⁷I will draw to you, to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into your hand.

⁸Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.

⁹She said, I will surely go with you: notwithstanding, the journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.

¹⁰Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh; and there went up ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him.

¹¹Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, even from the children of Hobab the brother-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far as the oak in Zaanannim, which is by Kedesh.

¹²They told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to Mount Tabor.

¹³Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles, to the river Kishon.

¹⁴Deborah said to Barak, Up; for this is the day in which Yahweh has delivered Sisera into your hand; hasn't Yahweh gone out before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.

¹⁵Yahweh confused Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot, and fled away on his feet.

¹⁶But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the host, to Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the host of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; there was not a man left.

¹⁷However Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

¹⁸Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; don't be afraid. He turned in to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.

¹⁹He said to her, Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. She opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him.

²⁰He said to her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man does come and inquire of you, and say, Is there any man here? that you shall say, No.

²¹Then Jael Heber's wife took a tent-pin, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him, and struck the pin into his temples, and it pierced through into the ground; for he was in a deep sleep; so he swooned and died.

²²Behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek. He came to her; and, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the tent-pin was in his temples.

²³So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.

²⁴The hand of the children of Israel prevailed more and more against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

5Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,

²For that the leaders took the lead in Israel, For that the people offered themselves willingly, Bless you Yahweh.

³Hear, you kings; give ear, you princes; I, [even] I, will sing to Yahweh; I will sing praise to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

⁴Yahweh, when you went forth out of Seir, When you marched out of the field of Edom, The earth trembled, the sky also dropped, Yes, the clouds dropped water.

⁵The mountains quaked at the presence of Yahweh, Even yon Sinai at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

⁶In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, In the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, The travelers walked through byways.

⁷The rulers ceased in Israel, they ceased, Until that I Deborah arose, That I arose a mother in Israel.

⁸They chose new gods; Then was war in the gates: Was there a shield or spear seen Among forty thousand in Israel?

⁹My heart is toward the governors of Israel, Who offered themselves willingly among the people: Bless you Yahweh.

¹⁰Tell [of it], you who ride on white donkeys, You who sit on rich carpets, You who walk by the way.

¹¹Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water, There shall they rehearse the righteous acts of Yahweh, [Even] the righteous acts of his rule in Israel. Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates.

¹²Awake, awake, Deborah; Awake, awake, utter a song: Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam.

¹³Then came down a remnant of the nobles [and] the people; Yahweh came down for me against the mighty.

¹⁴Out of Ephraim [came down] they whose root is in Amalek; After you, Benjamin, among your peoples; Out of Machir came down governors, Out of Zebulun those who handle the marshal's staff.

¹⁵The princes of Issachar were with Deborah; As was Issachar, so was Barak; Into the valley they rushed forth at his feet. By the watercourses of Reuben There were great resolves of heart.

¹⁶Why sat you among the sheepfolds, To hear the whistling for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben There were great searchings of heart.

¹⁷Gilead abode beyond the Jordan: Dan, why did he remain in ships? Asher sat still at the haven of the sea, Abode by his creeks.

¹⁸Zebulun was a people that jeopardized their lives to the death, Naphtali, on the high places of the field.

¹⁹The kings came and fought; Then fought the kings of Canaan. In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo: They took no gain of money.

²⁰From the sky the stars fought, From their courses they fought against Sisera.

²¹The river Kishon swept them away, That ancient river, the river Kishon. My soul, march on with strength.

²²Then did the horse hoofs stamp By reason of the prancings, the prancings of their strong ones.

²³Curse you Meroz, said the angel of Yahweh. Curse you bitterly the inhabitants of it, Because they didn't come to the help of Yahweh, To the help of Yahweh against the mighty.

²⁴Blessed above women shall Jael be, The wife of Heber the Kenite; Blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

²⁵He asked water, [and] she gave him milk; She brought him butter in a lordly dish.

²⁶She put her hand to the tent-pin, Her right hand to the workmen's hammer; With the hammer she struck Sisera, she struck through his head; Yes, she pierced and struck through his temples.

²⁷At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay; At her feet he bowed, he fell; Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.

²⁸Through the window she looked forth, and cried, The mother of Sisera [cried] through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why do the wheels of his chariots wait?

²⁹Her wise ladies answered her, Yes, she returned answer to herself,

³⁰Have they not found, have they not divided the spoil? A lady, two ladies to every man; To Sisera a spoil of dyed garments, A spoil of dyed garments embroidered, Of dyed garments embroidered on both sides, on the necks of the spoil?

³¹So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh: But let those who love him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might. The land had rest forty years.

6The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

²The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds.

³So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them;

⁴and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey.

⁵For they came up with their cattle and their tents; they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number: and they came into the land to destroy it.

⁶Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh.

⁷It happened, when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh because of Midian,

⁸that Yahweh sent a prophet to the children of Israel: and he said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;

⁹and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land;

¹⁰and I said to you, I am Yahweh your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you have not listened to my voice.

¹¹The angel of Yahweh came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

¹²The angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor.

¹³Gideon said to him, Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt? but now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.

¹⁴Yahweh looked at him, and said, Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian: have not I sent you?

¹⁵He said to him, Oh, Lord, with which shall I save Israel? behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

¹⁶Yahweh said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.

¹⁷He said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me.

¹⁸Please don't go away, until I come to you, and bring out my present, and lay it before you. He said, I will wait until you come again.

¹⁹Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of meal: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it.

²⁰The angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth. He did so.

²¹Then the angel of Yahweh put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there went up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of Yahweh departed out of his sight.

²²Gideon saw that he was the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, Alas, Lord Yahweh! because I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face.

²³Yahweh said to him, Peace be to you; don't be afraid: you shall not die.

²⁴Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it Yahweh-shalom: to this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

²⁵It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him, Take your father's bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it;

²⁶and build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this stronghold, in the orderly manner, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.

²⁷Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as Yahweh had spoken to him: and it happened, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.

²⁸When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it, and the second bull was offered on the altar that was built.

²⁹They said one to another, Who has done this thing? When they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.

³⁰Then the men of the city said to Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has broken down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the Asherah that was by it.

³¹Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? he who will contend for him, let him be put to death while [it is yet] morning: if he be a god, let him contend for himself, because one has broken down his altar.

³²Therefore on that day he named him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal contend against him, because he has broken down his altar.

³³Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and encamped in the valley of Jezreel.

³⁴But the Spirit of Yahweh came on Gideon; and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together after him.

³⁵He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; and they also were gathered together after him: and he sent messengers to Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.

³⁶Gideon said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken,

³⁷behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry on all the ground, then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken.

³⁸It was so; for he rose up early on the next day, and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

³⁹Gideon said to God, Don't let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once: Please let me make a trial just this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.

⁴⁰God did so that night: for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

7Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people who were with him, rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Harod: and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.

²Yahweh said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me.

³Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead. There returned of the people twenty-two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.

⁴Yahweh said to Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down to the water, and I will try them for you there: and it shall be, that of whom I tell you, This shall go with you, the same shall go with you; and of whoever I tell you, This shall not go with you, the same shall not go.

⁵So he brought down the people to the water: and Yahweh said to Gideon, Everyone who laps of the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, him shall you set by himself; likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink.

⁶The number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink water.

⁷Yahweh said to Gideon, By the three hundred men who lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand; and let all the people go every man to his place.

⁸So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets; and he sent all the men of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men: and the camp of Midian was beneath him in the valley.

⁹It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him, Arise, get you down into the camp; for I have delivered it into your hand.

¹⁰But if you fear to go down, go you with Purah your servant down to the camp:

¹¹and you shall hear what they say; and afterward shall your hands be strengthened to go down into the camp. Then went he down with Purah his servant to the outermost part of the armed men who were in the camp.

¹²The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand which is on the sea-shore for multitude.

¹³When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his fellow; and he said, Behold, I dreamed a dream; and, behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.

¹⁴His fellow answered, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: into his hand God has delivered Midian, and all the host.

¹⁵It was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation of it, that he worshipped; and he returned into the camp of Israel, and said, Arise; for Yahweh has delivered into your hand the host of Midian.

¹⁶He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all of them trumpets, and empty pitchers, with torches within the pitchers.

¹⁷He said to them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outermost part of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall you do.

¹⁸When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow you the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, For Yahweh and for Gideon.

¹⁹So Gideon, and the hundred men who were with him, came to the outermost part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands.

²⁰The three companies blew the trumpets, and broke the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands with which to blow; and they cried, The sword of Yahweh and of Gideon.

²¹They stood every man in his place round about the camp; and all the host ran; and they shouted, and put [them] to flight.

²²They blew the three hundred trumpets, and Yahweh set every man's sword against his fellow, and against all the host; and the host fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.

²³The men of Israel were gathered together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after Midian.

²⁴Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill-country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against Midian, and take before them the waters, as far as Beth-barah, even the Jordan. So all the men of Ephraim were gathered together, and took the waters as far as Beth-barah, even the Jordan.

²⁵They took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian: and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.

8The men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you served us thus, that you didn't call us, when you went to fight with Midian? They did chide with him sharply.

²He said to them, What have I now done in comparison with you? Isn't the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?

³God has delivered into your hand the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that.

⁴Gideon came to the Jordan, [and] passed over, he, and the three hundred men who were with him, faint, yet pursuing.

⁵He said to the men of Succoth, Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me; for they are faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.

⁶The princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?

⁷Gideon said, Therefore when Yahweh has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.

⁸He went up there to Penuel, and spoke to them in like manner; and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered.

⁹He spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.

¹⁰Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of all the host of the children of the east; for there fell one hundred twenty thousand men who drew sword.

¹¹Gideon went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and struck the host; for the host was secure.

¹²Zebah and Zalmunna fled; and he pursued after them; and he took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and confused all the host.

¹³Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle from the ascent of Heres.

¹⁴He caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and inquired of him: and he described for him the princes of Succoth, and the elders of it, seventy-seven men.

¹⁵He came to the men of Succoth, and said, See Zebah and Zalmunna, concerning whom you did taunt me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are weary?

¹⁶He took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth.

¹⁷He broke down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men of the city.

¹⁸Then said he to Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner of men were they whom you killed at Tabor? They answered, As you are, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king.

¹⁹He said, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother: as Yahweh lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.

²⁰He said to Jether his firstborn, Up, and kill them. But the youth didn't draw his sword; for he feared, because he was yet a youth.

²¹Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise you, and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength. Gideon arose, and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels' necks.

²²Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule you over us, both you, and your son, and your son's son also; for you have saved us out of the hand of Midian.

²³Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: Yahweh shall rule over you.

²⁴Gideon said to them, I would make a request of you, that you would give me every man the ear-rings of his spoil. (For they had golden ear-rings, because they were Ishmaelites.)

²⁵They answered, We will willingly give them. They spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the ear-rings of his spoil.

²⁶The weight of the golden ear-rings that he requested was one thousand and seven hundred [shekels] of gold, besides the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple clothing that was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were about their camels' necks.

²⁷Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel played the prostitute after it there; and it became a snare to Gideon, and to his house.

²⁸So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.

²⁹Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house.

³⁰Gideon had seventy sons conceived from his body; for he had many wives.

³¹His concubine who was in Shechem, she also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.

³²Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

³³It happened, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and played the prostitute after the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god.

³⁴The children of Israel didn't remember Yahweh their God, who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side;

³⁵neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, [who is] Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had showed to Israel.

9Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother's brothers, and spoke with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying,

²Please speak in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, that all the sons of Jerubbaal, who are seventy persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you? Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.

³His mother's brothers spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother.

⁴They gave him seventy [pieces] of silver out of the house of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired vain and light fellows, who followed him.

⁵He went to his father's house at Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, being seventy persons, on one stone: but Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.

⁶All the men of Shechem assembled themselves together, and all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem.

⁷When they told it to Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said to them, Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you.

⁸The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said to the olive-tree, Reign you over us.

⁹But the olive-tree said to them, Should I leave my fatness, with which by me they honor God and man, and go to wave back and forth over the trees?

¹⁰The trees said to the fig-tree, Come you, and reign over us.

¹¹But the fig-tree said to them, Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to wave back and forth over the trees?

¹²The trees said to the vine, Come you, and reign over us.

¹³The vine said to them, Should I leave my new wine, which cheers God and man, and go to wave back and forth over the trees?

¹⁴Then said all the trees to the bramble, Come you, and reign over us.

¹⁵The bramble said to the trees, If in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

¹⁶Now therefore, if you have dealt truly and righteously, in that you have made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him according to the deserving of his hands

¹⁷(for my father fought for you, and adventured his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian:

¹⁸and you are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, seventy persons, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maid-servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother);

¹⁹if you then have dealt truly and righteously with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice you in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:

²⁰but if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.

²¹Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and lived there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.

²²Abimelech was prince over Israel three years.

²³God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

²⁴that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers.

²⁵The men of Shechem set liers-in-wait for him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who came along that way by them: and it was told Abimelech.

²⁶Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brothers, and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their trust in him.

²⁷They went out into the field, and gathered their vineyards, and trod [the grapes], and held festival, and went into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and cursed Abimelech.

²⁸Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Isn't he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve you the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: but why should we serve him?

²⁹Would that this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. He said to Abimelech, Increase your army, and come out.

³⁰When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled.

³¹He sent messengers to Abimelech craftily, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brothers are come to Shechem; and, behold, they constrain the city [to take part] against you.

³²Now therefore, up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field:

³³and it shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, you shall rise early, and rush on the city; and, behold, when he and the people who are with him come out against you, then may you do to them as you shall find occasion.

³⁴Abimelech rose up, and all the people who were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four companies.

³⁵Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and Abimelech rose up, and the people who were with him, from the ambush.

³⁶When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, there come people down from the tops of the mountains. Zebul said to him, You see the shadow of the mountains as if they were men.

³⁷Gaal spoke again and said, Behold, there come people down by the middle of the land, and one company comes by the way of the oak of Meonenim.

³⁸Then said Zebul to him, Where is now your mouth, that you said, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that you have despised? go out now, I pray, and fight with them.

³⁹Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech.

⁴⁰Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and there fell many wounded, even to the entrance of the gate.

⁴¹Abimelech lived at Arumah: and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, that they should not dwell in Shechem.

⁴²It happened on the next day, that the people went out into the field; and they told Abimelech.

⁴³He took the people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field; and he looked, and, behold, the people came forth out of the city; He rose up against them, and struck them.

⁴⁴Abimelech, and the companies that were with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and the two companies rushed on all who were in the field, and struck them.

⁴⁵Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and killed the people who were therein: and he beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.

⁴⁶When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered into the stronghold of the house of Elberith.

⁴⁷It was told Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together.

⁴⁸Abimelech got him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Abimelech took an ax in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder: and he said to the people who were with him, What you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done.

⁴⁹All the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire on them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.

⁵⁰Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it.

⁵¹But there was a strong tower within the city, and there fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut themselves in, and got them up to the roof of the tower.

⁵²Abimelech came to the tower, and fought against it, and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire.

⁵³A certain woman cast an upper millstone on Abimelech's head, and broke his skull.

⁵⁴Then he called hastily to the young man his armor bearer, and said to him, Draw your sword, and kill me, that men not say of me, A woman killed him. His young man thrust him through, and he died.

⁵⁵When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man to his place.

⁵⁶Thus God requited the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father, in killing his seventy brothers;

⁵⁷and all the wickedness of the men of Shechem did God requite on their heads: and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

10After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he lived in Shamir in the hill-country of Ephraim.

²He judged Israel twenty-three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.

³After him arose Jair, the Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty-two years.

⁴He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth-jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead.

⁵Jair died, and was buried in Kamon.

⁶The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals, and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook Yahweh, and didn't serve him.

⁷The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the children of Ammon.

⁸They vexed and oppressed the children of Israel that year: eighteen years [oppressed they] all the children of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

⁹The children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.

¹⁰The children of Israel cried to Yahweh, saying, We have sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baals.

¹¹Yahweh said to the children of Israel, Didn't I save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?

¹²The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and you cried to me, and I saved you out of their hand.

¹³Yet you have forsaken me, and served other gods: why I will save you no more.

¹⁴Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.

¹⁵The children of Israel said to Yahweh, We have sinned: do you to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us, we pray you, this day.

¹⁶They put away the foreign gods from among them, and served Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.

¹⁷Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. The children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpah.

¹⁸The people, the princes of Gilead, said one to another, What man is he who will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

11Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of Jephthah.

²Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, You shall not inherit in our father's house; for you are the son of another woman.

³Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with him.

⁴It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

⁵It was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob;

⁶and they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.

⁷Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Didn't you hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? and why are you come to me now when you are in distress?

⁸The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore are we turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

⁹Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh deliver them before me, shall I be your head?

¹⁰The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do.

¹¹Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah.

¹²Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you to do with me, that you are come to me to fight against my land?

¹³The king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan: now therefore restore those [lands] again peaceably.

¹⁴Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon;

¹⁵and he said to him, Thus says Jephthah: Israel didn't take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon,

¹⁶but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh;

¹⁷then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Please let me pass through your land; but the king of Edom didn't listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not: and Israel abode in Kadesh.

¹⁸Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn't come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.

¹⁹Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let us pass, we pray you, through your land to my place.

²⁰But Sihon didn't trust Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

²¹Yahweh, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.

²²They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan.

²³So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them?

²⁴Won't you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess.

²⁵Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them?

²⁶While Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, three hundred years; why didn't you recover them within that time?

²⁷I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me: Yahweh, the Judge, be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.

²⁸However the king of the children of Ammon didn't listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him.

²⁹Then the Spirit of Yahweh came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon.

³⁰Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,

³¹then it shall be, that whatever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.

³²So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand.

³³He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

³⁴Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances: and she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.

³⁵It happened, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! you have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to Yahweh, and I can't go back.

³⁶She said to him, My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon.

³⁷She said to her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.

³⁸He said, Go. He sent her away for two months: and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains.

³⁹It happened at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she was a virgin. It was a custom in Israel,

⁴⁰that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.

12The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed northward; and they said to Jephthah, Why did you pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didn't call us to go with you? we will burn your house on you with fire.

²Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn't save me out of their hand.

³When I saw that you didn't save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and Yahweh delivered them into my hand: why then are you come up to me this day, to fight against me?

⁴Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim, [and] in the midst of Manasseh.

⁵The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. It was so, that when [any of] the fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? If he said, No;

⁶then said they to him, Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth; for he couldn't manage to pronounce it right: then they laid hold on him, and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two thousand.

⁷Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in [one of] the cities of Gilead.

⁸After him Ibzan of Beth-lehem judged Israel.

⁹He had thirty sons; and thirty daughters he sent abroad, and thirty daughters he brought in from abroad for his sons. He judged Israel seven years.

¹⁰Ibzan died, and was buried at Beth-lehem.

¹¹After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years.

¹²Elon the Zebulunite died, and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

¹³After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel.

¹⁴He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons, who rode on seventy donkey colts: and he judged Israel eight years.

¹⁵Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill-country of the Amalekites.

13The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh; and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

²There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and didn't bear.

³The angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman, and said to her, See now, you are barren, and don't bear; but you shall conceive, and bear a son.

⁴Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don't eat any unclean thing:

⁵for, behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb: and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

⁶Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of the angel of God, very awesome; and I didn't ask him whence he was, neither did he tell me his name:

⁷but he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.

⁸Then Manoah entreated Yahweh, and said, Oh, Lord, please let the man of God whom you did send come again to us, and teach us what we shall do to the child who shall be born.

⁹God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah, her husband, wasn't with her.

¹⁰The woman made haste, and ran, and told her husband, and said to him, Behold, the man has appeared to me, who came to me the [other] day.

¹¹Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, Are you the man who spoke to the woman? He said, I am.

¹²Manoah said, Now let your words happen: what shall be the ordering of the child, and [how] shall we do to him?

¹³The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Of all that I said to the woman let her beware.

¹⁴She may not eat of anything that comes of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her observe.

¹⁵Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, I pray you, let us detain you, that we may make ready a kid for you.

¹⁶The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Though you detain me, I won't eat of your bread; and if you will make ready a burnt offering, you must offer it to Yahweh. For Manoah didn't know that he was the angel of Yahweh.

¹⁷Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, What is your name, that when your words happen, we may honor you?

¹⁸The angel of Yahweh said to him, Why ask you after my name, seeing it is wonderful?

¹⁹So Manoah took the kid with the meal-offering, and offered it on the rock to Yahweh: and [the angel] did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on.

²⁰For it happened, when the flame went up toward the sky from off the altar, that the angel of Yahweh ascended in the flame of the altar: and Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.

²¹But the angel of Yahweh did no more appear to Manoah or to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh.

²²Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

²³But his wife said to him, If Yahweh were pleased to kill us, he wouldn't have received a burnt offering and a meal-offering at our hand, neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would at this time have told such things as these.

²⁴The woman bore a son, and named him Samson: and the child grew, and Yahweh blessed him.

²⁵The Spirit of Yahweh began to move him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

14Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.

²He came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me as wife.

³Then his father and his mother said to him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? Samson said to his father, Get her for me; for she pleases me well.

⁴But his father and his mother didn't know that it was of Yahweh; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel.

⁵Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah: and, behold, a young lion roared against him.

⁶The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a kid; and he had nothing in his hand: but he didn't tell his father or his mother what he had done.

⁷He went down, and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well.

⁸After a while he returned to take her; and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.

⁹He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went; and he came to his father and mother, and gave to them, and they ate: but he didn't tell them that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion.

¹⁰His father went down to the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do.

¹¹It happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.

¹²Samson said to them, Let me now put forth a riddle to you: if you can declare it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing;

¹³but if you can't declare it to me, then shall you give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing. They said to him, Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it.

¹⁴He said to them, Out of the eater came forth food, Out of the strong came forth sweetness. They couldn't in three days declare the riddle.

¹⁵It happened on the seventh day, that they said to Samson's wife, Entice your husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire: have you called us to impoverish us? is it not [so]?

¹⁶Samson's wife wept before him, and said, You do but hate me, and don't love me: you have put forth a riddle to the children of my people, and haven't told it me. He said to her, Behold, I haven't told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?

¹⁷She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it happened on the seventh day, that he told her, because she pressed him sore; and she told the riddle to the children of her people.

¹⁸The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? He said to them, If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, You wouldn't have found out my riddle.

¹⁹The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and struck thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave the changes [of clothing] to those who declared the riddle. His anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house.

²⁰But Samson's wife was [given] to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.

15But it happened after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father wouldn't allow him to go in.

²Her father said, I most assuredly thought that you had utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion: isn't her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her, instead.

³Samson said to them, This time shall I be blameless in regard of the Philistines, when I do them a mischief.

⁴Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails.

⁵When he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves.

⁶Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? They said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to his companion. The Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.

⁷Samson said to them, If you do after this manner, surely I will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.

⁸He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

⁹Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.

¹⁰The men of Judah said, Why are you come up against us? They said, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he has done to us.

¹¹Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?" He said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them.

¹²They said to him, We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. Samson said to them, Swear to me that you will not fall on me yourselves.

¹³They spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind you fast, and deliver you into their hand: but surely we will not kill you. They bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.

¹⁴When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands dropped from off his hands.

¹⁵He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand, and took it, and struck a thousand men therewith.

¹⁶Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men.

¹⁷It happened, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath-lehi.

¹⁸He was very thirsty, and called on Yahweh, and said, You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised.

¹⁹But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: why the name of it was called En-hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day.

²⁰He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

16Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her.

²[It was told] the Gazites, saying, Samson is come here. They compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, [Let be] until morning light, then we will kill him.

³Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.

⁴It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

⁵The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will each give you of us eleven hundred [pieces] of silver.

⁶Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, Please, in which your great strength lies, and with which you might be bound to afflict you.

⁷Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven green cords that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.

⁸Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.

⁹Now she had liers-in-wait abiding in the inner chamber. She said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. He broke the cords, as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known.

¹⁰Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, Please, with which you might be bound.

¹¹He said to her, If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then shall I become weak, and be as another man.

¹²So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. The liers-in-wait were abiding in the inner chamber. He broke them off his arms like a thread.

¹³Delilah said to Samson, Hitherto you have mocked me, and told me lies: tell me with which you might be bound. He said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web.

¹⁴She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam, and the web.

¹⁵She said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? you have mocked me these three times, and have not told me in which your great strength lies.

¹⁶It happened, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, that his soul was vexed to death.

¹⁷He told her all his heart, and said to her, "No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I will become weak, and be like any other man."

¹⁸When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hand.

¹⁹She made him sleep on her knees; and she called for a man, and shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.

²⁰She said, The Philistines are on you, Samson. He awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free. But he didn't know that Yahweh had departed from him.

²¹The Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison-house.

²²However the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved.

²³The lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

²⁴When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, Our god has delivered into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us.

²⁵It happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. They called for Samson out of the prison-house; and he made sport before them. They set him between the pillars:

²⁶and Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, Allow me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house rests, that I may lean on them.

²⁷Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while Samson made sport.

²⁸Samson called to Yahweh, and said, Lord Yahweh, remember me, Please, and strengthen me, Please, only this once, God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.

²⁹Samson took hold of the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and leaned on them, the one with his right hand, and the other with his left.

³⁰Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. He bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people who were therein. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than those who he killed in his life.

³¹Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying-place of Manoah his father. He judged Israel twenty years.

17There was a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah.

²He said to his mother, The eleven hundred [pieces] of silver that were taken from you, about which you did utter a curse, and did also speak it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. His mother said, Blessed be my son of Yahweh.

³He restored the eleven hundred [pieces] of silver to his mother; and his mother said, I most assuredly dedicate the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son, to make an engraved image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it to you.

⁴When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred [pieces] of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made of it an engraved image and a molten image: and it was in the house of Micah.

⁵The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

⁶In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

⁷There was a young man out of Beth-lehem-judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he sojourned there.

⁸The man departed out of the city, out of Beth-lehem-judah, to sojourn where he could find [a place], and he came to the hill-country of Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.

⁹Micah said to him, Whence come you? He said to him, I am a Levite of Beth-lehem-judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find [a place].

¹⁰Micah said to him, Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten [pieces] of silver by the year, and a suit of clothing, and your victuals. So the Levite went in.

¹¹The Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons.

¹²Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.

¹³Then said Micah, Now know I that Yahweh will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.

18In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day [their] inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.

²The children of Dan sent of their family five men from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said to them, Go, search the land. They came to the hill-country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

³When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite; and they turned aside there, and said to him, Who brought you here? and what do you in this place? and what have you here?

⁴He said to them, Thus and thus has Micah dealt with me, and he has hired me, and I am become his priest.

⁵They said to him, Ask counsel, we pray you, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.

⁶The priest said to them, Go in peace: before Yahweh is your way wherein you go.

⁷Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people who were therein, how they lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was none in the land, possessing authority, that might put [them] to shame in anything, and they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with any man.

⁸They came to their brothers to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brothers said to them, What [say] you?

⁹They said, Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are you still? don't be slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land.

¹⁰When you go, you shall come to a people secure, and the land is large; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth.

¹¹There set forth from there of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men girt with weapons of war.

¹²They went up, and encamped in Kiriath-jearim, in Judah: why they called that place Mahaneh-dan, to this day; behold, it is behind Kiriath-jearim.

¹³They passed there to the hill-country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.

¹⁴Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers, Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and an engraved image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what you have to do.

¹⁵They turned aside there, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even to the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare.

¹⁶The six hundred men girt with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate.

¹⁷The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girt with weapons of war.

¹⁸When these went into Micah's house, and fetched the engraved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, What do you?

¹⁹They said to him, Hold your peace, lay your hand on your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?

²⁰The priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went in the midst of the people.

²¹So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the goods before them.

²²When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near to Micah's house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan.

²³They cried to the children of Dan. They turned their faces, and said to Micah, What ails you, that you come with such a company?

²⁴He said, you have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and are gone away, and what have I more? and how then say you to me, What ails you?

²⁵The children of Dan said to him, "Don't let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household."

²⁶The children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

²⁷They took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burnt the city with fire.

²⁸There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with any man; and it was in the valley that lies by Beth-rehob. They built the city, and lived therein.

²⁹They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel: however the name of the city was Laish at the first.

³⁰The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.

³¹So they set them up Micah's engraved image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

19It happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the farther side of the hill-country of Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Beth-lehem-judah.

²His concubine played the prostitute against him, and went away from him to her father's house to Beth-lehem-judah, and was there the space of four months.

³Her husband arose, and went after her, to speak kindly to her, to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of donkeys: and she brought him into her father's house; and when the father of the young lady saw him, he rejoiced to meet him.

⁴His father-in-law, the young lady's father, retained him; and he abode with him three days: so they ate and drink, and lodged there.

⁵It happened on the fourth day, that they arose early in the morning, and he rose up to depart: and the young lady's father said to his son-in-law, Strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward you shall go your way.

⁶So they sat down, and ate and drink, both of them together: and the young lady's father said to the man, Please be pleased to stay all night, and let your heart be merry.

⁷The man rose up to depart; but his father-in-law urged him, and he lodged there again.

⁸He arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart; and the young lady's father said, Please strengthen your heart and stay until the day declines; and they ate, both of them.

⁹When the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father-in-law, the young lady's father, said to him, Behold, now the day draws toward evening, please stay all night: behold, the day grows to an end, lodge here, that your heart may be merry; and tomorrow get you early on your way, that you may go home.

¹⁰But the man wouldn't stay that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Jebus (the same is Jerusalem): and there were with him a couple of donkeys saddled; his concubine also was with him.

¹¹When they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and the servant said to his master, Please come and let us turn aside into this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it.

¹²His master said to him, We won't turn aside into the city of a foreigner, that is not of the children of Israel; but we will pass over to Gibeah.

¹³He said to his servant, Come and let us draw near to one of these places; and we will lodge in Gibeah, or in Ramah.

¹⁴So they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down on them near to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.

¹⁵They turned aside there, to go in to lodge in Gibeah: and he went in, and sat him down in the street of the city; for there was no man who took them into his house to lodge.

¹⁶Behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even: now the man was of the hill-country of Ephraim, and he sojourned in Gibeah; but the men of the place were Benjamites.

¹⁷He lifted up his eyes, and saw the wayfaring man in the street of the city; and the old man said, Where go you? and whence come you?

¹⁸He said to him, We are passing from Beth-lehem-judah to the farther side of the hill-country of Ephraim; from there am I, and I went to Beth-lehem-judah: and I am [now] going to the house of Yahweh; and there is no man who takes me into his house.

¹⁹Yet there is both straw and provender for our donkeys; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for your handmaid, and for the young man who is with your servants: there is no want of anything.

²⁰The old man said, Peace be to you; howsoever let all your wants lie on me; only don't lodge in the street.

²¹So he brought him into his house, and gave the donkeys fodder; and they washed their feet, and ate and drink.

²²As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain base fellows, beset the house round about, beating at the door; and they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man who came into your house, that we may know him.

²³The man, the master of the house, went out to them, and said to them, No, my brothers, please don't act so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into my house, don't do this folly.

²⁴Behold, here is my daughter a virgin, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble you them, and do with them what seems good to you: but to this man don't do any such folly.

²⁵But the men wouldn't listen to him: so the man laid hold on his concubine, and brought her forth to them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go.

²⁶Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, until it was light.

²⁷Her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way; and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold.

²⁸He said to her, Up, and let us be going; but none answered: then he took her up on the donkey; and the man rose up, and got him to his place.

²⁹When he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Israel.

³⁰It was so, that all who saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt to this day: consider it, take counsel, and speak.

20Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to Yahweh at Mizpah.

²The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword.

³(Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, Tell us, how was this wickedness brought to pass?

⁴The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.

⁵The men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about me by night; me they thought to have slain, and my concubine they forced, and she is dead.

⁶I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.

⁷Behold, you children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.

⁸All the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn to his house.

⁹But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: [we will go up] against it by lot;

¹⁰and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to get victuals for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have worked in Israel.

¹¹So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.

¹²The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is happen among you?

¹³Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers the children of Israel.

¹⁴The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.

¹⁵The children of Benjamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.

¹⁶Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; everyone could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss.

¹⁷The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew sword: all these were men of war.

¹⁸The children of Israel arose, and went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God; and they said, Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin? Yahweh said, Judah [shall go up] first.

¹⁹The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.

²⁰The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah.

²¹The children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites on that day Twenty-two thousand men.

²²The people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day.

²³The children of Israel went up and wept before Yahweh until even; and they asked of Yahweh, saying, Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? Yahweh said, Go up against him.

²⁴The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.

²⁵Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

²⁶Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until even; and they offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before Yahweh.

²⁷The children of Israel asked of Yahweh (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

²⁸and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? Yahweh said, Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand.

²⁹Israel set liers-in-wait against Gibeah round about.

³⁰The children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.

³¹The children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to strike and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Bethel, and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

³²The children of Benjamin said, They are struck down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways.

³³All the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers-in-wait of Israel broke forth out of their place, even out of Maareh-geba.

³⁴There came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they didn't know that evil was close on them.

³⁵Yahweh struck Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword.

³⁶So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted to the liers-in-wait whom they had set against Gibeah.

³⁷The liers-in-wait hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; and the liers-in-wait drew themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword.

³⁸Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers-in-wait was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city.

³⁹The men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said, Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle.

⁴⁰But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky.

⁴¹The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil had come on them.

⁴²Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst of it.

⁴³They enclosed the Benjamites round about, [and] chased them, [and] trod them down at [their] resting-place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrise.

⁴⁴There fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these [were] men of valor.

⁴⁵They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck of them two thousand men.

⁴⁶So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these [were] men of valor.

⁴⁷But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and abode in the rock of Rimmon four months.

⁴⁸The men of Israel turned again on the children of Benjamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the cattle, and all that they found: moreover all the cities which they found they set on fire.

21Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin as wife.

²The people came to Bethel, and sat there until evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore.

³They said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel?

⁴It happened on the next day that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings.

⁵The children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who didn't come up in the assembly to Yahweh? For they had made a great oath concerning him who didn't come up to Yahweh to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death.

⁶The children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.

⁷How shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by Yahweh that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?

⁸They said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel who didn't come up to Yahweh to Mizpah? Behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly.

⁹For when the people were numbered, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there.

¹⁰The congregation sent there twelve thousand men of the most valiant, and commanded them, saying, Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones.

¹¹This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain by man.

¹²They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins, who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

¹³The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them.

¹⁴Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-gilead: and yet so they weren't enough for them.

¹⁵The people repented them for Benjamin, because that Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

¹⁶Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?

¹⁷They said, There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel.

¹⁸However we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn, saying, Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin.

¹⁹They said, Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.

²⁰They commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards,

²¹and see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come you out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

²²It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, Grant them graciously to us, because we didn't take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, else would you now be guilty.

²³The children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off: and they went and returned to their inheritance, and built the cities, and lived in them.

²⁴The children of Israel departed there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from there every man to his inheritance.

²⁵In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

1Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of the hill-country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite:

²and he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

³This man went up out of his city from year to year to worship and to sacrifice to Yahweh of Hosts in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, priests to Yahweh, were there.

⁴When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions:

⁵but to Hannah he gave a double portion; for he loved Hannah, but Yahweh had shut up her womb.

⁶Her rival provoked her sore, to make her fret, because Yahweh had shut up her womb.

⁷[as] he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of Yahweh, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.

⁸Elkanah her husband said to her, Hannah, why weep you? and why don't you eat? and why is your heart grieved? am I not better to you than ten sons?

⁹So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his seat by the door-post of the temple of Yahweh.

¹⁰She was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to Yahweh, and wept sore.

¹¹She vowed a vow, and said, Yahweh of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget your handmaid, but will give to your handmaid a man-child, then I will give him to Yahweh all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come on his head.

¹²It happened, as she continued praying before Yahweh, that Eli marked her mouth.

¹³Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.

¹⁴Eli said to her, How long will you be drunken? put away your wine from you.

¹⁵Hannah answered, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I poured out my soul before Yahweh.

¹⁶Don't count your handmaid for a wicked woman; for out of the abundance of my complaint and my provocation have I spoken hitherto.

¹⁷Then Eli answered, Go in peace; and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him.

¹⁸She said, Let your handmaid find favor in your sight. So the woman went her way, and ate; and her facial expression wasn't sad any more.

¹⁹They rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before Yahweh, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and Yahweh remembered her.

²⁰It happened, when the time was come about, that Hannah conceived, and bore a son; and she named him Samuel, [saying], Because I have asked him of Yahweh.

²¹The man Elkanah, and all his house, went up to offer to Yahweh the yearly sacrifice, and his vow.

²²But Hannah didn't go up; for she said to her husband, [I will not go up] until the child be weaned; and then I will bring him, that he may appear before Yahweh, and there abide forever.

²³Elkanah her husband said to her, Do what seems you good; wait until you have weaned him; only Yahweh establish his word. So the woman waited and nursed her son, until she weaned him.

²⁴When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls, and one ephah of meal, and a bottle of wine, and brought him to the house of Yahweh in Shiloh: and the child was young.

²⁵They killed the bull, and brought the child to Eli.

²⁶She said, Oh, my lord, as your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here, praying to Yahweh.

²⁷For this child I prayed; and Yahweh has given me my petition which I asked of him:

²⁸therefore also I have granted him to Yahweh; as long as he lives he is granted to Yahweh. He worshipped Yahweh there.

2Hannah prayed, and said: My heart exults in Yahweh; My horn is exalted in Yahweh; My mouth is enlarged over my enemies; Because I rejoice in your salvation.

²There is none holy as Yahweh; For there is none besides you, Neither is there any rock like our God.

³Talk no more so exceeding proudly; Don't let arrogance come out of your mouth; For Yahweh is a God of knowledge, By him actions are weighed.

⁴The bows of the mighty men are broken; Those who stumbled are girded with strength.

⁵Those who were full have hired out themselves for bread; Those who were hungry have ceased [to hunger]: Yes, the barren has borne seven; She who has many children languishes.

⁶Yahweh kills, and makes alive: He brings down to Sheol, and brings up.

⁷Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich: He brings low, he also lifts up.

⁸He raises up the poor out of the dust, He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, Inherit the throne of glory: For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh's, He has set the world on them.

⁹He will keep the feet of his holy ones; But the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness; For by strength shall no man prevail.

¹⁰Those who strive with Yahweh shall be broken to pieces; Against them will he thunder in the sky: Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth; He will give strength to his king, Exalt the horn of his anointed.

¹¹Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. The child did minister to Yahweh before Eli the priest.

¹²Now the sons of Eli were base men; they didn't know Yahweh.

¹³The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was boiling, with a flesh-hook of three teeth in his hand;

¹⁴and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the flesh-hook brought up the priest took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.

¹⁵Yes, before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have boiled flesh of you, but raw.

¹⁶If the man said to him, They will surely burn the fat first, and then take as much as your soul desires; then he would say, No, but you shall give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force.

¹⁷The sin of the young men was very great before Yahweh; for the men despised the offering of Yahweh.

¹⁸But Samuel ministered before Yahweh, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.

¹⁹Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

²⁰Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, Yahweh give you seed of this woman for the petition which was asked of Yahweh. They went to their own home.

²¹Yahweh visited Hannah, and she conceived, and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before Yahweh.

²²Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel, and how that they lay with the women who served at the door of the tent of meeting.

²³He said to them, Why do you such things? for I hear of your evil dealings from all this people.

²⁴No, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: you make Yahweh's people to disobey.

²⁵If one man sin against another, God shall judge him; but if a man sin against Yahweh, who shall entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they didn't listen to the voice of their father, because Yahweh was minded to kill them.

²⁶The child Samuel grew on, and increased in favor both with Yahweh, and also with men.

²⁷There came a man of God to Eli, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Did I reveal myself to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt [in bondage] to Pharaoh's house?

²⁸and did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? and did I give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire?

²⁹Why kick you at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in [my] habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?

³⁰Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever: but now Yahweh says, Be it far from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

³¹Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father's house, that there shall not be an old man in your house.

³²You shall see the affliction of [my] habitation, in all the wealth which [God] shall give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.

³³The man of yours, [whom] I shall not cut off from my altar, [shall be] to consume your eyes, and to grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower of their age.

³⁴This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die both of them.

³⁵I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before my anointed forever.

³⁶It shall happen, that everyone who is left in your house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and shall say, Please put me into one of the priests' offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.

3The child Samuel ministered to Yahweh before Eli. The word of Yahweh was precious in those days; there was no frequent vision.

²It happened at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see),

³and the lamp of God hadn't yet gone out, and Samuel had laid down [to sleep], in the temple of Yahweh, where the ark of God was;

⁴that Yahweh called Samuel; and he said, Here am I.

⁵He ran to Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. He said, I didn't call; lie down again. He went and lay down.

⁶Yahweh called yet again, Samuel. Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. He answered, I didn't call, my son; lie down again.

⁷Now Samuel didn't yet know Yahweh, neither was the word of Yahweh yet revealed to him.

⁸Yahweh called Samuel again the third time. He arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for you called me. Eli perceived that Yahweh had called the child.

⁹Therefore Eli said to Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call you, that you shall say, Speak, Yahweh; for your servant hears. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

¹⁰Yahweh came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel said, Speak; for your servant hears.

¹¹Yahweh said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone who hears it shall tingle.

¹²In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from the beginning even to the end.

¹³For I have told him that I will judge his house forever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons did bring a curse on themselves, and he didn't restrain them.

¹⁴Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated with sacrifice nor offering forever.

¹⁵Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of Yahweh. Samuel feared to show Eli the vision.

¹⁶Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. He said, Here am I.

¹⁷He said, "What is the thing that [Yahweh] has spoken to you? Please don't hide it from me. God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that he spoke to you."

¹⁸Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. He said, It is Yahweh: let him do what seems him good.

¹⁹Samuel grew, and Yahweh was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.

²⁰All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of Yahweh.

²¹Yahweh appeared again in Shiloh; for Yahweh revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of Yahweh.

4The word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and encamped beside Eben-ezer: and the Philistines encamped in Aphek.

²The Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was struck before the Philistines; and they killed of the army in the field about four thousand men.

³When the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Why has Yahweh struck us today before the Philistines? Let us get the ark of the covenant of Yahweh out of Shiloh to us, that it may come among us, and save us out of the hand of our enemies.

⁴So the people sent to Shiloh; and they brought from there the ark of the covenant of Yahweh of Hosts, who sits [above] the cherubim: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

⁵When the ark of the covenant of Yahweh came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again.

⁶When the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What means the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? They understood that the ark of Yahweh was come into the camp.

⁷The Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. They said, Woe to us! for there has not been such a thing heretofore.

⁸Woe to us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods? these are the gods that struck the Egyptians with all manner of plagues in the wilderness.

⁹Be strong, and behave yourselves like men, O you Philistines, that you not be servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.

¹⁰The Philistines fought, and Israel was struck, and they fled every man to his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.

¹¹The ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.

¹²There ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn, and with earth on his head.

¹³When he came, behold, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching; for his heart trembled for the ark of God. When the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out.

¹⁴When Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, What means the noise of this tumult? The man hurried, and came and told Eli.

¹⁵Now Eli was ninety-eight years old; and his eyes were set, so that he could not see.

¹⁶The man said to Eli, I am he who came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army. He said, How went the matter, my son?

¹⁷He who brought the news answered, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people, and your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken.

¹⁸It happened, when he made mention of the ark of God, that [Eli] fell from off his seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck broke, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.

¹⁹His daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the news that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and brought forth; for her pains came on her.

²⁰About the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, Don't be afraid; for you have brought forth a son. But she didn't answer, neither did she regard it.

²¹She named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel; because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

²²She said, The glory is departed from Israel; for the ark of God is taken.

5Now the Philistines had taken the ark of God, and they brought it from Eben-ezer to Ashdod.

²The Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.

³When they of Ashdod arose early on the next day, behold, Dagon was fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Yahweh. They took Dagon, and set him in his place again.

⁴When they arose early on the next day morning, behold, Dagon was fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Yahweh; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands [lay] cut off on the threshold; only [the stump of] Dagon was left to him.

⁵Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any who come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod, to this day.

⁶But the hand of Yahweh was heavy on them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and struck them with tumors, even Ashdod and the borders of it.

⁷When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us; for his hand is sore on us, and on Dagon our god.

⁸They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines to them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? They answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about to Gath. They carried the ark of the God of Israel [there].

⁹It was so, that after they had carried it about, the hand of Yahweh was against the city with a very great confusion: and he struck the men of the city, both small and great; and tumors broke out on them.

¹⁰So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. It happened, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people.

¹¹They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and they said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place, that it not kill us and our people. For there was a deadly confusion throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.

¹²The men who didn't die were struck with the tumors; and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

6The ark of Yahweh was in the country of the Philistines seven months.

²The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, "What shall we do with the ark of Yahweh? Show us with which we shall send it to its place."

³They said, "If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, don't send it empty; but by all means return him a trespass-offering: then you shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you."

⁴Then they said, "What shall be the trespass-offering which we shall return to him?" They said, "Five golden tumors, and five golden mice, [according to] the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was on you all, and on your lords.

⁵Therefore you shall make images of your tumors, and images of your mice that mar the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.

⁶Why then do you harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had worked wonderfully among them, didn't they let the people go, and they departed?

⁷Now therefore take and prepare yourselves a new cart, and two milk cattle, on which there has come no yoke; and tie the cattle to the cart, and bring their calves home from them;

⁸and take the ark of Yahweh, and lay it on the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which you return him for a trespass-offering, in a coffer by the side of it; and send it away, that it may go.

⁹Behold; if it goes up by the way of its own border to Beth-shemesh, then he has done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it was a chance that happened to us."

¹⁰The men did so, and took two milk cattle, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home;

¹¹and they put the ark of Yahweh on the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their tumors.

¹²The cattle took the straight way by the way to Beth-shemesh; they went along the highway, lowing as they went, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

¹³They of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.

¹⁴The cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they split the wood of the cart, and offered up the cattle for a burnt offering to Yahweh.

¹⁵The Levites took down the ark of Yahweh, and the coffer that was with it, in which the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day to Yahweh.

¹⁶When the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.

¹⁷These are the golden tumors which the Philistines returned for a trespass-offering to Yahweh: for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ashkelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one;

¹⁸and the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fortified cities and of country villages, even to the great stone, whereon they set down the ark of Yahweh, [which stone remains] to this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite.

¹⁹He struck of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of Yahweh, he struck of the people fifty thousand seventy men; and the people mourned, because Yahweh had struck the people with a great slaughter.

²⁰The men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before Yahweh, this holy God? and to whom shall he go up from us?

²¹They sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, The Philistines have brought back the ark of Yahweh; come you down, and bring it up to you.

7The men of Kiriath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of Yahweh, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of Yahweh.

²It happened, from the day that the ark abode in Kiriath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after Yahweh.

³Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If you do return to Yahweh with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to Yahweh, and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

⁴Then the children of Israel did put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and served Yahweh only.

⁵Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you to Yahweh.

⁶They gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Yahweh, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against Yahweh. Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.

⁷When the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. When the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

⁸The children of Israel said to Samuel, "Don't cease to cry to Yahweh our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines."

⁹Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a whole burnt-offering to Yahweh: and Samuel cried to Yahweh for Israel; and Yahweh answered him.

¹⁰As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel; but Yahweh thundered with a great thunder on that day on the Philistines, and confused them; and they were struck down before Israel.

¹¹The men of Israel went out of Mizpah, and pursued the Philistines, and struck them, until they came under Beth-car.

¹²Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto has Yahweh helped us.

¹³So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more within the border of Israel: and the hand of Yahweh was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

¹⁴The cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath; and the border of it did Israel deliver out of the hand of the Philistines. There was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

¹⁵Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.

¹⁶He went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal, and Mizpah; and he judged Israel in all those places.

¹⁷His return was to Ramah, for there was his house; and there he judged Israel: and he built there an altar to Yahweh.

8It happened, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.

²Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah: they were judges in Beersheba.

³His sons didn't walk in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice.

⁴Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel to Ramah;

⁵and they said to him, Behold, you are old, and your sons don't walk in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

⁶But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. Samuel prayed to Yahweh.

⁷Yahweh said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them.

⁸According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also to you.

⁹Now therefore listen to their voice: however you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the manner of the king who shall reign over them.

¹⁰Samuel told all the words of Yahweh to the people who asked of him a king.

¹¹He said, This will be the manner of the king who shall reign over you: he will take your sons, and appoint them to him, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and they shall run before his chariots;

¹²and he will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and [he will set some] to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots.

¹³He will take your daughters to be perfumers, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

¹⁴He will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive groves, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.

¹⁵He will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.

¹⁶He will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your best young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work.

¹⁷He will take the tenth of your flocks: and you shall be his servants.

¹⁸You shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you shall have chosen you; and Yahweh will not answer you in that day.

¹⁹But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, No: but we will have a king over us,

²⁰that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.

²¹Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of Yahweh.

²²Yahweh said to Samuel, Listen to their voice, and make them a king. Samuel said to the men of Israel, Go you every man to his city.

9Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah, the son of a Benjamite, a mighty man of valor.

²He had a son, whose name was Saul, a young man and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a better person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.

³The donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. Kish said to Saul his son, Take now one of the servants with you, and arise, go seek the donkeys.

⁴He passed through the hill-country of Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they didn't find them: then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and there they weren't there: and he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they didn't find them.

⁵When they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, Come, and let us return, lest my father leave off caring for the donkeys, and be anxious for us.

⁶He said to him, See now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is a man who is held in honor; all that he says comes surely to pass: now let us go there; peradventure he can tell us concerning our journey whereon we go.

⁷Then said Saul to his servant, But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God: what have we?

⁸The servant answered Saul again, and said, Behold, I have in my hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver: that will I give to the man of God, to tell us our way.

⁹(In earlier times in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he said, Come, and let us go to the seer; for he who is now called a Prophet was before called a Seer.)

¹⁰Then said Saul to his servant, Well said; come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of God was.

¹¹As they went up the ascent to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water, and said to them, Is the seer here?

¹²They answered them, and said, He is; behold, [he is] before you: make haste now, for he is come today into the city; for the people have a sacrifice today in the high place:

¹³as soon as you are come into the city, you shall immediately find him, before he goes up to the high place to eat; for the people will not eat until he come, because he does bless the sacrifice; [and] afterwards they eat who are invited. Now therefore get you up; for at this time you shall find him.

¹⁴They went up to the city; [and] as they came within the city, behold, Samuel came out toward them, to go up to the high place.

¹⁵Now Yahweh had revealed to Samuel a day before Saul came, saying,

¹⁶Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man out of the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel; and he shall save my people out of the hand of the Philistines: for I have looked on my people, because their cry is come to me.

¹⁷When Samuel saw Saul, Yahweh said to him, Behold, the man of whom I spoke to you! this same shall have authority over my people.

¹⁸Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate, and said, Tell me, Please, where the seer's house is.

¹⁹Samuel answered Saul, and said, I am the seer; go up before me to the high place, for you shall eat with me today: and in the morning I will let you go, and will tell you all that is in your heart.

²⁰As for your donkeys who were lost three days ago, don't set your mind on them; for they are found. For whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you, and for all your father's house?

²¹Saul answered, Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? why then speak you to me after this manner?

²²Samuel took Saul and his servant, and brought them into the guest-chamber, and made them sit in the best place among those who were invited, who were about thirty persons.

²³Samuel said to the cook, Bring the portion which I gave you, of which I said to you, Set it by you.

²⁴The cook took up the thigh, and that which was on it, and set it before Saul. [Samuel] said, Behold, that which has been reserved! set it before you and eat; because to the appointed time has it been kept for you, for I said, I have invited the people. So Saul ate with Samuel that day.

²⁵When they were come down from the high place into the city, he talked with Saul on the housetop.

²⁶They arose early: and it happened about the spring of the day, that Samuel called to Saul on the housetop, saying, Up, that I may send you away. Saul arose, and they went out both of them, he and Samuel, abroad.

²⁷As they were going down at the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Bid the servant pass on before us (and he passed on), but stand you still first, that I may cause you to hear the word of God.

10Then Samuel took the vial of oil, and poured it on his head, and kissed him, and said, Isn't it that Yahweh has anointed you to be prince over his inheritance?

²When you are departed from me today, then you shall find two men by Rachel's tomb, in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will tell you, The donkeys which you went to seek are found; and, behold, your father has left off caring for the donkeys, and is anxious for you, saying, What shall I do for my son?

³Then shall you go on forward from there, and you shall come to the oak of Tabor; and there shall meet you there three men going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine:

⁴and they will Greet you, and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall receive of their hand.

⁵After that you shall come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines: and it shall happen, when you are come there to the city, that you shall meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a tambourine, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they will be prophesying:

⁶and the Spirit of Yahweh will come mightily on you, and you shall prophesy with them, and shall be turned into another man.

⁷Let it be, when these signs are come to you, that you do as occasion shall serve you; for God is with you.

⁸You shall go down before me to Gilgal; and, behold, I will come down to you, to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace-offerings: seven days shall you wait, until I come to you, and show you what you shall do.

⁹It was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs happened that day.

¹⁰When they came there to the hill, behold, a band of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came mightily on him, and he prophesied among them.

¹¹It happened, when all who knew him before saw that, behold, he prophesied with the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is this that is come to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?

¹²One of the same place answered, Who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?

¹³When he had made an end of prophesying, he came to the high place.

¹⁴Saul's uncle said to him and to his servant, Where went you? He said, To seek the donkeys; and when we saw that they were not found, we came to Samuel.

¹⁵Saul's uncle said, Tell me, Please, what Samuel said to you.

¹⁶Saul said to his uncle, He told us plainly that the donkeys were found. But concerning the matter of the kingdom, whereof Samuel spoke, he didn't tell him.

¹⁷Samuel called the people together to Yahweh to Mizpah;

¹⁸and he said to the children of Israel, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you:

¹⁹but you have this day rejected your God, who himself saves you out of all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said to him, [No], but set a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before Yahweh by your tribes, and by your thousands.

²⁰So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken.

²¹He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by their families; and the family of the Matrites was taken; and Saul the son of Kish was taken: but when they sought him, he could not be found.

²²Therefore they asked of Yahweh further, Is there yet a man to come here? Yahweh answered, Behold, he has hid himself among the baggage.

²³They ran and fetched him there; and when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward.

²⁴Samuel said to all the people, "You see him whom Yahweh has chosen, that there is none like him among all the people?" All the people shouted, and said, [Long] live the king.

²⁵Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before Yahweh. Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house.

²⁶Saul also went to his house to Gibeah; and there went with him the host, whose hearts God had touched.

²⁷But certain worthless fellows said, How shall this man save us? They despised him, and brought him no present. But he held his peace.

11Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabesh-gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.

²Nahash the Ammonite said to them, On this condition will I make it with you, that all your right eyes be put out; and I will lay it for a reproach on all Israel.

³The elders of Jabesh said to him, Give us seven days' respite, that we may send messengers to all the borders of Israel; and then, if there be none to save us, we will come out to you.

⁴Then came the messengers to Gibeah of Saul, and spoke these words in the ears of the people: and all the people lifted up their voice, and wept.

⁵Behold, Saul came following the oxen out of the field; and Saul said, What ails the people that they weep? They told him the words of the men of Jabesh.

⁶The Spirit of God came mightily on Saul when he heard those words, and his anger was kindled greatly.

⁷He took a yoke of oxen, and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the borders of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, Whoever doesn't come forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen. The dread of Yahweh fell on the people, and they came out as one man.

⁸He numbered them in Bezek; and the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.

⁹They said to the messengers who came, Thus shall you tell the men of Jabesh-gilead, Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have deliverance. The messengers came and told the men of Jabesh; and they were glad.

¹⁰Therefore the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you shall do with us all that seems good to you.

¹¹It was so on the next day, that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch, and struck the Ammonites until the heat of the day: and it happened, that those who remained were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.

¹²The people said to Samuel, Who is he who said, Shall Saul reign over us? bring the men, that we may put them to death.

¹³Saul said, There shall not a man be put to death this day; for today Yahweh has worked deliverance in Israel.

¹⁴Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.

¹⁵All the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before Yahweh in Gilgal; and there they offered sacrifices of peace-offerings before Yahweh; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

12Samuel said to all Israel, Behold, I have listened to your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you.

²Now, behold, the king walks before you; and I am old and gray-headed; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my youth to this day.

³Here I am: witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose donkey have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I taken a ransom to blind my eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.

⁴They said, You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither have you taken anything of any man's hand.

⁵He said to them, Yahweh is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand. They said, He is witness.

⁶Samuel said to the people, It is Yahweh who appointed Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.

⁷Now therefore stand still, that I may plead with you before Yahweh concerning all the righteous acts of Yahweh, which he did to you and to your fathers.

⁸When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried to Yahweh, then Yahweh sent Moses and Aaron, who brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them to dwell in this place.

⁹But they forgot Yahweh their God; and he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab; and they fought against them.

¹⁰They cried to Yahweh, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken Yahweh, and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you.

¹¹Yahweh sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side; and you lived in safety.

¹²When you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, No, but a king shall reign over us; when Yahweh your God was your king.

¹³Now therefore see the king whom you have chosen, and whom you have asked for: and, behold, Yahweh has set a king over you.

¹⁴If you will fear Yahweh, and serve him, and listen to his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of Yahweh, and both you and also the king who reigns over you be followers of Yahweh your God, [well]:

¹⁵but if you will not listen to the voice of Yahweh, but rebel against the commandment of Yahweh, then will the hand of Yahweh be against you, as it was against your fathers.

¹⁶Now therefore stand still and see this great thing, which Yahweh will do before your eyes.

¹⁷Isn't it wheat harvest today? I will call to Yahweh, that he may send thunder and rain; and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of Yahweh, in asking you a king.

¹⁸So Samuel called to Yahweh; and Yahweh sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared Yahweh and Samuel.

¹⁹All the people said to Samuel, Pray for your servants to Yahweh your God, that we not die; for we have added to all our sins [this] evil, to ask us a king.

²⁰Samuel said to the people, "Don't be afraid; you have indeed done all this evil; yet don't turn aside from following Yahweh, but serve Yahweh with all your heart:

²¹and don't turn aside; for [then would you go] after vain things which can't profit nor deliver, for they are vain.

²²For Yahweh will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it has pleased Yahweh to make you a people to himself.

²³Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against Yahweh in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and the right way.

²⁴Only fear Yahweh, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things he has done for you.

²⁵But if you shall still do wickedly, you shall be consumed, both you and your king."

13Saul was [forty] years old when he began to reign; and when he had reigned two years over Israel,

²Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel, whereof two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in the Mount of Bethel, and one thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin: and the rest of the people he sent every man to his tent.

³Jonathan struck the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba: and the Philistines heard of it. Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear.

⁴All Israel heard say that Saul had struck the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel was had in abomination with the Philistines. The people were gathered together after Saul to Gilgal.

⁵The Philistines assembled themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea-shore in multitude: and they came up, and encamped in Michmash, eastward of Beth-aven.

⁶When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait (for the people were distressed), then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in coverts, and in pits.

⁷Now some of the Hebrews had gone over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; but as for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.

⁸He stayed seven days, according to the set time that Samuel [had appointed]: but Samuel didn't come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.

⁹Saul said, Bring here the burnt offering to me, and the peace-offerings. He offered the burnt offering.

¹⁰It came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him.

¹¹Samuel said, What have you done? Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you didn't come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines assembled themselves together at Michmash;

¹²therefore said I, Now will the Philistines come down on me to Gilgal, and I haven't entreated the favor of Yahweh: I forced myself therefore, and offered the burnt offering.

¹³Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of Yahweh your God, which he commanded you: for now would Yahweh have established your kingdom on Israel forever.

¹⁴But now your kingdom shall not continue: Yahweh has sought him a man after his own heart, and Yahweh has appointed him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept that which Yahweh commanded you.

¹⁵Samuel arose, and got him up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. Saul numbered the people who were present with him, about six hundred men.

¹⁶Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people who were present with them, abode in Geba of Benjamin: but the Philistines encamped in Michmash.

¹⁷The spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies: one company turned to the way that leads to Ophrah, to the land of Shual;

¹⁸and another company turned the way to Beth-horon; and another company turned the way of the border that looks down on the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

¹⁹Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears:

²⁰but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his plowshare, mattock, ax, and sickle;

²¹yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the plowshares, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to set the goads.

²²So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found.

²³The garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash.

14Now it fell on a day, that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who bore his armor, Come, and let us go over to the Philistines' garrison, that is on yonder side. But he didn't tell his father.

²Saul abode in the uttermost part of Gibeah under the pomegranate-tree which is in Migron: and the people who were with him were about six hundred men;

³and Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the priest of Yahweh in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. The people didn't know that Jonathan was gone.

⁴Between the passes, by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines' garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side, and a rocky crag on the other side: and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh.

⁵The one crag rose up on the north in front of Michmash, and the other on the south in front of Geba.

⁶Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, Come, and let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that Yahweh will work for us; for there is no restraint to Yahweh to save by many or by few.

⁷His armor bearer said to him, Do all that is in your heart: turn you, behold, I am with you according to your heart.

⁸Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over to the men, and we will disclose ourselves to them.

⁹If they say thus to us, Wait until we come to you; then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up to them.

¹⁰But if they say thus, Come up to us; then we will go up; for Yahweh has delivered them into our hand: and this shall be the sign to us.

¹¹Both of them disclosed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines: and the Philistines said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves.

¹²The men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armor bearer, and said, Come up to us, and we will show you a thing. Jonathan said to his armor bearer, Come up after me; for Yahweh has delivered them into the hand of Israel.

¹³Jonathan climbed up on his hands and on his feet, and his armor bearer after him: and they fell before Jonathan; and his armor bearer killed them after him.

¹⁴That first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armor bearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land.

¹⁵There was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people; the garrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled; and the earth quaked: so there was an exceeding great trembling.

¹⁶The watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked; and, behold, the multitude melted away, and they went [here] and there.

¹⁷Then said Saul to the people who were with him, Number now, and see who is gone from us. When they had numbered, behold, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there.

¹⁸Saul said to Ahijah, Bring here the ark of God. For the ark of God was [there] at that time with the children of Israel.

¹⁹It happened, while Saul talked to the priest, that the tumult that was in the camp of the Philistines went on and increased: and Saul said to the priest, Withdraw your hand.

²⁰Saul and all the people who were with him were gathered together, and came to the battle: and, behold, every man's sword was against his fellow, [and there was] a very great confusion.

²¹Now the Hebrews who were with the Philistines as before, and who went up with them into the camp, [from the country] round about, even they also [turned] to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.

²²Likewise all the men of Israel who had hid themselves in the hill-country of Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle.

²³So Yahweh saved Israel that day: and the battle passed over by Beth-aven.

²⁴The men of Israel were distressed that day; for Saul had adjured the people, saying, Cursed be the man who eats any food until it be evening, and I be avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted food.

²⁵All the people came into the forest; and there was honey on the ground.

²⁶When the people were come to the forest, behold, the honey dropped: but no man put his hand to his mouth; for the people feared the oath.

²⁷But Jonathan didn't hear when his father charged the people with the oath: why he put forth the end of the rod who was in his hand, and dipped it in the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened.

²⁸Then answered one of the people, and said, Your father directly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats food this day. The people were faint.

²⁹Then said Jonathan, My father has troubled the land. Please look how my eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this honey.

³⁰How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies which they found? for now has there been no great slaughter among the Philistines.

³¹They struck of the Philistines that day from Michmash to Aijalon. The people were very faint;

³²and the people flew on the spoil, and took sheep, and oxen, and calves, and killed them on the ground; and the people ate them with the blood.

³³Then they told Saul, saying, Behold, the people sin against Yahweh, in that they eat with the blood. He said, you have dealt treacherously: roll a great stone to me this day.

³⁴Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and tell them, Bring me here every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and kill them here, and eat; and don't sin against Yahweh in eating with the blood. All the people brought every man his ox with him that night, and killed them there.

³⁵Saul built an altar to Yahweh: the same was the first altar that he built to Yahweh.

³⁶Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and take spoil among them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them. They said, Do whatever seems good to you. Then said the priest, Let us draw near here to God.

³⁷Saul asked counsel of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines? will you deliver them into the hand of Israel? But he didn't answer him that day.

³⁸Saul said, Draw near here, all you chiefs of the people; and know and see in which this sin has been this day.

³⁹For, as Yahweh lives, who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. But there was not a man among all the people who answered him.

⁴⁰Then said he to all Israel, Be you on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side. The people said to Saul, Do what seems good to you.

⁴¹Therefore Saul said to Yahweh, the God of Israel, Show the right. Jonathan and Saul were taken [by lot]; but the people escaped.

⁴²Saul said, Cast [lots] between me and Jonathan my son. Jonathan was taken.

⁴³Then Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me what you have done. Jonathan told him, and said, I did certainly taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand; and, behold, I must die.

⁴⁴Saul said, God do so and more also; for you shall surely die, Jonathan.

⁴⁵The people said to Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it: as Yahweh lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he has worked with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan, that he didn't die.

⁴⁶Then Saul went up from following the Philistines; and the Philistines went to their own place.

⁴⁷Now when Saul had taken the kingdom over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, and against the children of Ammon, and against Edom, and against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines: and wherever he turned himself, he put [them] to the worse.

⁴⁸He did valiantly, and struck the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the hands of those who despoiled them.

⁴⁹Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Ishvi, and Malchishua; and the names of his two daughters were these: the name of the firstborn Merab, and the name of the younger Michal:

⁵⁰and the name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz. The name of the captain of his host was Abner the son of Ner, Saul's uncle.

⁵¹Kish was the father of Saul; and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel.

⁵²There was sore war against the Philistines all the days of Saul: and when Saul saw any mighty man, or any valiant man, he took him to him.

15Samuel said to Saul, Yahweh sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore listen you to the voice of the words of Yahweh.

²Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, I have marked that which Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him in the way, when he came up out of Egypt.

³Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don't spare them; but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

⁴Saul summoned the people, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.

⁵Saul came to the city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.

⁶Saul said to the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

⁷Saul struck the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, that is before Egypt.

⁸He took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

⁹But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and wouldn't utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

¹⁰Then came the word of Yahweh to Samuel, saying,

¹¹It repents me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he is turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments. Samuel was angry; and he cried to Yahweh all night.

¹²Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a monument, and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal.

¹³Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, Blessed be you of Yahweh: I have performed the commandment of Yahweh.

¹⁴Samuel said, What means then this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

¹⁵Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.

¹⁶Then Samuel said to Saul, Stay, and I will tell you what Yahweh has said to me this night. He said to him, Say on.

¹⁷Samuel said, "Though you were little in your own sight, weren't you made the head of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh anointed you king over Israel;

¹⁸and Yahweh sent you on a journey, and said, 'Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.'

¹⁹Why then didn't you obey the voice of Yahweh, but flew on the spoil, and did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh?"

²⁰Saul said to Samuel, Yes, I have obeyed the voice of Yahweh, and have gone the way which Yahweh sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

²¹But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God in Gilgal.

²²Samuel said, Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Yahweh? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.

²³For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected the word of Yahweh, he has also rejected you from being king.

²⁴Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of Yahweh, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.

²⁵Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship Yahweh.

²⁶Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of Yahweh, and Yahweh has rejected you from being king over Israel.

²⁷As Samuel turned about to go away, [Saul] laid hold on the skirt of his robe, and it tore.

²⁸Samuel said to him, Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.

²⁹Also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent.

³⁰Then he said, I have sinned: yet honor me now, Please, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship Yahweh your God.

³¹So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped Yahweh.

³²Then said Samuel, Bring you here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.

³³Samuel said, As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before Yahweh in Gilgal.

³⁴Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.

³⁵Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death; for Samuel mourned for Saul: and Yahweh repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.

16Yahweh said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from being king over Israel? fill your horn with oil, and go: I will send you to Jesse the Beth-lehemite; for I have provided me a king among his sons.

²Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. Yahweh said, Take a heifer with you, and say, I am come to sacrifice to Yahweh.

³Call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do: and you shall anoint to me him whom I name to you.

⁴Samuel did that which Yahweh spoke, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, Come you peaceably?

⁵He said, Peaceably; I am come to sacrifice to Yahweh: sanctify yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. He sanctified Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.

⁶It happened, when they had come, that he looked at Eliab, and said, Surely Yahweh's anointed is before him.

⁷But Yahweh said to Samuel, "Don't look on his face, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for [Yahweh sees] not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart."

⁸Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, Neither has Yahweh chosen this.

⁹Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. He said, Neither has Yahweh chosen this.

¹⁰Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. Samuel said to Jesse, Yahweh has not chosen these.

¹¹Samuel said to Jesse, Are here all your children? He said, There remains yet the youngest, and, behold, he is keeping the sheep. Samuel said to Jesse, Send and get him; for we will not sit down until he come here.

¹²He sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful face, and goodly to look on. Yahweh said, Arise, anoint him; for this is he.

¹³Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.

¹⁴Now the Spirit of Yahweh departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Yahweh troubled him.

¹⁵Saul's servants said to him, See now, an evil spirit from God troubles you.

¹⁶Let our lord now command your servants who are before you, to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp: and it shall happen, when the evil spirit from God is on you, that he shall play with his hand, and you shall be well.

¹⁷Saul said to his servants, Provide me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me.

¹⁸Then answered one of the young men, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Beth-lehemite, who is skillful in playing, and a mighty man of valor, and a man of war, and prudent in speech, and a comely person; and Yahweh is with him.

¹⁹Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, Send me David your son, who is with the sheep.

²⁰Jesse took a donkey [laden] with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son to Saul.

²¹David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armor bearer.

²²Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Please let David stand before me; for he has found favor in my sight.

²³It happened, when the [evil] spirit from God was on Saul, that David took the harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

17Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle; and they were gathered together at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.

²Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and encamped in the vale of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.

³The Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.

⁴There went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

⁵He had a helmet of brass on his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.

⁶He had brass shin-armor on his legs, and a javelin of brass between his shoulders.

⁷The staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head [weighed] six hundred shekels of iron: and his shield-bearer went before him.

⁸He stood and cried to the armies of Israel, and said to them, Why are you come out to set your battle in array? am I not a Philistine, and you servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.

⁹If he be able to fight with me, and kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall you be our servants, and serve us.

¹⁰The Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.

¹¹When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.

¹²Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth-lehem-judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man was an old man in the days of Saul, stricken [in years] among men.

¹³The three eldest sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle: and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.

¹⁴David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Saul.

¹⁵Now David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Beth-lehem.

¹⁶The Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.

¹⁷Jesse said to David his son, Take now for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry [them] quickly to the camp to your brothers;

¹⁸and bring these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and look how your brothers fare, and take their pledge.

¹⁹Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the vale of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.

²⁰David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the place of the wagons, as the host which was going forth to the fight shouted for the battle.

²¹Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army.

²²David left his baggage in the hand of the keeper of the baggage, and ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers.

²³As he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the ranks of the Philistines, and spoke according to the same words: and David heard them.

²⁴All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.

²⁵The men of Israel said, Have you seen this man who is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who kills him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel.

²⁶David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?

²⁷The people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man who kills him.

²⁸Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why are you come down? and with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride, and the naughtiness of your heart; for you have come down that you might see the battle.

²⁹David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?

³⁰He turned away from him toward another, and spoke after the same manner: and the people answered him again after the former manner.

³¹When the words were heard which David spoke, they rehearsed them before Saul; and he sent for him.

³²David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

³³Saul said to David, You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.

³⁴David said to Saul, Your servant was keeping his father's sheep; and when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock,

³⁵I went out after him, and struck him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and struck him, and killed him.

³⁶Your servant struck both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.

³⁷David said, Yahweh who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. Saul said to David, Go, and Yahweh shall be with you.

³⁸Saul clad David with his clothing, and he put a helmet of brass on his head, and he clad him with a coat of mail.

³⁹David girded his sword on his clothing, and he tried to go; for he had not proved it. David said to Saul, I can't go with these; for I have not proved them. David put them off him.

⁴⁰He took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his wallet; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.

⁴¹The Philistine came on and drew near to David; and the man who bore the shield went before him.

⁴²When the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and withal of a fair face.

⁴³The Philistine said to David, Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks? The Philistine cursed David by his gods.

⁴⁴The Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field.

⁴⁵Then said David to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin: but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

⁴⁶This day will Yahweh deliver you into my hand; and I will strike you, and take your head from off you; and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky, and to the wild animals of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,

⁴⁷and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh doesn't save with sword and spear: for the battle is Yahweh's, and he will give you into our hand.

⁴⁸It happened, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.

⁴⁹David put his hand in his bag, and took there a stone, and slang it, and struck the Philistine in his forehead; and the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.

⁵⁰So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine, and killed him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.

⁵¹Then David ran, and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath of it, and killed him, and cut off his head therewith. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

⁵²The men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until you come to Gai, and to the gates of Ekron. The wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even to Gath, and to Ekron.

⁵³The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.

⁵⁴David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armor in his tent.

⁵⁵When Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? Abner said, As your soul lives, O king, I can't tell.

⁵⁶The king said, Inquire you whose son the stripling is.

⁵⁷As David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.

⁵⁸Saul said to him, Whose son are you, you young man? David answered, I am the son of your servant Jesse the Beth-lehemite.

18It happened, when he had made an end of speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

²Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father's house.

³Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.

⁴Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and gave it to David, and his clothing, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his sash.

⁵David went out wherever Saul sent him, [and] behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and it was good in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants.

⁶It happened as they came, when David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with instruments of music.

⁷The women sang one to another as they played, and said, Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands.

⁸Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom?

⁹Saul eyed David from that day and forward.

¹⁰It happened on the next day, that an evil spirit from God came mightily on Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand;

¹¹and Saul cast the spear; for he said, I will strike David even to the wall. David avoided out of his presence twice.

¹²Saul was afraid of David, because Yahweh was with him, and was departed from Saul.

¹³Therefore Saul removed him from him, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people.

¹⁴David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and Yahweh was with him.

¹⁵When Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he stood in awe of him.

¹⁶But all Israel and Judah loved David; for he went out and came in before them.

¹⁷Saul said to David, Behold, my elder daughter Merab, her will I give you as wife: only be you valiant for me, and fight Yahweh's battles. For Saul said, Don't let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him.

¹⁸David said to Saul, Who am I, and what is my life, [or] my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?

¹⁹But it happened at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife.

²⁰Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David: and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.

²¹Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Why Saul said to David, You shall this day be my son-in-law a second time.

²²Saul commanded his servants, [saying], Commune with David secretly, and say, Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you: now therefore be the king's son-in-law.

²³Saul's servants spoke those words in the ears of David. David said, Seems it to you a light thing to be the king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?

²⁴The servants of Saul told him, saying, On this manner spoke David.

²⁵Saul said, Thus shall you tell David, The king desires no dowry except one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies. Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.

²⁶When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law. The days were not expired;

²⁷and David arose and went, he and his men, and killed of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king's son-in-law. Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife.

²⁸Saul saw and knew that Yahweh was with David; and Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him.

²⁹Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul was David's enemy continually.

³⁰Then the princes of the Philistines went forth: and it happened, as often as they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was much set by.

19Saul spoke to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David.

²Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeks to kill you: now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning, and live in a secret place, and hide yourself:

³and I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will commune with my father of you; and if I see anything, I will tell you.

⁴Jonathan spoke good of David to Saul his father, and said to him, Don't let the king sin against his servant, against David; because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you:

⁵for he put his life in his hand, and struck the Philistine, and Yahweh worked a great victory for all Israel: you saw it, and did rejoice; why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?

⁶Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan: and Saul swore, As Yahweh lives, he shall not be put to death.

⁷Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as before.

⁸There was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and killed them with a great slaughter; and they fled before him.

⁹An evil spirit from Yahweh was on Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing with his hand.

¹⁰Saul sought to strike David even to the wall with the spear; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he struck the spear into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.

¹¹Saul sent messengers to David's house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning: and Michal, David's wife, told him, saying, If you don't save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be slain.

¹²So Michal let David down through the window: and he went, and fled, and escaped.

¹³Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' [hair] at the head of it, and covered it with the clothes.

¹⁴When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.

¹⁵Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.

¹⁶When the messengers came in, behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goats' [hair] at the head of it.

¹⁷Saul said to Michal, Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he is escaped? Michal answered Saul, He said to me, Let me go; why should I kill you?

¹⁸Now David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and lived in Naioth.

¹⁹It was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.

²⁰Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came on the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

²¹When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied.

²²Then went he also to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Secu: and he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David? One said, Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah.

²³He went there to Naioth in Ramah: and the Spirit of God came on him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

²⁴He also stripped off his clothes, and he also prophesied before Samuel, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Why they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?

20David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is my iniquity? and what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?

²He said to him, Far from it; you shall not die: behold, my father does nothing either great or small, but that he discloses it to me; and why should my father hide this thing from me? it is not so.

³David swore moreover, and said, Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he says, Don't let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.

⁴Then said Jonathan to David, Whatever your soul desires, I will even do it for you.

⁵David said to Jonathan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field to the third day at even.

⁶If your father miss me at all, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Beth-lehem his city; for it is the yearly sacrifice there for all the family.

⁷If he say thus, It is well; your servant shall have peace: but if he be angry, then know that evil is determined by him.

⁸Therefore deal kindly with your servant; for you have brought your servant into a covenant of Yahweh with you: but if there be in me iniquity, kill me yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?

⁹Jonathan said, Far be it from you; for if I should at all know that evil were determined by my father to come on you, then wouldn't I tell you that?

¹⁰Then said David to Jonathan, Who shall tell me if perchance your father answer you roughly?

¹¹Jonathan said to David, Come, and let us go out into the field. They went out both of them into the field.

¹²Jonathan said to David, Yahweh, the God of Israel, [be witness]: when I have sounded my father about this time tomorrow, [or] the third day, behold, if there be good toward David, shall I not then send to you, and disclose it to you?

¹³Yahweh do so to Jonathan, and more also, should it please my father to do you evil, if I don't disclose it to you, and send you away, that you may go in peace: and Yahweh be with you, as he has been with my father.

¹⁴You shall not only while yet I live show me the lovingkindness of Yahweh, that I not die;

¹⁵but also you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever; no, not when Yahweh has cut off the enemies of David everyone from the surface of the earth.

¹⁶So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, [saying], Yahweh will require it at the hand of David's enemies.

¹⁷Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

¹⁸Then Jonathan said to him, Tomorrow is the new moon: and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty.

¹⁹When you have stayed three days, you shall go down quickly, and come to the place where you did hide yourself when the business was in hand, and shall remain by the stone Ezel.

²⁰I will shoot three arrows on the side of it, as though I shot at a mark.

²¹Behold, I will send the boy, [saying], Go, find the arrows. If I tell the boy, Behold, the arrows are on this side of you; take them, and come; for there is peace to you and no hurt, as Yahweh lives.

²²But if I say thus to the boy, Behold, the arrows are beyond you; go your way; for Yahweh has sent you away.

²³As touching the matter which you and I have spoken of, behold, Yahweh is between you and me forever.

²⁴So David hid himself in the field: and when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat food.

²⁵The king sat on his seat, as at other times, even on the seat by the wall; and Jonathan stood up, and Abner sat by Saul's side: but David's place was empty.

²⁶Nevertheless Saul didn't say anything that day: for he thought, Something has befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean.

²⁷It happened on the next day after the new moon, [which was] the second [day], that David's place was empty: and Saul said to Jonathan his son, Why doesn't the son of Jesse come to meat, neither yesterday, nor today?

²⁸Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Beth-lehem:

²⁹and he said, Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he has commanded me [to be there]: and now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away, I pray you, and see my brothers. Therefore he is not come to the king's table.

³⁰Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, You son of a perverse rebellious woman, don't I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?

³¹For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you shall not be established, nor your kingdom. Why now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die.

³²Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, Why should he be put to death? what has he done?

³³Saul cast his spear at him to strike him; whereby Jonathan knew that is was determined of his father to put David to death.

³⁴So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month; for he was grieved for David, because his father had done him shame.

³⁵It happened in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy with him.

³⁶He said to his boy, Run, find now the arrows which I shoot. As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.

³⁷When the boy was come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the boy, and said, Isn't the arrow beyond you?

³⁸Jonathan cried after the boy, Go fast! Hurry! Don't delay! Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows, and came to his master.

³⁹But the boy didn't know anything: only Jonathan and David knew the matter.

⁴⁰Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to him, Go, carry them to the city.

⁴¹As soon as the boy was gone, David arose out of [a place] toward the South, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times: and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.

⁴²Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, because we have sworn both of us in the name of Yahweh, saying, Yahweh shall be between me and you, and between my seed and your seed, forever. He arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city.

21Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, Why are you alone, and no man with you?

²David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has commanded me a business, and has said to me, Let no man know anything of the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you: and I have appointed the young men to such and such a place.

³Now therefore what is under your hand? give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever there is present.

⁴The priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under my hand, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.

⁵David answered the priest, and said to him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days; when I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was but a common journey; how much more then today shall their vessels be holy?

⁶So the priest gave him holy [bread]; for there was no bread there but the show bread, that was taken from before Yahweh, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

⁷Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.

⁸David said to Ahimelech, Isn't there here under your hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.

⁹The priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the vale of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if you will take that, take it; for there is no other except that here. David said, There is none like that; give it me.

¹⁰David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

¹¹The servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David the king of the land? Didn't they sing one to another about him in dances, saying, 'Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?'"

¹²David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

¹³He changed his behavior before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard.

¹⁴Then said Achish to his servants, Look, you see the man is mad; why then have you brought him to me?

¹⁵Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?

22David therefore departed there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam: and when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.

²Everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men.

³David went there to Mizpeh of Moab: and he said to the king of Moab, Please let my father and my mother come forth, [and be] with you, until I know what God will do for me.

⁴He brought them before the king of Moab: and they lived with him all the while that David was in the stronghold.

⁵The prophet Gad said to David, Don't stay in the stronghold; depart, and get you into the land of Judah. Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth.

⁶Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him: now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk-tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him.

⁷Saul said to his servants who stood about him, Hear now, you Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds,

⁸that all of you have conspired against me, and there is none who discloses to me when my son makes a league with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me, or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?

⁹Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.

¹⁰He inquired of Yahweh for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.

¹¹Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were in Nob: and they came all of them to the king.

¹²Saul said, Hear now, you son of Ahitub. He answered, Here I am, my lord.

¹³Saul said to him, Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?

¹⁴Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, Who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, and is taken into your council, and is honorable in your house?

¹⁵Have I today begun to inquire of God for him? be it far from me: don't let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for your servant knows nothing of all this, less or more.

¹⁶The king said, You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father's house.

¹⁷The king said to the guard who stood about him, Turn, and kill the priests of Yahweh; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and didn't disclose it to me. But the servants of the king wouldn't put forth their hand to fall on the priests of Yahweh.

¹⁸The king said to Doeg, Turn you, and fall on the priests. Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell on the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore a linen ephod.

¹⁹Nob, the city of the priests, struck he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and oxen and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword.

²⁰One of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David.

²¹Abiathar told David that Saul had slain Yahweh's priests.

²²David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul: I have occasioned [the death] of all the persons of your father's house.

²³Abide you with me, don't be afraid; for he who seeks my life seeks your life: for with me you shall be in safeguard.

23They told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors.

²Therefore David inquired of Yahweh, saying, Shall I go and strike these Philistines? Yahweh said to David, Go, and strike the Philistines, and save Keilah.

³David's men said to him, Behold, we are afraid here in Judah: how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?

⁴Then David inquired of Yahweh yet again. Yahweh answered him, and said, Arise, go down to Keilah; for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.

⁵David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and killed them with a great slaughter. So David save the inhabitants of Keilah.

⁶It happened, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand.

⁷It was told Saul that David was come to Keilah. Saul said, God has delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in, by entering into a town that has gates and bars.

⁸Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.

⁹David knew that Saul was devising mischief against him; and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring here the ephod.

¹⁰Then said David, O Yahweh, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake.

¹¹Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? Yahweh, the God of Israel, I beg you, tell your servant. Yahweh said, He will come down.

¹²Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver up to me and my men into the hand of Saul? Yahweh said, They will deliver you up.

¹³Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went wherever they could go. It was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he gave up going there.

¹⁴David abode in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill-country in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God didn't deliver him into his hand.

¹⁵David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life: and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in the wood.

¹⁶Jonathan, Saul's son, arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.

¹⁷He said to him, Don't be afraid; for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you; and you shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you; and that also Saul my father knows.

¹⁸They two made a covenant before Yahweh: and David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.

¹⁹Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doesn't David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desert?

²⁰Now therefore, O king, come down, according to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him up into the king's hand.

²¹Saul said, Blessed be you of Yahweh; for you have had compassion on me.

²²Plesease go make yet more sure, and know and see his place where his haunt is, [and] who has seen him there; for it is told me that he deals very subtly.

²³See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking-places where he hides himself, and come you again to me of a certainty, and I will go with you: and it shall happen, if he be in the land, that I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.

²⁴They arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of the desert.

²⁵Saul and his men went to seek him. They told David: why he came down to the rock, and abode in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard [that], he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon.

²⁶Saul went on this side of the mountain, and David and his men on that side of the mountain: and David made haste to get away for fear of Saul; for Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them.

²⁷But there came a messenger to Saul, saying, Haste you, and come; for the Philistines have made a raid on the land.

²⁸So Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines: therefore they called that place Sela-hammahlekoth.

²⁹David went up from there, and lived in the strongholds of En-gedi.

24It happened, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.

²Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the rocks of the wild goats.

³He came to the sheep pens by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet. Now David and his men were abiding in the innermost parts of the cave.

⁴The men of David said to him, Behold, the day of which Yahweh said to you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe secretly.

⁵It happened afterward, that David's heart struck him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt.

⁶He said to his men, Yahweh forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, Yahweh's anointed, to put forth my hand against him, seeing he is Yahweh's anointed.

⁷So David checked his men with these words, and didn't allow them to rise against Saul. Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way.

⁸David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, My lord the king. When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and did obeisance.

⁹David said to Saul, Why listen you to men's words, saying, Behold, David seeks your hurt?

¹⁰Behold, this day your eyes have seen how that Yahweh had delivered you today into my hand in the cave: and some bade me kill you; but [my eye] spared you; and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is Yahweh's anointed.

¹¹Moreover, my father, behold, yes, see the skirt of your robe in my hand; for in that I cut off the skirt of your robe, and didn't kill you, know you and see that there is neither evil nor disobedience in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, though you hunt after my life to take it.

¹²Yahweh judge between me and you, and Yahweh avenge me of you; but my hand shall not be on you.

¹³As says the proverb of the ancients, Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness; but my hand shall not be on you.

¹⁴After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom do you pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea.

¹⁵Yahweh therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hand.

¹⁶It came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.

¹⁷He said to David, You are more righteous than I; for you have rendered to me good, whereas I have rendered to you evil.

¹⁸You have declared this day how that you have dealt well with me, because when Yahweh had delivered me up into your hand, you didn't kill me.

¹⁹For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? why Yahweh reward you good for that which you have done to me this day.

²⁰Now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.

²¹Swear now therefore to me by Yahweh, that you will not cut off my seed after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house.

²²David swore to Saul. Saul went home; but David and his men got them up to the stronghold.

25Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

²There was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

³Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail; and the woman was of good understanding, and of a beautiful face: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.

⁴David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

⁵David sent ten young men, and David said to the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:

⁶and thus shall you tell him who lives [in prosperity], Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.

⁷Now I have heard that you have shearers: your shepherds have now been with us, and we did them no hurt, neither was there anything missing to them, all the while they were in Carmel.

⁸Ask your young men, and they will tell you: why let the young men find favor in your eyes; for we come in a good day. Please give whatever comes to your hand, to your servants, and to your son David.

⁹When David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.

¹⁰Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there are many servants now-a-days who break away every man from his master.

¹¹Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men who I don't know where they come from?

¹²So David's young men turned on their way, and went back, and came and told him according to all these words.

¹³David said to his men, Gird you on every man his sword. They girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the baggage.

¹⁴But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to Greet our master; and he railed at them.

¹⁵But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything, as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields:

¹⁶they were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.

¹⁷Now therefore know and consider what you will do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his house: for he is such a worthless fellow that one can't speak to him.

¹⁸Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched grain, and one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.

¹⁹She said to her young men, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she didn't tell her husband, Nabal.

²⁰It was so, as she rode on her donkey, and came down by the covert of the mountain, that behold, David and his men came down toward her; and she met them.

²¹Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained to him: and he has returned me evil for good.

²²God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that belongs to him by the morning light so much as one man-child.

²³When Abigail saw David, she hurried, and alighted from her donkey, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground.

²⁴She fell at his feet, and said, On me, my lord, on me be the iniquity; and please let your handmaid speak in your ears. Hear the words of your handmaid.

²⁵Please don't let my lord regard this worthless fellow, even Nabal; for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I your handmaid didn't see the young men of my lord, whom you did send.

²⁶Now therefore, my lord, as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, seeing Yahweh has withheld you from blood guiltiness, and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now therefore let your enemies, and those who seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

²⁷Now this present which your servant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.

²⁸Please forgive the trespass of your handmaid: for Yahweh will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of Yahweh; and evil shall not be found in you all your days.

²⁹Though men be risen up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh your God; and the souls of your enemies, them shall he sling out, as from the hollow of a sling.

³⁰It shall come to pass, when Yahweh shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and shall have appointed you prince over Israel,

³¹that this shall be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. When Yahweh shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember your handmaid.

³²David said to Abigail, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me:

³³and blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, that have kept me this day from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand.

³⁴For in very deed, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, who has withheld me from hurting you, except you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there wouldn't have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as one man-child.

³⁵So David received of her hand that which she had brought him: and he said to her, Go up in peace to your house; behold, I have listened to your voice, and have accepted your person.

³⁶Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: why she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

³⁷It happened in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

³⁸It happened about ten days after, that Yahweh struck Nabal, so that he died.

³⁹When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be Yahweh, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from evil: and the evil-doing of Nabal has Yahweh returned on his own head. David sent and spoke concerning Abigail, to take her to him as wife.

⁴⁰When the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, David has sent us to you, to take you to him as wife.

⁴¹She arose, and bowed herself with her face to the earth, and said, Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.

⁴²Abigail hurried, and arose, and rode on a donkey, with five ladies of hers who followed her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.

⁴³David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they became both of them his wives.

⁴⁴Now Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

26The Ziphites came to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doesn't David hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the desert?

²Then Saul arose, and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.

³Saul encamped in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the desert, by the way. But David abode in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness.

⁴David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul was come of a certainty.

⁵David arose, and came to the place where Saul had encamped; and David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his host: and Saul lay within the place of the wagons, and the people were encamped round about him.

⁶Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? Abishai said, I will go down with you.

⁷So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people lay round about him.

⁸Then said Abishai to David, God has delivered up your enemy into your hand this day: now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.

⁹David said to Abishai, Don't destroy him; for who can put forth his hand against Yahweh's anointed, and be guiltless?

¹⁰David said, As Yahweh lives, Yahweh will strike him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish.

¹¹Yahweh forbid that I should put forth my hand against Yahweh's anointed: but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go.

¹²So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head; and they got them away: and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither did any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from Yahweh was fallen on them.

¹³Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of the mountain afar off; a great space being between them;

¹⁴and David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Don't you answer, Abner? Then Abner answered, Who are you who cries to the king?

¹⁵David said to Abner, Aren't you a [valiant] man? and who is like you in Israel? why then have you not kept watch over your lord, the king? for there came one of the people in to destroy the king your lord.

¹⁶This thing isn't good that you have done. As Yahweh lives, you are worthy to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, Yahweh's anointed. Now see where the king's spear is, and the jar of water that was at his head.

¹⁷Saul knew David's voice, and said, Is this your voice, my son David? David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.

¹⁸He said, Why does my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in my hand?

¹⁹Now therefore, please let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it be Yahweh that has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering: but if it be the children of men, cursed be they before Yahweh: for they have driven me out this day that I shouldn't cling to Yahweh's inheritance, saying, Go, serve other gods.

²⁰Now therefore, don't let my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of Yahweh: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one does hunt a partridge in the mountains.

²¹Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David; for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.

²²David answered, Behold the spear, O king! let then one of the young men come over and get it.

²³Yahweh will render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness; because Yahweh delivered you into my hand today, and I wouldn't put forth my hand against Yahweh's anointed.

²⁴Behold, as your life was much set by this day in my eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of Yahweh, and let him deliver me out of all oppression.

²⁵Then Saul said to David, Blessed be you, my son David: you shall both do mightily, and shall surely prevail. So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.

27David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.

²David arose, and passed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath.

³David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife.

⁴It was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him.

⁵David said to Achish, If now I have found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?

⁶Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: why Ziklag pertains to the kings of Judah to this day.

⁷The number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.

⁸David and his men went up, and made a raid on the Geshurites, and the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for those [nations] were the inhabitants of the land, who were of old, as you go to Shur, even to the land of Egypt.

⁹David struck the land, and saved neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the donkeys, and the camels, and the clothing; and he returned, and came to Achish.

¹⁰Achish said, Against whom have you made a raid today? David said, Against the South of Judah, and against the South of the Jerahmeelites, and against the South of the Kenites.

¹¹David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring them to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell of us, saying, So did David, and so has been his manner all the while he has lived in the country of the Philistines.

¹²Achish believed David, saying, He has made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant forever.

28It happened in those days, that the Philistines gathered their hosts together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, Know you assuredly, that you shall go out with me in the host, you and your men.

²David said to Achish, Therefore you shall know what your servant will do. Achish said to David, Therefore will I make you keeper of my head for ever.

³Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. Saul had put away those who had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.

⁴The Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and encamped in Shunem: and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped in Gilboa.

⁵When Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.

⁶When Saul inquired of Yahweh, Yahweh didn't answer him, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.

⁷Then said Saul to his servants, Seek me a woman who has a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her. His servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman who has a familiar spirit at En-dor.

⁸Saul disguised himself, and put on other clothing, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, Please divine to me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whoever I shall name to you.

⁹The woman said to him, Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: why then lay you a snare for my life, to cause me to die?

¹⁰Saul swore to her by Yahweh, saying, As Yahweh lives, there shall no punishment happen to you for this thing.

¹¹Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up to you? He said, Bring me up Samuel.

¹²When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, Why have you deceived me? for you are Saul.

¹³The king said to her, Don't be afraid: for what do you see? The woman said to Saul, I see a god coming up out of the earth.

¹⁴He said to her, What form is he of? She said, An old man comes up; and he is covered with a robe. Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance.

¹⁵Samuel said to Saul, Why have you disquieted me, to bring me up? Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answers me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I shall do.

¹⁶Samuel said, Why then do you ask of me, seeing Yahweh is departed from you, and is become your adversary?

¹⁷Yahweh has done to you, as he spoke by me: and Yahweh has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, even to David.

¹⁸Because you didn't obey the voice of Yahweh, and didn't execute his fierce wrath on Amalek, therefore has Yahweh done this thing to you this day.

¹⁹Moreover Yahweh will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow shall you and your sons be with me: Yahweh will deliver the host of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.

²⁰Then Saul fell immediately his full length on the earth, and was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel: and there was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all the day, nor all the night.

²¹The woman came to Saul, and saw that he was sore troubled, and said to him, Behold, your handmaid has listened to your voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have listened to your words which you spoke to me.

²²Now therefore, please listen also to the voice of your handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength, when you go on your way.

²³But he refused, and said, I will not eat. But his servants, together with the woman, constrained him; and he listened to their voice. So he arose from the earth, and sat on the bed.

²⁴The woman had a fattened calf in the house; and she hurried, and killed it; and she took flour, and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread of it:

²⁵and she brought it before Saul, and before his servants; and they ate. Then they rose up, and went away that night.

29Now the Philistines gathered together all their hosts to Aphek: and the Israelites encamped by the spring which is in Jezreel.

²The lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands; and David and his men passed on in the rearward with Achish.

³Then said the princes of the Philistines, What [do] these Hebrews [here]? Achish said to the princes of the Philistines, Isn't this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who has been with me these days, or [rather] these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell away [to me] to this day?

⁴But he princes of the Philistines were angry with him; and the princes of the Philistines said to him, Make the man return, that he may go back to his place where you have appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us: for with what should this [fellow] reconcile himself to his lord? should it not be with the heads of these men?

⁵Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands?

⁶Then Achish called David, and said to him, As Yahweh lives, you have been upright, and your going out and your coming in with me in the host is good in my sight; for I have not found evil in you since the day of your coming to me to this day: nevertheless the lords don't favor you.

⁷Therefore now return, and go in peace, that you not displease the lords of the Philistines.

⁸David said to Achish, But what have I done? and what have you found in your servant so long as I have been before you to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?

⁹Achish answered David, I know that you are good in my sight, as an angel of God: notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to the battle.

¹⁰Therefore now rise up early in the morning with the servants of your lord who have come with you; and as soon as you are up early in the morning, and have light, depart.

¹¹So David rose up early, he and his men, to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. The Philistines went up to Jezreel.

30It happened, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid on the South, and on Ziklag, and had struck Ziklag, and burned it with fire,

²and had taken captive the women [and all] who were therein, both small and great: they didn't kill any, but carried them off, and went their way.

³When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captive.

⁴Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.

⁵David's two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

⁶David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God.

⁷David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, Please bring me here the ephod. Abiathar brought there the ephod to David.

⁸David inquired of Yahweh, saying, If I pursue after this troop, shall I overtake them? He answered him, Pursue; for you shall surely overtake [them], and shall without fail recover [all].

⁹So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.

¹⁰But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind, who were so faint that they couldn't go over the brook Besor.

¹¹They found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he ate; and they gave him water to drink.

¹²They gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him; for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights.

¹³David said to him, To whom belong you? and whence are you? He said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick.

¹⁴We made a raid on the South of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on the South of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.

¹⁵David said to him, Will you bring me down to this troop? He said, Swear to me by God, that you will neither kill me, nor deliver me up into the hands of my master, and I will bring you down to this troop.

¹⁶When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the ground, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah.

¹⁷David struck them from the twilight even to the evening of the next day: and there not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who rode on camels and fled.

¹⁸David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken; and David rescued his two wives.

¹⁹There was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor anything that they had taken to them: David brought back all.

²⁰David took all the flocks and the herds, [which] they drove before those [other] cattle, and said, This is David's spoil.

²¹David came to the two hundred men, who were so faint that they could not follow David, whom also they had made to abide at the brook Besor; and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people who were with him: and when David came near to the people, he greeted them.

²²Then answered all the wicked men and base fellows, of those who went with David, and said, Because they didn't go with us, we will not give them anything of the spoil that we have recovered, except to every man his wife and his children, that he may lead them away, and depart.

²³Then said David, You shall not do so, my brothers, with that which Yahweh has given to us, who has preserved us, and delivered the troop that came against us into our hand.

²⁴Who will listen to you in this matter? for as his share is who goes down to the battle, so shall his share be who tarries by the baggage: they shall share alike.

²⁵It was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.

²⁶When David came to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil to the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, Behold, a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of Yahweh:

²⁷To those who were in Bethel, and to those who were in Ramoth of the South, and to those who were in Jattir,

²⁸and to those who were in Aroer, and to those who were in Siphmoth, and to those who were in Eshtemoa,

²⁹and to those who were in Racal, and to those who were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to those who were in the cities of the Kenites,

³⁰and to those who were in Hormah, and to those who were in Bor-ashan, and to those who were in Athach,

³¹and to those who were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men used to stay.

31Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa.

²The Philistines followed hard on Saul and on his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.

³The battle went sore against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was greatly distressed by reason of the archers.

⁴Then said Saul to his armor bearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armor bearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it.

⁵When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died with him.

⁶So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor bearer, and all his men, that same day together.

⁷When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them.

⁸It happened on the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

⁹They cut off his head, and stripped off his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry the news to the house of their idols, and to the people.

¹⁰They put his armor in the house of the Ashtaroth; and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.

¹¹When the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard concerning him that which the Philistines had done to Saul,

¹²all the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan; and they came to Jabesh, and burnt them there.

¹³They took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk-tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

1It happened after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had abode two days in Ziklag;

²it happened on the third day, that behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul, with his clothes torn, and earth on his head: and so it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and did obeisance.

³David said to him, From whence come you? He said to him, Out of the camp of Israel am I escaped.

⁴David said to him, How went the matter? Please tell me. He answered, The people are fled from the battle, and many of the people also are fallen and dead; and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also.

⁵David said to the young man who told him, How know you that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?

⁶The young man who told him said, As I happened by chance on Mount Gilboa, behold, Saul was leaning on his spear; and, behold, the chariots and the horsemen followed hard after him.

⁷When he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. I answered, Here am I.

⁸He said to me, Who are you? I answered him, I am an Amalekite.

⁹He said to me, Stand, I pray you, beside me, and kill me; for anguish has taken hold of me, because my life is yet whole in me.

¹⁰So I stood beside him, and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen: and I took the crown that was on his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them here to my lord.

¹¹Then David took hold on his clothes, and tore them; and likewise all the men who were with him:

¹²and they mourned, and wept, and fasted until even, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of Yahweh, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword.

¹³David said to the young man who told him, Whence are you? He answered, I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite.

¹⁴David said to him, How were you not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy Yahweh's anointed?

¹⁵David called one of the young men, and said, Go near, and fall on him. He struck him, so that he died.

¹⁶David said to him, Your blood be on your head; for your mouth has testified against you, saying, I have slain Yahweh's anointed.

¹⁷David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son

¹⁸(and he bade them teach the children of Judah [the song of] the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jashar):

¹⁹Your glory, Israel, is slain on your high places! How are the mighty fallen!

²⁰Don't tell it in Gath, Don't publish it in the streets of Ashkelon; Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

²¹You mountains of Gilboa, Let there be no dew nor rain on you, neither fields of offerings: For there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away, The shield of Saul, not anointed with oil.

²²From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, The bow of Jonathan didn't turn back, The sword of Saul didn't return empty.

²³Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, In their death they were not divided: They were swifter than eagles, They were stronger than lions.

²⁴You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, Who clothed you in scarlet delicately, Who put ornaments of gold on your clothing.

²⁵How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan is slain on your high places.

²⁶I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan: Very pleasant have you been to me: Your love to me was wonderful, Passing the love of women.

²⁷How are the mighty fallen, The weapons of war perished!

2It happened after this, that David inquired of Yahweh, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? Yahweh said to him, Go up. David said, Where shall I go up? He said, To Hebron.

²So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

³His men who were with him did David bring up, every man with his household: and they lived in the cities of Hebron.

⁴The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David, saying, The men of Jabesh-gilead were those who buried Saul.

⁵David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead, and said to them, Blessed be you of Yahweh, that you have showed this kindness to your lord, even to Saul, and have buried him.

⁶Now Yahweh show lovingkindness and truth to you: and I also will requite you this kindness, because you have done this thing.

⁷Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be you valiant; for Saul your lord is dead, and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them.

⁸Now Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul's host, had taken Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim;

⁹and he made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel.

¹⁰Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David.

¹¹The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

¹²Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.

¹³Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out, and met them by the pool of Gibeon; and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool.

¹⁴Abner said to Joab, Please let the young men arise and play before us. Joab said, Let them arise.

¹⁵Then they arose and went over by number: twelve for Benjamin, and for Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David.

¹⁶They caught everyone his fellow by the head, and [thrust] his sword in his fellow's side; so they fell down together: why that place was called Helkath-hazzurim, which is in Gibeon.

¹⁷The battle was very severe that day: and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before the servants of David.

¹⁸The three sons of Zeruiah were there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel: and Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe.

¹⁹Asahel pursued after Abner; and in going he didn't turn to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner.

²⁰Then Abner looked behind him, and said, Is it you, Asahel? He answered, It is I.

²¹Abner said to him, Turn you aside to your right hand or to your left, and lay you hold on one of the young men, and take you his armor. But Asahel would not turn aside from following him.

²²Abner said again to Asahel, Turn you aside from following me: why should I strike you to the ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab your brother?

²³However he refused to turn aside: why Abner with the hinder end of the spear struck him in the body, so that the spear came out behind him; and he fell down there, and died in the same place: and it happened, that as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still.

²⁴But Joab and Abishai pursued after Abner: and the sun went down when they were come to the hill of Ammah, that lies before Giah by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon.

²⁵The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together after Abner, and became one band, and stood on the top of a hill.

²⁶Then Abner called to Joab, and said, "Shall the sword devour forever? Don't you know that it will be bitterness in the latter end? How long shall it be then, before you bid the people return from following their brothers?"

²⁷Joab said, As God lives, if you had not spoken, surely then in the morning the people had gone away, nor followed everyone his brother.

²⁸So Joab blew the trumpet; and all the people stood still, and pursued after Israel no more, neither fought they any more.

²⁹Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah; and they passed over the Jordan, and went through all Bithron, and came to Mahanaim.

³⁰Joab returned from following Abner: and when he had gathered all the people together, there lacked of David's servants nineteen men and Asahel.

³¹But the servants of David had struck of Benjamin, and of Abner's men, [so that] three hundred sixty men died.

³²They took up Asahel, and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was in Beth-lehem. Joab and his men went all night, and the day broke on them at Hebron.

3Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: and David grew stronger and stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.

²To David were sons born in Hebron: and his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess;

³and his second, Chileab, of Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;

⁴and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital;

⁵and the sixth, Ithream, of Eglah, David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron.

⁶It happened, while there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, that Abner made himself strong in the house of Saul.

⁷Now Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah: and [Ish-bosheth] said to Abner, Why have you gone in to my father's concubine?

⁸Then was Abner very angry for the words of Ish-bosheth, and said, Am I a dog's head that belongs to Judah? This day do I show kindness to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not delivered you into the hand of David; and yet you charge me this day with a fault concerning this woman.

⁹God do so to Abner, and more also, if, as Yahweh has sworn to David, I don't do even so to him;

¹⁰to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba.

¹¹He could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him.

¹²Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, Whose is the land? saying [also], Make your league with me, and, behold, my hand shall be with you, to bring about all Israel to you.

¹³He said, Well; I will make a league with you; but one thing I require of you: that is, you shall not see my face, except you first bring Michal, Saul's daughter, when you come to see my face.

¹⁴David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, saying, Deliver me my wife Michal, whom I pledged to be married to me for one hundred foreskins of the Philistines.

¹⁵Ish-bosheth sent, and took her from her husband, even from Paltiel the son of Laish.

¹⁶Her husband went with her, weeping as he went, and followed her to Bahurim. Then said Abner to him, Go, return: and he returned.

¹⁷Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying, In times past you sought for David to be king over you:

¹⁸now then do it; for Yahweh has spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies.

¹⁹Abner also spoke in the ears of Benjamin: and Abner went also to speak in the ears of David in Hebron all that seemed good to Israel, and to the whole house of Benjamin.

²⁰So Abner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. David made Abner and the men who were with him a feast.

²¹Abner said to David, I will arise and go, and will gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may reign over all that your soul desires. David sent Abner away; and he went in peace.

²²Behold, the servants of David and Joab came from a foray, and brought in a great spoil with them: but Abner was not with David in Hebron; for he had sent him away, and he was gone in peace.

²³When Joab and all the host who was with him had come, they told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away, and he is gone in peace.

²⁴Then Joab came to the king, and said, What have you done? behold, Abner came to you; why is it that you have sent him away, and he is quite gone?

²⁵You know Abner the son of Ner, that he came to deceive you, and to know your going out and your coming in, and to know all that you do.

²⁶When Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the well of Sirah: but David didn't know it.

²⁷When Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the midst of the gate to speak with him quietly, and struck him there in the body, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.

²⁸Afterward, when David heard it, he said, I and my kingdom are guiltless before Yahweh forever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner:

²⁹let it fall on the head of Joab, and on all his father's house; and let there not fail from the house of Joab one who has an issue, or who is a leper, or who leans on a staff, or who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread.

³⁰So Joab and Abishai his brother killed Abner, because he had killed their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle.

³¹David said to Joab, and to all the people who were with him, Tear your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. King David followed the bier.

³²They buried Abner in Hebron: and the king lifted up his voice, and wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept.

³³The king lamented for Abner, and said, Should Abner die as a fool dies?

³⁴Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put into fetters: As a man falls before the children of iniquity, so did you fall. All the people wept again over him.

³⁵All the people came to cause David to eat bread while it was yet day; but David swore, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else, until the sun be down.

³⁶All the people took notice of it, and it pleased them; as whatever the king did pleased all the people.

³⁷So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it was not of the king to kill Abner the son of Ner.

³⁸The king said to his servants, "Don't you know that there a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?

³⁹I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me. May Yahweh reward the evil-doer according to his wickedness."

4When [Ish-bosheth], Saul's son, heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.

²[Ish-bosheth], Saul's son, [had] two men who were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin (for Beeroth also is reckoned to Benjamin:

³and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and have been sojourners there until this day).

⁴Now Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son who was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the news came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel; and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.

⁵The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, as he took his rest at noon.

⁶They came there into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they struck him in the body: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.

⁷Now when they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, they struck him, and killed him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night.

⁸They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David to Hebron, and said to the king, Behold, the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life; and Yahweh has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed.

⁹David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, As Yahweh lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity,

¹⁰when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good news, I took hold of him, and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news.

¹¹How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed, shall I not now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?

¹²David commanded his young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth, and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.

5Then came all the tribes of Israel to David to Hebron, and spoke, saying, Behold, we are your bone and your flesh.

²In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel: and Yahweh said to you, You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.

³So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahweh: and they anointed David king over Israel.

⁴David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.

⁵In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

⁶The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, Except you take away the blind and the lame, you shall not come in here; thinking, David can't come in here.

⁷Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David.

⁸David said on that day, Whoever strikes the Jebusites, let him get up to the watercourse, and [strike] the lame and the blind, who are hated of David's soul. Why they say, There are the blind and the lame; he can't come into the house.

⁹David lived in the stronghold, and called it the city of David. David built round about from Millo and inward.

¹⁰David grew greater and greater; for Yahweh, the God of hosts, was with him.

¹¹Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar-trees, and carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house.

¹²David perceived that Yahweh had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake.

¹³David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron; and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.

¹⁴These are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon,

¹⁵and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia,

¹⁶and Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphelet.

¹⁷When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the stronghold.

¹⁸Now the Philistines had come and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.

¹⁹David inquired of Yahweh, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? will you deliver them into my hand? Yahweh said to David, Go up; for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into your hand.

²⁰David came to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there; and he said, Yahweh has broken my enemies before me, like the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim.

²¹They left their images there; and David and his men took them away.

²²The Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.

²³When David inquired of Yahweh, he said, You shall not go up: make a circuit behind them, and come on them over against the mulberry-trees.

²⁴It shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry-trees, that then you shall bestir yourself; for then is Yahweh gone out before you to strike the host of the Philistines.

²⁵David did so, as Yahweh commanded him, and struck the Philistines from Geba until you come to Gezer.

6David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.

²David arose, and went with all the people who were with him, from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, even the name of Yahweh of Hosts who sits [above] the cherubim.

³They set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in the hill: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.

⁴They brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was in the hill, with the ark of God: and Ahio went before the ark.

⁵David and all the house of Israel played before Yahweh with all manner of [instruments made of] fir-wood, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with tambourines, and with castanets, and with cymbals.

⁶When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put forth [his hand] to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen stumbled.

⁷The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.

⁸David was displeased, because Yahweh had broken forth on Uzzah; and he called that place Perez-uzzah, to this day.

⁹David was afraid of Yahweh that day; and he said, How shall the ark of Yahweh come to me?

¹⁰So David would not remove the ark of Yahweh to him into the city of David; but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

¹¹The ark of Yahweh remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months: and Yahweh blessed Obed-edom, and all his house.

¹²It was told king David, saying, Yahweh has blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that pertains to him, because of the ark of God. David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David with joy.

¹³It was so, that, when those who bore the ark of Yahweh had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf.

¹⁴David danced before Yahweh with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.

¹⁵So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of Yahweh with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.

¹⁶It was so, as the ark of Yahweh came into the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out at the window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before Yahweh; and she despised him in her heart.

¹⁷They brought in the ark of Yahweh, and set it in its place, in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings before Yahweh.

¹⁸When David had made an end of offering the burnt offering and the peace-offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Yahweh of Hosts.

¹⁹He dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, both to men and women, to everyone a cake of bread, and a portion [of flesh], and a cake of raisins. So all the people departed everyone to his house.

²⁰Then David returned to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!

²¹David said to Michal, [It was] before Yahweh, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me prince over the people of Yahweh, over Israel: therefore will I play before Yahweh.

²²I will be yet more vile than this, and will be base in my own sight: but of the handmaids of whom you have spoken, of them shall I be had in honor.

²³Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.

7It happened, when the king lived in his house, and Yahweh had given him rest from all his enemies round about,

²that the king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains.

³Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in your heart; for Yahweh is with you.

⁴It happened the same night, that the word of Yahweh came to Nathan, saying,

⁵Go and tell my servant David, Thus says Yahweh, Shall you build me a house for me to dwell in?

⁶for I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tent.

⁷In all places in which I have walked with all the children of Israel, spoke I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people Israel, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar?

⁸Now therefore thus shall you tell my servant David, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people, over Israel;

⁹and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.

¹⁰I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as at the first,

¹¹and [as] from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel; and I will cause you to rest from all your enemies. Moreover Yahweh tells you that Yahweh will make you a house.

¹²When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

¹³He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

¹⁴I will be his father, and he shall be my son: if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men;

¹⁵but my lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you.

¹⁶Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before you: your throne shall be established forever.

¹⁷According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak to David.

¹⁸Then David the king went in, and sat before Yahweh; and he said, Who am I, Lord Yahweh, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?

¹⁹This was yet a small thing in your eyes, Lord Yahweh; but you have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come; and this [too] after the manner of men, Lord Yahweh!

²⁰What can David say more to you? for you know your servant, Lord Yahweh.

²¹For your word's sake, and according to your own heart, have you worked all this greatness, to make your servant know it.

²²Therefore you are great, Yahweh God: for there is none like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

²³What one nation in the earth is like your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, and to make him a name, and to do great things for you, and awesome things for your land, before your people, whom you redeem to you out of Egypt, [from] the nations and their gods?

²⁴You did establish to yourself your people Israel to be a people to you forever; and you, Yahweh, became their God.

²⁵Now, Yahweh God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, confirm you it forever, and do as you have spoken.

²⁶Let your name be magnified forever, saying, Yahweh of hosts is God over Israel; and the house of your servant David shall be established before you.

²⁷For you, Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, have revealed to your servant, saying, I will build you a house: therefore has your servant found in his heart to pray this prayer to you.

²⁸Now, O Lord Yahweh, you are God, and your words are truth, and you have promised this good thing to your servant:

²⁹now therefore let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you; for you, Lord Yahweh, have spoken it: and with your blessing let the house of your servant be blessed forever.

8After this it happened that David struck the Philistines, and subdued them: and David took the bridle of the mother city out of the hand of the Philistines.

²He struck Moab, and measured them with the line, making them to lie down on the ground; and he measured two lines to put to death, and one full line to keep alive. The Moabites became servants to David, and brought tribute.

³David struck also Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to recover his dominion at the River.

⁴David took from him one thousand seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen: and David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for one hundred chariots.

⁵When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David struck of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men.

⁶Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought tribute. Yahweh gave victory to David wherever he went.

⁷David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer, and brought them to Jerusalem.

⁸From Betah and from Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, king David took exceeding much brass.

⁹When Toi king of Hamath heard that David had struck all the host of Hadadezer,

¹⁰then Toi sent Joram his son to king David, to Greet him, and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer and struck him: for Hadadezer had wars with Toi. [Joram] brought with him vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and vessels of brass:

¹¹These also did king David dedicate to Yahweh, with the silver and gold that he dedicated of all the nations which he subdued;

¹²of Syria, and of Moab, and of the children of Ammon, and of the Philistines, and of Amalek, and of the spoil of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Zobah.

¹³David got him a name when he returned from smiting the Syrians in the Valley of Salt, even eighteen thousand men.

¹⁴He put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all the Edomites became servants to David. Yahweh gave victory to David wherever he went.

¹⁵David reigned over all Israel; and David executed justice and righteousness to all his people.

¹⁶Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the host; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder;

¹⁷and Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, were priests; and Seraiah was scribe;

¹⁸and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada [was over] the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David's sons were chief ministers.

9David said, Is there yet any who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?

²There was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David; and the king said to him, Are you Ziba? He said, Your servant is he.

³The king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God to him? Ziba said to the king, Jonathan has yet a son, who is lame of his feet.

⁴The king said to him, Where is he? Ziba said to the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, in Look-debar.

⁵Then king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Look-debar.

⁶Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, and fell on his face, and did obeisance. David said, Mephibosheth. He answered, Behold, your servant!

⁷David said to him, "Don't be afraid of him; for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father's sake, and will restore you all the land of Saul your father; and you shall eat bread at my table continually.

⁸He did obeisance, and said, What is your servant, that you should look on such a dead dog as I am?

⁹Then the king called to Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, All that pertained to Saul and to all his house have I given to your master's son.

¹⁰You shall till the land for him, you, and your sons, and your servants; and you shall bring in [the fruits], that your master's son may have bread to eat: but Mephibosheth your master's son shall eat bread always at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

¹¹Then said Ziba to the king, According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so shall your servant do. As for Mephibosheth, [said the king], he shall eat at my table, as one of the king's sons.

¹²Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Mica. All that lived in the house of Ziba were servants to Mephibosheth.

¹³So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem; for he ate continually at the king's table. He was lame in both his feet.

10It happened after this, that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanun his son reigned in his place.

²David said, I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness to me. So David sent by his servants to comfort him concerning his father. David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon.

³But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun their lord, Do you think that David honors your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Hasn't David sent his servants to you to search the city, and to spy it out, and to overthrow it?

⁴So Hanun took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away.

⁵When they told it to David, he sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. The king said, Wait at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.

⁶When the children of Ammon saw that they were become odious to David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with one thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men.

⁷When David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the host of the mighty men.

⁸The children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entrance of the gate: and the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field.

⁹Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians:

¹⁰The rest of the people he committed into the hand of Abishai his brother; and he put them in array against the children of Ammon.

¹¹He said, If the Syrians be too strong for me, then you shall help me; but if the children of Ammon be too strong for you, then I will come and help you.

¹²Be of good courage, and let us play the man for our people, and for the cities of our God: and Yahweh do that which seems him good.

¹³So Joab and the people who were with him drew near to the battle against the Syrians: and they fled before him.

¹⁴When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, they likewise fled before Abishai, and entered into the city. Then Joab returned from the children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem.

¹⁵When the Syrians saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they gathered themselves together.

¹⁶Hadarezer sent, and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the River: and they came to Helam, with Shobach the captain of the host of Hadarezer at their head.

¹⁷It was told David; and he gathered all Israel together, and passed over the Jordan, and came to Helam. The Syrians set themselves in array against David, and fought with him.

¹⁸The Syrians fled before Israel; and David killed of the Syrians [the men of] seven hundred chariots, and forty thousand horsemen, and struck Shobach the captain of their host, so that he died there.

¹⁹When all the kings who were servants to Hadarezer saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they made peace with Israel, and served them. So the Syrians feared to help the children of Ammon any more.

11It happened, at the return of the year, at the time when kings go out [to battle], that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem.

²It happened at evening, that David arose from off his bed, and walked on the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful to look on.

³David send and inquired after the woman. One said, Is not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

⁴David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house.

⁵The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, I am with child.

⁶David sent to Joab, [saying], Send me Uriah the Hittite. Joab sent Uriah to David.

⁷When Uriah was come to him, David asked of him how Joab did, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered.

⁸David said to Uriah, Go down to your house, and wash your feet. Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess [of food] from the king.

⁹But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and didn't go down to his house.

¹⁰When they had told David, saying, Uriah didn't go down to his house, David said to Uriah, Haven't you come from a journey? why did you not go down to your house?

¹¹Uriah said to David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in booths; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open field; shall I then go into my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.

¹²David said to Uriah, Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and the next day.

¹³When David had called him, he ate and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but didn't go down to his house.

¹⁴It happened in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

¹⁵He wrote in the letter, saying, Set you Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire you from him, that he may be struck, and die.

¹⁶It happened, when Joab kept watch on the city, that he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew that valiant men were.

¹⁷The men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of the people, even of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also.

¹⁸Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war;

¹⁹and he charged the messenger, saying, "When you have made an end of telling all the things concerning the war to the king,

²⁰it shall be that, if the king's wrath arise, and he tells you, 'Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Didn't you know that they would shoot from the wall?

²¹who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Didn't a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?' then shall you say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.'"

²²So the messenger went, and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for.

²³The messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate.

²⁴The shooters shot at your servants from off the wall; and some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.

²⁵Then David said to the messenger, Thus shall you tell Joab, Don't let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another; make your battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage you him.

²⁶When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she made lamentation for her husband.

²⁷When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased Yahweh.

12Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, "There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.

²The rich man had very many flocks and herds,

³but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was to him like a daughter.

⁴A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man who had come to him."

⁵David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As Yahweh lives, the man who has done this is worthy to die!

⁶He shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity!"

⁷Nathan said to David, "You are the man. This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.

⁸I gave you your master's house, and your master's wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things.

⁹Why have you despised the word of Yahweh, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.

¹⁰Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.'

¹¹This is what Yahweh says: 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.

¹²For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.'"

¹³David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against Yahweh." Nathan said to David, "Yahweh also has put away your sin. You will not die.

¹⁴However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to Yahweh's enemies to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die."

¹⁵Nathan departed to his house. Yahweh struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it was very sick.

¹⁶David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the earth.

¹⁷The elders of his house arose, [and stood] beside him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.

¹⁸It happened on the seventh day, that the child died. The servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he didn't listen to our voice: how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is dead!

¹⁹But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, Is the child dead? They said, He is dead.

²⁰Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothing; and he came into the house of Yahweh, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he ate.

²¹Then said his servants to him, What thing is this that you have done? you did fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, you did rise and eat bread.

²²He said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who knows whether Yahweh will not be gracious to me, that the child may live?

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.

²⁴David comforted Bath-sheba his wife, and went in to her, and lay with her: and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. Yahweh loved him;

²⁵and he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he named him Jedidiah, for Yahweh's sake.

²⁶Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city.

²⁷Joab sent messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah; yes, I have taken the city of waters.

²⁸Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it; lest I take the city, and it be called after my name.

²⁹David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it.

³⁰He took the crown of their king from off his head; and the weight of it was a talent of gold, and [in it were] precious stones; and it was set on David's head. He brought forth the spoil of the city, exceeding much.

³¹He brought forth the people who were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick kiln: and thus did he to all the cities of the children of Ammon. David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

13It happened after this, that Absalom the son of David had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her.

²Amnon was so vexed that he fell sick because of his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and it seemed hard to Amnon to do anything to her.

³But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother; and Jonadab was a very subtle man.

⁴He said to him, Why, son of the king, are you thus lean from day to day? Won't you tell me? Amnon said to him, I love Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister.

⁵Jonadab said to him, Lay you down on your bed, and feign yourself sick: and when your father comes to see you, tell him, Please let my sister Tamar come and give me bread to eat, and dress the food in my sight, that I may see it, and eat it from her hand.

⁶So Amnon lay down, and feigned himself sick: and when the king was come to see him, Amnon said to the king, Please let her sister Tamar come, and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat from her hand.

⁷Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, Go now to your brother Amnon's house, and dress him food.

⁸So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house; and he was laid down. She took dough, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and did bake the cakes.

⁹She took the pan, and poured them out before him; but he refused to eat. Amnon said, Have out all men from me. They went out every man from him.

¹⁰Amnon said to Tamar, Bring the food into the chamber, that I may eat from your hand. Tamar took the cakes which she had made, and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother.

¹¹When she had brought them near to him to eat, he took hold of her, and said to her, Come, lie with me, my sister.

¹²She answered him, No, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought to be done in Israel. Don't you do this folly.

¹³I, where shall I carry my shame? and as for you, you will be as one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, please speak to the king; for he will not withhold me from you.

¹⁴However he would not listen to her voice; but being stronger than she, he forced her, and lay with her.

¹⁵Then Amnon hated her with exceeding great hatred; for the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. Amnon said to her, Arise, be gone.

¹⁶She said to him, Not so, because this great wrong in putting me forth is [worse] than the other that you did to me. But he would not listen to her.

¹⁷Then he called his servant who ministered to him, and said, Put now this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her.

¹⁸She had a garment of various colors on her; for with such robes were the king's daughters who were virgins dressed. Then his servant brought her out, and bolted the door after her.

¹⁹Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore her garment of various colors that was on her; and she laid her hand on her head, and went her way, crying aloud as she went.

²⁰Absalom her brother said to her, Has Amnon your brother been with you? but now hold your peace, my sister: he is your brother; don't take this thing to heart. So Tamar remained desolate in her brother Absalom's house.

²¹But when king David heard of all these things, he was very angry.

²²Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad; for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar.

²³It happened after two full years, that Absalom had sheep-shearers in Baal-hazor, which is beside Ephraim: and Absalom invited all the king's sons.

²⁴Absalom came to the king, and said, See now, your servant has sheep-shearers; let the king, I pray you, and his servants go with your servant.

²⁵The king said to Absalom, No, my son, let us not all go, lest we be burdensome to you. He pressed him: however he would not go, but blessed him.

²⁶Then said Absalom, If not, please let my brother Amnon go with us. The king said to him, Why should he go with you?

²⁷But Absalom pressed him, and he let Amnon and all the king's sons go with him.

²⁸Absalom commanded his servants, saying, Mark you now, when Amnon's heart is merry with wine; and when I tell you, Smite Amnon, then kill him; don't be afraid; haven't I commanded you? be courageous, and be valiant.

²⁹The servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king's sons arose, and every man got him up on his mule, and fled.

³⁰It happened, while they were in the way, that the news came to David, saying, Absalom has slain all the king's sons, and there is not one of them left.

³¹Then the king arose, and tore his garments, and lay on the earth; and all his servants stood by with their clothes torn.

³²Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother, answered, Don't let my lord suppose that they have killed all the young men the king's sons; for Amnon only is dead; for by the appointment of Absalom this has been determined from the day that he forced his sister Tamar.

³³Now therefore don't let my lord the king take the thing to his heart, to think that all the king's sons are dead; for Amnon only is dead.

³⁴But Absalom fled. The young man who kept the watch lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came much people by the way of the hill-side behind him.

³⁵Jonadab said to the king, Behold, the king's sons are come: as your servant said, so it is.

³⁶It happened, as soon as he had made an end of speaking, that behold, the king's sons came, and lifted up their voice, and wept: and the king also and all his servants wept very sore.

³⁷But Absalom fled, and went to Talmai the son of Ammihur, king of Geshur. [David] mourned for his son every day.

³⁸So Absalom fled, and went to Geshur, and was there three years.

³⁹[the soul of] king David longed to go forth to Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead.

14Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom.

²Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched there a wise woman, and said to her, please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, Please, and don't anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has a long time mourned for the dead:

³and go in to the king, and speak on this manner to him. So Joab put the words in her mouth.

⁴When the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king.

⁵The king said to her, What ails you? She answered, Of a truth I am a widow, and my husband is dead.

⁶Your handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one struck the other, and killed him.

⁷Behold, the whole family is risen against your handmaid, and they say, Deliver him who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed, and so destroy the heir also. Thus will they quench my coal which is left, and will leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the earth.

⁸The king said to the woman, Go to your house, and I will give charge concerning you.

⁹The woman of Tekoa said to the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father's house; and the king and his throne be guiltless.

¹⁰The king said, Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you any more.

¹¹Then said she, Please let the king remember Yahweh your God, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son. He said, As Yahweh lives, there shall not one hair of your son fall to the earth.

¹²Then the woman said, Please let your handmaid speak a word to my lord the king. He said, Say on.

¹³The woman said, Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of God? for in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring home again his banished one.

¹⁴For we must needs die, and are as water split on the ground, which can't be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him.

¹⁵Now therefore seeing that I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and your handmaid said, I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.

¹⁶For the king will hear, to deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.

¹⁷Then your handmaid said, Please let the word of my lord the king be comfortable; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: and Yahweh your God be with you.

¹⁸Then the king answered the woman, Please don't hide anything from me that I shall ask you. The woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.

¹⁹The king said, Is the hand of Joab with you in all this? The woman answered, As your soul lives, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken; for your servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid;

²⁰to change the face of the matter has your servant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.

²¹The king said to Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing: go therefore, bring the young man Absalom back.

²²Joab fell to the ground on his face, and did obeisance, and blessed the king: and Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant.

²³So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

²⁴The king said, Let him turn to his own house, but let him not see my face. So Absalom turned to his own house, and didn't see the king's face.

²⁵Now in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.

²⁶When he cut the hair of his head (now it was at every year's end that he cut it; because it was heavy on him, therefore he cut it); he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels, after the king's weight.

²⁷To Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar: she was a woman of a beautiful face.

²⁸Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem; and he didn't see the king's face.

²⁹Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king; but he would not come to him: and he sent again a second time, but he would not come.

³⁰Therefore he said to his servants, Behold, Joab's field is near mine, and he has barley there; go and set it on fire. Absalom's servants set the field on fire.

³¹Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom to his house, and said to him, Why have your servants set my field on fire?

³²Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent to you, saying, Come here, that I may send you to the king, to say, Why am I come from Geshur? it were better for me to be there still. Now therefore let me see the king's face; and if there be iniquity in me, let him kill me.

³³So Joab came to the king, and told him; and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king, and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the king kissed Absalom.

15It happened after this, that Absalom prepared him a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him.

²Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate: and it was so, that when any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him, and said, Of what city are you? He said, Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel.

³Absalom said to him, Behold, your matters are good and right; but there is no man deputized of the king to hear you.

⁴Absalom said moreover, Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man who has any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice!

⁵It was so, that when any man came near to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took hold of him, and kissed him.

⁶In this manner Absalom did to all Israel who came to the king for judgment: so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

⁷It happened at the end of forty years, that Absalom said to the king, please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to Yahweh, in Hebron.

⁸For your servant vowed a vow while I abode at Geshur in Syria, saying, If Yahweh shall indeed bring me again to Jerusalem, then I will serve Yahweh.

⁹The king said to him, Go in peace. So he arose, and went to Hebron.

¹⁰But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, Absalom is king in Hebron.

¹¹With Absalom went two hundred men out of Jerusalem, who were invited, and went in their simplicity; and they didn't know anything.

¹²Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. The conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom.

¹³There came a messenger to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom.

¹⁴David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee; for else none of us shall escape from Absalom: make speed to depart, lest he overtake us quickly, and bring down evil on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.

¹⁵The king's servants said to the king, Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king shall choose.

¹⁶The king went forth, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house.

¹⁷The king went forth, and all the people after him; and they stayed in Beth-merhak.

¹⁸All his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.

¹⁹Then said the king to Ittai the Gittite, Why go you also with us? return, and abide with the king: for you are a foreigner, and also an exile; [return] to your own place.

²⁰Whereas you came but yesterday, should I this day make you go up and down with us, seeing I go where I may? return you, and take back your brothers; mercy and truth be with you.

²¹Ittai answered the king, and said, As Yahweh lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, even there also will your servant be.

²²David said to Ittai, Go and pass over. Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones who were with him.

²³All the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.

²⁴Behold, Zadok also [came], and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God; and they set down the ark of God; and Abiathar went up, until all the people had done passing out of the city.

²⁵The king said to Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favor in the eyes of Yahweh, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his habitation:

²⁶but if he say thus, I have no delight in you; behold, here am I, let him do to me as seems good to him.

²⁷The king said also to Zadok the priest, "Aren't you a seer? Return into the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar.

²⁸Behold, I will stay at the fords of the wilderness, until word comes from you to inform me."

²⁹Zadok therefore and Abiathar carried the ark of God again to Jerusalem: and they abode there.

³⁰David went up by the ascent of the [Mount of] Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered, and went barefoot: and all the people who were with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.

³¹One told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. David said, Yahweh, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.

³²It happened that when David had come to the top [of the ascent], where God was worshipped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn, and earth on his head.

³³David said to him, If you pass on with me, then you will be a burden to me:

³⁴but if you return to the city, and tell Absalom, I will be your servant, O king; as I have been your father's servant in time past, so will I now be your servant; then will you defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.

³⁵Don't you have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? therefore it shall be, that whatever thing you shall hear out of the king's house, you shall tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.

³⁶Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son; and by them you shall send to me everything that you shall hear.

³⁷So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city; and Absalom came into Jerusalem.

16When David was a little past the top [of the ascent], behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of donkeys saddled, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, and one hundred clusters of raisins, and one hundred summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.

²The king said to Ziba, What do you mean by these? Ziba said, The donkeys are for the king's household to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the wine, that such as are faint in the wilderness may drink.

³The king said, Where is your master's son? Ziba said to the king, Behold, he abides at Jerusalem; for he said, Today will the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father.

⁴Then said the king to Ziba, Behold, all that pertains to Mephibosheth is yours. Ziba said, I do obeisance; let me find favor in your sight, my lord, O king.

⁵When king David came to Bahurim, behold, a man of the family of the house of Saul came out, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera. He came out, and cursed still as he came.

⁶He cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David: and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.

⁷Thus said Shimei when he cursed, Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and base fellow:

⁸Yahweh has returned on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and Yahweh has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son; and, behold, you are [taken] in your own mischief, because you are a man of blood.

⁹Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go over and take off his head."

¹⁰The king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because Yahweh has said to him, Curse David; who then shall say, Why have you done so?

¹¹David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, who came forth from my bowels, seeks my life: how much more [may] this Benjamite now [do it]? let him alone, and let him curse; for Yahweh has invited him.

¹²It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will requite me good for [his] cursing of me this day.

¹³So David and his men went by the way; and Shimei went along on the hill-side over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust.

¹⁴The king, and all the people who were with him, came weary; and he refreshed himself there.

¹⁵Absalom, and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him.

¹⁶It happened, when Hushai the Archite, David's friend, was come to Absalom, that Hushai said to Absalom, [Long] live the king, [Long] live the king.

¹⁷Absalom said to Hushai, Is this your kindness to your friend? Why didn't you go with your friend?

¹⁸Hushai said to Absalom, No; but whom Yahweh, and this people, and all the men of Israel have chosen, his will I be, and with him will I abide.

¹⁹Again, whom should I serve? Shouldn't I serve in the presence of his son? as I have served in your father's presence, so will I be in your presence.

²⁰Then said Absalom to Ahithophel, Give your counsel what we shall do.

²¹Ahithophel said to Absalom, Go in to your father's concubines, that he has left to keep the house; and all Israel will hear that you are abhorred of your father: then will the hands of all who are with you be strong.

²²So they spread Absalom a tent on the top of the house; and Absalom went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel.

²³The counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.

17Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:

²and I will come on him while he is weary and weak-handed, and will make him afraid; and all the people who are with him shall flee; and I will strike the king only;

³and I will bring back all the people to you: the man whom you seek is as if all returned: [so] all the people shall be in peace.

⁴The saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.

⁵Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he says.

⁶When Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, Ahithophel has spoken after this manner: shall we do [after] his saying? if not, speak up.

⁷Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.

⁸Hushai said moreover, You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field; and your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.

⁹Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some [other] place: and it will happen, when some of them are fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, There is a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.

¹⁰Even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men.

¹¹But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together to you, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person.

¹²So shall we come on him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light on him as the dew falls on the ground; and of him and of all the men who are with him we will not leave so much as one.

¹³Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there not be one small stone found there.

¹⁴Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For Yahweh had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that Yahweh might bring evil on Absalom.

¹⁵Then said Hushai to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counseled.

¹⁶Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Don't lodge this night at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people who are with him.

¹⁷Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying by En-rogel; and a maid-servant used to go and tell them; and they went and told king David: for they might not be seen to come into the city.

¹⁸But a boy saw them, and told Absalom: and they went both of them away quickly, and came to the house of a man in Bahurim, who had a well in his court; and they went down there.

¹⁹The woman took and spread the covering over the well's mouth, and strewed bruised grain thereon; and nothing was known.

²⁰Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house; and they said, Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan? The woman said to them, They have gone over the brook of water. When they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.

²¹It happened, after they had departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David; and they said to David, Arise you, and pass quickly over the water; for thus has Ahithophel counseled against you.

²²Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they passed over the Jordan: by the morning light there lacked not one of them who had not gone over the Jordan.

²³When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, and arose, and got him home, to his city, and set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father.

²⁴Then David came to Mahanaim. Absalom passed over the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.

²⁵Absalom set Amasa over the host instead of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man, whose name was Ithra the Israelite, who went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab's mother.

²⁶Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead.

²⁷It happened, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,

²⁸brought beds, and basins, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and meal, and parched [grain], and beans, and lentils, and parched [pulse],

²⁹and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David, and for the people who were with him, to eat: for they said, The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.

18David numbered the people who were with him, and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them.

²David sent forth the people, a third part under the hand of Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and a third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the people, I will surely go forth with you myself also.

³But the people said, You shall not go forth: for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us: but you are worth ten thousand of us; therefore now it is better that you be ready to help us out of the city.

⁴The king said to them, What seems you best I will do. The king stood by the gate-side, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.

⁵The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. All the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom.

⁶So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the battle was in the forest of Ephraim.

⁷The people of Israel were struck there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men.

⁸For the battle was there spread over the surface of all the country; and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.

⁹Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the sky and earth; and the mule that was under him went on.

¹⁰A certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.

¹¹Joab said to the man who told him, Behold, you saw it, and why didn't you strike him there to the ground? and I would have given you ten [pieces of] silver, and a sash.

¹²The man said to Joab, Though I should receive a thousand [pieces of] silver in my hand, I still wouldn't put forth my hand against the king's son; for in our hearing the king charged you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Beware that none touch the young man Absalom.

¹³Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against his life (and there is no matter hid from the king), then you yourself would have set yourself against [me].

¹⁴Then said Joab, I may not wait thus with you. He took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.

¹⁵Ten young men who bore Joab's armor compassed about and struck Absalom, and killed him.

¹⁶Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Israel; for Joab held back the people.

¹⁷They took Absalom, and cast him into the great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones: and all Israel fled everyone to his tent.

¹⁸Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar, which is in the king's dale; for he said, I have no son to keep my name in memory: and he called the pillar after his own name; and it is called Absalom's monument, to this day.

¹⁹Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, Let me now run, and bear the king news, how that Yahweh has avenged him of his enemies.

²⁰Joab said to him, You shall not be the bearer of news this day, but you shall bear news another day; but this day you shall bear no news, because the king's son is dead.

²¹Then said Joab to the Cushite, Go, tell the king what you have seen. The Cushite bowed himself to Joab, and ran.

²²Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok yet again to Joab, But come what may, Please let me also run after the Cushite. Joab said, Why will you run, my son, seeing that you will have no reward for the news?

²³But come what may, [said he], I will run. He said to him, Run. Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and outran the Cushite.

²⁴Now David was sitting between the two gates: and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate to the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, a man running alone.

²⁵The watchman cried, and told the king. The king said, If he be alone, there is news in his mouth. He came apace, and drew near.

²⁶The watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called to the porter, and said, Behold, [another] man running alone. The king said, He also brings news.

²⁷The watchman said, I think the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok. The king said, He is a good man, and comes with good news.

²⁸Ahimaaz called, and said to the king, All is well. He bowed himself before the king with his face to the earth, and said, Blessed be Yahweh your God, who has delivered up the men who lifted up their hand against my lord the king.

²⁹The king said, Is it well with the young man Absalom? Ahimaaz answered, When Joab sent the king's servant, even me your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I don't know what it was.

³⁰The king said, Turn aside, and stand here. He turned aside, and stood still.

³¹Behold, the Cushite came; and the Cushite said, News for my lord the king; for Yahweh has avenged you this day of all those who rose up against you.

³²The king said to the Cushite, Is it well with the young man Absalom? The Cushite answered, The enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up against you to do you hurt, be as that young man is.

³³The king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son!

19It was told Joab, Behold, the king weeps and mourns for Absalom.

²The victory that day was turned into mourning to all the people; for the people heard say that day, The king grieves for his son.

³The people got them by stealth that day into the city, as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.

⁴The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, my son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!

⁵Joab came into the house to the king, and said, You have shamed this day the faces of all your servants, who this day have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and of your daughters, and the lives of your wives, and the lives of your concubines;

⁶in that you love those who hate you, and hate those who love you. For you have declared this day, that princes and servants are nothing to you: for this day I perceive that if Absalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it had pleased you well.

⁷Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak comfortably to your servants; for I swear by Yahweh, if you don't go forth, there will not stay a man with you this night: and that will be worse to you than all the evil that has befallen you from your youth until now.

⁸Then the king arose, and sat in the gate. They told to all the people, saying, Behold, the king is sitting in the gate: and all the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled every man to his tent.

⁹All the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king delivered us out of the hand of our enemies, and he saved us out of the hand of the Philistines; and now he is fled out of the land from Absalom.

¹⁰Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why don't you speak a word of bringing the king back?

¹¹King David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? seeing the speech of all Israel is come to the king, [to bring him] to his house.

¹²You are my brothers, you are my bone and my flesh: why then are you the last to bring back the king?

¹³Say you to Amasa, Aren't you my bone and my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if you aren't captain of the host before me continually in the room of Joab.

¹⁴He bowed the heart of all the men of Judah, even as [the heart of] one man; so that they sent to the king, [saying], Return you, and all your servants.

¹⁵So the king returned, and came to the Jordan. Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to bring the king over the Jordan.

¹⁶Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, who was of Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet king David.

¹⁷There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went through the Jordan in the presence of the king.

¹⁸There went over a ferry-boat to bring over the king's household, and to do what he thought good. Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, when he was come over the Jordan.

¹⁹He said to the king, Don't let my lord impute iniquity to me, neither do you remember that which your servant did perversely the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart.

²⁰For your servant does know that I have sinned: therefore, behold, I am come this day the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.

²¹But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, Shall Shimei not be put to death for this, because he cursed Yahweh's anointed?

²²David said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be adversaries to me? shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? for don't I know that I am this day king over Israel?

²³The king said to Shimei, You shall not die. The king swore to him.

²⁴Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.

²⁵It happened, when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said to him, Why didn't you go with me, Mephibosheth?

²⁶He answered, My lord, O king, my servant deceived me: for your servant said, I will saddle me a donkey, that I may ride thereon, and go with the king; because your servant is lame.

²⁷He has slandered your servant to my lord the king; but my lord the king is as an angel of God: do therefore what is good in your eyes.

²⁸For all my father's house were but dead men before my lord the king; yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table. What right therefore have I yet that I should cry any more to the king?

²⁹The king said to him, Why speak you any more of your matters? I say, You and Ziba divide the land.

³⁰Mephibosheth said to the king, yes, let him take all, because my lord the king is come in peace to his own house.

³¹Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim; and he went over the Jordan with the king, to conduct him over the Jordan.

³²Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even eighty years old: and he had provided the king with sustenance while he lay at Mahanaim; for he was a very great man.

³³The king said to Barzillai, Come you over with me, and I will sustain you with me in Jerusalem.

³⁴Barzillai said to the king, How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?

³⁵I am this day eighty years old: can I discern between good and bad? can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? why then should your servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?

³⁶Your servant would but just go over the Jordan with the king: and why should the king recompense it me with such a reward?

³⁷Please let your servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city, by the grave of my father and my mother. But behold, your servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to you.

³⁸The king answered, Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to you: and whatever you shall require of me, that will I do for you.

³⁹All the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over: and the king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned to his own place.

⁴⁰So the king went over to Gilgal, and Chimham went over with him: and all the people of Judah brought the king over, and also half the people of Israel.

⁴¹Behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said to the king, Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away, and brought the king, and his household, over the Jordan, and all David's men with him?

⁴²All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, Because the king is a close relative to us: why then are you angry for this matter? have we eaten at all at the king's cost? or has he given us any gift?

⁴³The men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more [right] in David than you: why then did you despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king? The words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.

20There happened to be there a base fellow, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew the trumpet, and said, We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, Israel.

²So all the men of Israel went up from following David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah joined with their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem.

³David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them with sustenance, but didn't go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.

⁴Then said the king to Amasa, Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be you here present.

⁵So Amasa went to call [the men of] Judah together; but he stayed longer than the set time which he had appointed him.

⁶David said to Abishai, Now will Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom: take your lord's servants, and pursue after him, lest he get him fortified cities, and escape out of our sight.

⁷There went out after him Joab's men, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men; and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.

⁸When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Joab was girded with his apparel of war that he had put on, and thereon was a sash with a sword fastened on his loins in the sheath of it; and as he went forth it fell out.

⁹Joab said to Amasa, Is it well with you, my brother? Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.

¹⁰But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand: so he struck him therewith in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn't strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.

¹¹There stood by him one of Joab's young men, and said, He who favors Joab, and he who is for David, let him follow Joab.

¹²Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him, when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.

¹³When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.

¹⁴He went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, and to Beth-maacah, and all the Berites: and they were gathered together, and went also after him.

¹⁵They came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maacah, and they cast up a mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and all the people who were with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down.

¹⁶Then cried a wise woman out of the city, "Hear, hear! Please say to Joab, 'Come near here, that I may speak with you.'"

¹⁷He came near to her; and the woman said, Are you Joab? He answered, I am. Then she said to him, Hear the words of your handmaid. He answered, I do hear.

¹⁸Then she spoke, saying, They were wont to speak in old time, saying, They shall surely ask [counsel] at Abel: and so they ended [the matter].

¹⁹I am of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel: you seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel: why will you swallow up the inheritance of Yahweh?

²⁰Joab answered, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.

²¹The matter is not so: but a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, even against David; deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. The woman said to Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall.

²²Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. They cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. He blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.

²³Now Joab was over all the host of Israel; and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites;

²⁴and Adoram was over the men subject to forced labor; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;

²⁵and Sheva was scribe; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

²⁶and also Ira the Jairite was chief minister to David.

21There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites.

²The king called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn to them: and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah);

³and David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of Yahweh?

⁴The Gibeonites said to him, It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel. He said, What you shall say, that will I do for you.

⁵They said to the king, The man who consumed us, and who devised against us, [that] we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel,

⁶let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh. The king said, I will give them.

⁷But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Yahweh's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

⁸But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:

⁹He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before Yahweh, and they fell [all] seven together. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.

¹⁰Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them from the sky; and she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.

¹¹It was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.

¹²David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa;

¹³and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged.

¹⁴They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. After that God was entreated for the land.

¹⁵The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew faint;

¹⁶and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred [shekels] of brass in weight, he being girded with a new [sword], thought to have slain David.

¹⁷But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, You shall go no more out with us to battle, that you don't quench the lamp of Israel.

¹⁸It came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the sons of the giant.

¹⁹There was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite's brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

²⁰There was again war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, who had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.

²¹When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, killed him.

²²These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

22David spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul:

²and he said, Yahweh is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine;

³God, my rock, in him will I take refuge; My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge; My savior, you save me from violence.

⁴I will call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from my enemies.

⁵For the waves of death compassed me; The floods of ungodliness made me afraid:

⁶The cords of Sheol were round about me; The snares of death came on me.

⁷In my distress I called on Yahweh; Yes, I called to my God: He heard my voice out of his temple, My cry [came] into his ears.

⁸Then the earth shook and trembled, The foundations of heaven quaked Were shaken, because he was angry.

⁹There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, Fire out of his mouth devoured: Coals were kindled by it.

¹⁰He bowed the heavens also, and came down; Thick darkness was under his feet.

¹¹He rode on a cherub, and did fly; Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind.

¹²He made darkness pavilions round about him, Gathering of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

¹³At the brightness before him Coals of fire were kindled.

¹⁴Yahweh thundered from heaven, The Most High uttered his voice.

¹⁵He sent out arrows, and scattered them; Lightning, and confused them.

¹⁶Then the channels of the sea appeared, The foundations of the world were laid bare, By the rebuke of Yahweh, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

¹⁷He sent from on high, he took me; He drew me out of many waters;

¹⁸He delivered me from my strong enemy, From those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.

¹⁹They came on me in the day of my calamity; But Yahweh was my stay.

²⁰He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me, because he delighted in me.

²¹Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.

²²For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, And have not wickedly departed from my God.

²³For all his ordinances were before me; As for his statutes, I did not depart from them.

²⁴I was also perfect toward him; I kept myself from my iniquity.

²⁵Therefore has Yahweh recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his eyesight.

²⁶With the merciful you will show yourself merciful; With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect;

²⁷With the pure you will show yourself pure; With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.

²⁸The afflicted people you will save; But your eyes are on the haughty, that you may bring them down.

²⁹For you are my lamp, Yahweh; Yahweh will lighten my darkness.

³⁰For by you I run on a troop; By my God do I leap over a wall.

³¹As for God, his way is perfect: The word of Yahweh is tried; He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.

³²For who is God, save Yahweh? Who is a rock, save our God?

³³God is my strong fortress; He guides the perfect in his way.

³⁴He makes his feet like hinds' [feet], Sets me on my high places.

³⁵He teaches my hands to war, So that my arms do bend a bow of brass.

³⁶You have also given me the shield of your salvation; Your gentleness has made me great.

³⁷You have enlarged my steps under me; My feet have not slipped.

³⁸I have pursued my enemies, and destroyed them; Neither did I turn again until they were consumed.

³⁹I have consumed them, and struck them through, so that they can't arise: Yes, they are fallen under my feet.

⁴⁰For you have girded me with strength to the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.

⁴¹You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, That I might cut off those who hate me.

⁴²They looked, but there was none to save; Even to Yahweh, but he didn't answer them.

⁴³Then did I beat them small as the dust of the earth, I did crush them as the mire of the streets, and did spread them abroad.

⁴⁴You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people; You have kept me to be the head of the nations: A people whom I have not known shall serve me.

⁴⁵The foreigners shall submit themselves to me: As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me.

⁴⁶The foreigners shall fade away, Shall come trembling out of their close places.

⁴⁷Yahweh lives; Blessed be my rock; Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation,

⁴⁸Even the God who executes vengeance for me, Who brings down peoples under me,

⁴⁹Who brings me forth from my enemies: Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me; You deliver me from the violent man.

⁵⁰Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations, Will sing praises to your name.

⁵¹Great deliverance gives he to his king, Shows lovingkindness to his anointed, To David and to his seed, forevermore.

23Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse says, The man who was raised on high says, The anointed of the God of Jacob, The sweet psalmist of Israel:

²The Spirit of Yahweh spoke by me, His word was on my tongue.

³The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me: One who rules over men righteously, Who rules in the fear of God,

⁴[He shall be] as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, [When] the tender grass [springs] out of the earth, Through clear shining after rain.

⁵Most assuredly my house is not so with God; Yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things, and sure: For it is all my salvation, and all [my] desire, Although he doesn't make it grow.

⁶But the ungodly shall be all of them as thorns to be thrust away, Because they can't be taken with the hand

⁷But the man who touches them Must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear: They shall be utterly burned with fire in [their] place

⁸These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb-basshebeth a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite, against eight hundred slain at one time.

⁹After him was Eleazar the son of Dodai the son of an Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away.

¹⁰He arose, and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand froze to the sword; and Yahweh worked a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to take spoil.

¹¹After him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. The Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines.

¹²But he stood in the midst of the plot, and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and Yahweh worked a great victory.

¹³Three of the thirty chief men went down, and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam; and the troop of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim.

¹⁴David was then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Beth-lehem.

¹⁵David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Beth-lehem, which is by the gate!

¹⁶The three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Beth-lehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Yahweh.

¹⁷He said, Be it far from me, Yahweh, that I should do this: [shall I drink] the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men.

¹⁸Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the three. He lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three.

¹⁹Wasn't he most honorable of the three? therefore he was made their captain: however he didn't attain to the [first] three.

²⁰Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, he killed the two [sons of] Ariel of Moab: he went down also and killed a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow.

²¹He killed an Egyptian, a goodly man: and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear.

²²These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and had a name among the three mighty men.

²³He was more honorable than the thirty, but he didn't attain to the [first] three. David set him over his guard.

²⁴Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Beth-lehem,

²⁵Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,

²⁶Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite,

²⁷Abiezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite,

²⁸Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite,

²⁹Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin,

³⁰Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash.

³¹Abialbon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite,

³²Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan,

³³Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite,

³⁴Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maacathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,

³⁵Hezro the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite,

³⁶Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite,

³⁷Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, armor bearers to Joab the son of Zeruiah,

³⁸Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

³⁹Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all.

24Again the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah.

²The king said to Joab the captain of the host, who was with him, Go now back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number you the people, that I may know the sum of the people.

³Joab said to the king, Now Yahweh your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?

⁴Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.

⁵They passed over the Jordan, and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer:

⁶then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; and they came to Dan-jaan, and round about to Sidon,

⁷and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites; and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba.

⁸So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

⁹Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

¹⁰David's heart struck him after that he had numbered the people. David said to Yahweh, I have sinned greatly in that which I have done: but now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.

¹¹When David rose up in the morning, the word of Yahweh came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,

¹²Go and speak to David, Thus says Yahweh, I offer you three things: choose you one of them, that I may do it to you.

¹³So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? now advise you, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.

¹⁴David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man.

¹⁵So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the time appointed; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.

¹⁶When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh repented him of the evil, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, It is enough; now stay your hand. The angel of Yahweh was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father's house.

¹⁸Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, rear an altar to Yahweh in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁹David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh commanded.

²⁰Araunah looked forth, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.

²¹Araunah said, Why is my lord the king come to his servant? David said, To buy the threshing floor of you, to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be stayed from the people.

²²Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him: behold, the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood:

²³all this, king, does Araunah give to the king. Araunah said to the king, Yahweh your God accept you.

²⁴The king said to Araunah, No; but I will most assuredly buy it of you at a price. Neither will I offer burnt-offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

²⁵David built there an altar to Yahweh, and offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings. So Yahweh was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.

1Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat.

²Therefore his servants said to him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and cherish him; and let her lie in your bosom, that my lord the king may keep warm.

³So they sought for a beautiful young lady throughout all the borders of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king.

⁴The young lady was very beautiful; and she cherished the king, and ministered to him; but the king didn't know her intimately.

⁵Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.

⁶His father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why have you done so? and he was also a very goodly man; and he was born after Absalom.

⁷He conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest: and they following Adonijah helped him.

⁸But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty men who belonged to David, were not with Adonijah.

⁹Adonijah killed sheep and oxen and fatlings by the stone of Zoheleth, which is beside En-rogel; and he called all his brothers, the king's sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's servants:

¹⁰but Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he didn't call.

¹¹Then Nathan spoke to Bath-sheba the mother of Solomon, saying, Haven't you heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith reigns, and David our lord doesn't know it?

¹²Now therefore come, please let me give you counsel, that you may save your own life, and the life of your son Solomon.

¹³Go and get you in to king David, and tell him, Didn't you, my lord, king, swear to your handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne? why then does Adonijah reign?

¹⁴Behold, while you yet talk there with the king, I also will come in after you, and confirm your words.

¹⁵Bath-sheba went in to the king into the chamber: and the king was very old; and Abishag the Shunammite was ministering to the king.

¹⁶Bath-sheba bowed, and did obeisance to the king. The king said, What would you?

¹⁷She said to him, My lord, you swore by Yahweh your God to your handmaid, [saying], Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.

¹⁸Now, behold, Adonijah reigns; and you, my lord the king, don't know it:

¹⁹and he has slain oxen and fatlings and sheep in abundance, and has called all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the host; but he hasn't called Solomon your servant.

²⁰You, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you, that you should tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.

²¹Otherwise it will happen, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders.

²²Behold, while she yet talked with the king, Nathan the prophet came in.

²³They told the king, saying, Behold, Nathan the prophet. When he was come in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.

²⁴Nathan said, My lord, king, have you said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne?

²⁵For he is gone down this day, and has slain oxen and fatlings and sheep in abundance, and has called all the king's sons, and the captains of the host, and Abiathar the priest; and, behold, they are eating and drinking before him, and say, [Long] live king Adonijah.

²⁶But he hasn't called me, even me your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon.

²⁷Is this thing done by my lord the king, and you haven't showed to your servants who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?

²⁸Then king David answered, Call to me Bath-sheba. She came into the king's presence, and stood before the king.

²⁹The king swore, and said, As Yahweh lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity,

³⁰most assuredly as I swore to you by Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying, Assuredly Solomon your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place; most assuredly so will I do this day.

³¹Then Bath-sheba bowed with her face to the earth, and did obeisance to the king, and said, Let my lord king David live forever.

³²King David said, Call to me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. They came before the king.

³³The king said to them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon:

³⁴and let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel; and blow you the trumpet, and say, [Long] live king Solomon.

³⁵Then you shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne; for he shall be king in my place; and I have appointed him to be prince over Israel and over Judah.

³⁶Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen: Yahweh, the God of my lord the king, say so [too].

³⁷As Yahweh has been with my lord the king, even so be he with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord king David.

³⁸So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, went down, and caused Solomon to ride on king David's mule, and brought him to Gihon.

³⁹Zadok the priest took the horn of oil out of the Tent, and anointed Solomon. They blew the trumpet; and all the people said, [Long] live king Solomon.

⁴⁰All the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth shook with the sound of them.

⁴¹Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they had made an end of eating. When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, Why is this noise of the city being in an uproar?

⁴²While he yet spoke, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came: and Adonijah said, Come in; for you are a worthy man, and bring good news.

⁴³Jonathan answered Adonijah, Most assuredly our lord king David has made Solomon king:

⁴⁴and the king has sent with him Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and they have caused him to ride on the king's mule;

⁴⁵and Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon; and they are come up from there rejoicing, so that the city rang again. This is the noise that you have heard.

⁴⁶Also Solomon sits on the throne of the kingdom.

⁴⁷Moreover the king's servants came to bless our lord king David, saying, Your God make the name of Solomon better than your name, and make his throne greater than your throne: and the king bowed himself on the bed.

⁴⁸Also thus said the king, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne this day, my eyes even seeing it.

⁴⁹All the guests of Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and went every man his way.

⁵⁰Adonijah feared because of Solomon; and he arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.

⁵¹It was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah fears king Solomon; for, behold, he has laid hold on the horns of the altar, saying, Let king Solomon swear to me first that he will not kill his servant with the sword.

⁵²Solomon said, If he shall show himself a worthy man, there shall not a hair of him fall to the earth; but if wickedness be found in him, he shall die.

⁵³So king Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar. He came and did obeisance to king Solomon; and Solomon said to him, Go to your house.

2Now the days of David drew near that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,

²I am going the way of all the earth: be you strong therefore, and show yourself a man;

³and keep the charge of Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, [and] his commandments, and his ordinances, and his testimonies, according to that which is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do, and wherever you turn yourself.

⁴That Yahweh may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, If your children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.

⁵Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, even what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war on his sash that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.

⁶Do therefore according to your wisdom, and don't let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.

⁷But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those who eat at your table; for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother.

⁸Behold, there is with you Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, of Bahurim, who cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim; but he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by Yahweh, saying, I will not put you to death with the sword.

⁹Now therefore don't hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man; and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down to Sheol with blood.

¹⁰David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.

¹¹The days that David reigned over Israel were forty years; seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty-three years reigned he in Jerusalem.

¹²Solomon sat on the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly.

¹³Then Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bath-sheba the mother of Solomon. She said, Come you peaceably? He said, Peaceably.

¹⁴He said moreover, I have somewhat to tell you. She said, Say on.

¹⁵He said, You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign: however the kingdom is turned about, and is become my brother's; for it was his from Yahweh.

¹⁶Now I ask one petition of you; don't deny me. She said to him, Say on.

¹⁷He said, Please speak to Solomon the king (for he will not tell you 'no'), that he give me Abishag the Shunammite as wife.

¹⁸Bath-sheba said, Well; I will speak for you to the king.

¹⁹Bath-sheba therefore went to king Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself to her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a throne to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand.

²⁰Then she said, I ask one small petition of you; don't deny me. The king said to her, Ask on, my mother; for I will not deny you.

²¹She said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as wife.

²²King Solomon answered his mother, Why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? ask for him the kingdom also; for he is my elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.

²³Then king Solomon swore by Yahweh, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life.

²⁴Now therefore as Yahweh lives, who has established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house, as he promised, surely Adonijah shall be put to death this day.

²⁵King Solomon sent by Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell on him, so that he died.

²⁶To Abiathar the priest said the king, Get you to Anathoth, to your own fields; for you are worthy of death: but I will not at this time put you to death, because you bear the ark of the Lord Yahweh before David my father, and because you were afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted.

²⁷So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest to Yahweh, that he might fulfill the word of Yahweh, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.

²⁸The news came to Joab; for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he didn't turn after Absalom. Joab fled to the Tent of Yahweh, and caught hold on the horns of the altar.

²⁹It was told king Solomon, Joab is fled to the Tent of Yahweh, and, behold, he is by the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, fall on him.

³⁰Benaiah came to the Tent of Yahweh, and said to him, Thus says the king, Come forth. He said, No; but I will die here. Benaiah brought the king word again, saying, Thus said Joab, and thus he answered me.

³¹The king said to him, Do as he has said, and fall on him, and bury him; that you may take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me and from my father's house.

³²Yahweh will return his blood on his own head, because he fell on two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword, and my father David didn't know it, [to wit], Abner the son of Ner, captain of the host of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the host of Judah.

³³So shall their blood return on the head of Joab, and on the head of his seed forever: but to David, and to his seed, and to his house, and to his throne, shall there be peace for ever from Yahweh.

³⁴Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up, and fell on him, and killed him; and he was buried in his own house in the wilderness.

³⁵The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host; and Zadok the priest did the king put in the room of Abiathar.

³⁶The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, Build yourself a house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and don't go forth from there any where.

³⁷For on the day you go out, and pass over the brook Kidron, know you for certain that you shall surely die: your blood shall be on your own head.

³⁸Shimei said to the king, The saying is good: as my lord the king has said, so will your servant do. Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days.

³⁹It happened at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. They told Shimei, saying, Behold, your servants are in Gath.

⁴⁰Shimei arose, and saddled his donkey, and went to Gath to Achish, to seek his servants; and Shimei went, and brought his servants from Gath.

⁴¹It was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and was come again.

⁴²The king sent and called for Shimei, and said to him, Didn't I adjure you by Yahweh, and protest to you, saying, Know for certain, that on the day you go out, and walk abroad any where, you shall surely die? and you said to me, The saying that I have heard is good.

⁴³Why then have you not kept the oath of Yahweh, and the commandment that I have charged you with?

⁴⁴The king said moreover to Shimei, You know all the wickedness which your heart is privy to, that you did to David my father: therefore Yahweh shall return your wickedness on your own head.

⁴⁵But king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before Yahweh forever.

⁴⁶So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he went out, and fell on him, so that he died. The kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

3Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of Yahweh, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.

²Only the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was no house built for the name of Yahweh until those days.

³Solomon loved Yahweh, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

⁴The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer on that altar.

⁵In Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, Ask what I shall give you.

⁶Solomon said, You have showed to your servant David my father great lovingkindness, according as he walked before you in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you; and you have kept for him this great lovingkindness, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

⁷Now, Yahweh my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child; I don't know how to go out or come in.

⁸Your servant is in the midst of your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can't be numbered nor counted for multitude.

⁹Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this your great people?

¹⁰The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.

¹¹God said to him, Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, neither have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice;

¹²behold, I have done according to your word: behold, I have given you a wise and an understanding heart; so that there has been none like you before you, neither after you shall any arise like you.

¹³I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like you, all your days.

¹⁴If you will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David did walk, then I will lengthen your days.

¹⁵Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream: and he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace-offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

¹⁶Then there came two women who were prostitutes, to the king, and stood before him.

¹⁷The one woman said, Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.

¹⁸It happened the third day after I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also; and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.

¹⁹This woman's child died in the night, because she lay on it.

²⁰She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.

²¹When I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead; but when I had looked at it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, whom I bore.

²²The other woman said, No; but the living is my son, and the dead is your son. This said, No; but the dead is your son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before the king.

²³Then said the king, The one says, This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead: and the other says, No; but your son is the dead, and my son is the living.

²⁴The king said, Get me a sword. They brought a sword before the king.

²⁵The king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

²⁶Then spoke the woman whose the living child was to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill it. But the other said, It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.

²⁷Then the king answered, Give her the living child, and in no way kill it: she is the mother of it.

²⁸All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice.

4King Solomon was king over all Israel.

²These were the princes whom he had: Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest;

³Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder;

⁴and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the host; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

⁵and Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; and Zabud the son of Nathan was chief minister, [and] the king's friend;

⁶and Ahishar was over the household; and Adoniram the son of Abda was over the men subject to forced labor.

⁷Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel, who provided victuals for the king and his household: each man had to make provision for a month in the year.

⁸These are their names: Ben-hur, in the hill-country of Ephraim;

⁹Ben-deker, in Makaz, and in Shaalbim, and Beth-shemesh, and Elon-beth-hanan;

¹⁰Ben-hesed, in Arubboth (to him [pertained] Socoh, and all the land of Hepher);

¹¹Ben-abinadab, in all the height of Dor (he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon as wife);

¹²Baana the son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean which is beside Zarethan, beneath Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, as far as beyond Jokmeam;

¹³Ben-geber, in Ramoth-gilead (to him [pertained] the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; [even] to him [pertained] the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and brazen bars);

¹⁴Ahinadab the son of Iddo, in Mahanaim;

¹⁵Ahimaaz, in Naphtali (he also took Basemath the daughter of Solomon as wife);

¹⁶Baana the son of Hushai, in Asher and Bealoth;

¹⁷Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;

¹⁸Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin;

¹⁹Geber the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan; and [he was] the only officer who was in the land.

²⁰Judah and Israel were many as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.

²¹Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt: they brought tribute, and served Solomon all the days of his life.

²²Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and sixty measures of meal,

²³ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and one hundred sheep, besides harts, and gazelles, and roebucks, and fattened fowl.

²⁴For he had dominion over all [the region] on this side the River, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side the River: and he had peace on all sides round about him.

²⁵Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

²⁶Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.

²⁷Those officers provided victuals for king Solomon, and for all who came to king Solomon's table, every man in his month; they let nothing be lacking.

²⁸Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds brought they to the place where [the officers] were, every man according to his charge.

²⁹God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and very great understanding, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore.

³⁰Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt.

³¹For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all the nations round about.

³²He spoke three thousand proverbs; and his songs were one thousand five.

³³He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, and of birds, and of creeping things, and of fish.

³⁴There came of all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

5Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David.

²Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,

³You know how that David my father could not build a house for the name of Yahweh his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until Yahweh put them under the soles of his feet.

⁴But now Yahweh my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary, nor evil occurrence.

⁵Behold, I purpose to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, as Yahweh spoke to David my father, saying, Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your room, he shall build the house for my name.

⁶Now therefore command you that they cut me cedar-trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with your servants; and I will give you hire for your servants according to all that you shall say: for you know that there is not among us any who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.

⁷It happened, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be Yahweh this day, who has given to David a wise son over this great people.

⁸Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have heard [the message] which you have sent to me: I will do all your desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir.

⁹My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea; and I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that you shall appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and you shall receive them; and you shall accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.

¹⁰So Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of fir according to all his desire.

¹¹Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.

¹²Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together.

¹³King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men.

¹⁴He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home; and Adoniram was over the men subject to forced labor.

¹⁵Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains;

¹⁶besides Solomon's chief officers who were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, who bore rule over the people who labored in the work.

¹⁷The king commanded, and they hewed out great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with worked stone.

¹⁸Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the Gebalites did fashion them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.

6It happened in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of Yahweh.

²The house which king Solomon built for Yahweh, the length of it was sixty cubits, and the breadth of it twenty [cubits], and the height of it thirty cubits.

³The porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length of it, according to the breadth of the house; [and] ten cubits was the breadth of it before the house.

⁴For the house he made windows of fixed lattice-work.

⁵Against the wall of the house he built stories round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and of the oracle; and he made side-chambers round about.

⁶The nethermost story was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad; for on the outside he made offsets [in the wall] of the house round about, that [the beams] should not have hold in the walls of the house.

⁷The house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry; and there was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.

⁸The door for the middle side- chambers was in the right side of the house: and they went up by winding stairs into the middle [story], and out of the middle into the third.

⁹So he built the house, and finished it; and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar.

¹⁰He built the stories against all the house, each five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar.

¹¹The word of Yahweh came to Solomon, saying,

¹²Concerning this house which you are building, if you will walk in my statutes, and execute my ordinances, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father.

¹³I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel.

¹⁴So Solomon built the house, and finished it.

¹⁵He built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar: from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling, he covered them on the inside with wood; and he covered the floor of the house with boards of fir.

¹⁶He built twenty cubits on the hinder part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor to the walls [of the ceiling]: he built [them] for it within, for an oracle, even for the most holy place.

¹⁷The house, that is, the temple before [the oracle], was forty cubits [long].

¹⁸There was cedar on the house within, carved with buds and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen.

¹⁹He prepared an oracle in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of Yahweh.

²⁰Within the oracle was [a space of] twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height of it; and he overlaid it with pure gold: and he covered the altar with cedar.

²¹So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: and he drew chains of gold across before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold.

²²The whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was finished: also the whole altar that belonged to the oracle he overlaid with gold.

²³In the oracle he made two cherubim of olive-wood, each ten cubits high.

²⁴Five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing to the uttermost part of the other were ten cubits.

²⁵The other cherub was ten cubits: both the cherubim were of one measure and one form.

²⁶The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was it of the other cherub.

²⁷He set the cherubim within the inner house; and the wings of the cherubim were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another in the midst of the house.

²⁸He overlaid the cherubim with gold.

²⁹He carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers, inside and outside.

³⁰The floor of the house he overlaid with gold, inside and outside.

³¹For the entrance of the oracle he made doors of olive-wood: the lintel [and] door-posts were a fifth part [of the wall].

³²So [he made] two doors of olive-wood; and he carved on them carvings of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread the gold on the cherubim, and on the palm-trees.

³³So also made he for the entrance of the temple door-posts of olive-wood, out of a fourth part [of the wall];

³⁴and two doors of fir-wood: the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.

³⁵He carved [thereon] cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold fitted on the engraved work.

³⁶He built the inner court with three courses of hewn stone, and a course of cedar beams.

³⁷In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of Yahweh laid, in the month Ziv.

³⁸In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts of it, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it.

7Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.

²For he built the house of the forest of Lebanon; the length of it was one hundred cubits, and the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars.

³It was covered with cedar above over the forty-five beams, that were on the pillars; fifteen in a row.

⁴There were beams in three rows, and window was over against window in three ranks.

⁵All the doors and posts were made square with beams: and window was over against window in three ranks.

⁶He made the porch of pillars; the length of it was fifty cubits, and the breadth of it thirty cubits; and a porch before them; and pillars and a threshold before them.

⁷He made the porch of the throne where he was to judge, even the porch of judgment: and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor.

⁸His house where he was to dwell, the other court within the porch, was of the like work. He made also a house for Pharaoh's daughter (whom Solomon had taken as wife), like this porch.

⁹All these were of costly stones, even of hewn stone, according to measure, sawed with saws, inside and outside, even from the foundation to the coping, and so on the outside to the great court.

¹⁰The foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits.

¹¹Above were costly stones, even hewn stone, according to measure, and cedar-wood.

¹²The great court round about had three courses of hewn stone, and a course of cedar beams; like as the inner court of the house of Yahweh, and the porch of the house.

¹³King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre.

¹⁴He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill, to work all works in brass. He came to king Solomon, and performed all his work.

¹⁵For he fashioned the two pillars of brass, eighteen cubits high apiece: and a line of twelve cubits compassed either of them about.

¹⁶He made two capitals of molten brass, to set on the tops of the pillars: the height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits.

¹⁷There were nets of checker-work, and wreaths of chain-work, for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital, and seven for the other capital.

¹⁸So he made the pillars; and there were two rows round about on the one network, to cover the capitals that were on the top of the pillars: and so did he for the other capital.

¹⁹The capitals that were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily-work, four cubits.

²⁰There were capitals above also on the two pillars, close by the belly which was beside the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred, in rows round about on the other capital.

²¹He set up the pillars at the porch of the temple: and he set up the right pillar, and called the name of it Jachin; and he set up the left pillar, and called the name of it Boaz.

²²On the top of the pillars was lily-work: so was the work of the pillars finished.

²³He made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and the height of it was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about.

²⁴Under the brim of it round about there were buds which did compass it, for ten cubits, compassing the sea round about: the buds were in two rows, cast when it was cast.

²⁵It stood on twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; and the sea was set on them above, and all their hinder parts were inward.

²⁶It was a handbreadth thick: and the brim of it was worked like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it held two thousand baths.

²⁷He made the ten bases of brass; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth of it, and three cubits the height of it.

²⁸The work of the bases was on this manner: they had panels; and there were panels between the ledges;

²⁹and on the panels that were between the ledges were lions, oxen, and cherubim; and on the ledges there was a pedestal above; and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work.

³⁰Every base had four brazen wheels, and axles of brass; and the four feet of it had supports: beneath the basin were the supports molten, with wreaths at the side of each.

³¹The mouth of it within the capital and above was a cubit: and the mouth of it was round after the work of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on the mouth of it were engravings, and their panels were foursquare, not round.

³²The four wheels were underneath the panels; and the axles of the wheels were in the base: and the height of a wheel was a cubit and half a cubit.

³³The work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel: their axles, and their rims, and their spokes, and their naves, were all molten.

³⁴There were four supports at the four corners of each base: the supports of it were of the base itself.

³⁵In the top of the base was there a round compass half a cubit high; and on the top of the base the stays of it and the panels of it were of the same.

³⁶On the plates of the stays of it, and on the panels of it, he engraved cherubim, lions, and palm-trees, according to the space of each, with wreaths round about.

³⁷After this manner he made the ten bases: all of them had one casting, one measure, and one form.

³⁸He made ten basins of brass: one basin contained forty baths; and every basin was four cubits; and on very one of the ten bases one basin.

³⁹He set the bases, five on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house: and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward, toward the south.

⁴⁰Hiram made the basins, and the shovels, and the basins. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he worked for king Solomon in the house of Yahweh:

⁴¹the two pillars, and the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars; and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars;

⁴²and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks; two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars;

⁴³and the ten bases, and the ten basins on the bases;

⁴⁴and the one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea;

⁴⁵and the pots, and the shovels, and the basins: even all these vessels, which Hiram made for king Solomon, in the house of Yahweh, were of burnished brass.

⁴⁶In the plain of the Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan.

⁴⁷Solomon left all the vessels [unweighed], because they were exceeding many: the weight of the brass could not be found out.

⁴⁸Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of Yahweh: the golden altar, and the table whereupon the show bread was, of gold;

⁴⁹and the lampstands, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the oracle, of pure gold; and the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, of gold;

⁵⁰and the cups, and the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and the fire pans, of pure gold; and the hinges, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, [to wit], of the temple, of gold.

⁵¹Thus all the work that king Solomon worked in the house of Yahweh was finished. Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, [even] the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the house of Yahweh.

8Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers' [houses] of the children of Israel, to king Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh out of the city of David, which is Zion.

²All the men of Israel assembled themselves to king Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.

³All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.

⁴They brought up the ark of Yahweh, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent; even these did the priests and the Levites bring up.

⁵King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be counted nor numbered for multitude.

⁶The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim.

⁷For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and the poles of it above.

⁸The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the oracle; but they were not seen outside: and there they are to this day.

⁹There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰It came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of Yahweh,

¹¹so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh.

¹²Then spoke Solomon, Yahweh has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

¹³I have surely built you a house of habitation, a place for you to dwell in forever.

¹⁴The king turned his face about, and blessed all the assembly of Israel: and all the assembly of Israel stood.

¹⁵He said, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David your father, and has with his hand fulfilled it, saying,

¹⁶Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house, that my name might be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.

¹⁷Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

¹⁸But Yahweh said to David my father, Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart:

¹⁹nevertheless you shall not build the house; but your son who shall come forth out of your loins, he shall build the house for my name.

²⁰Yahweh has established his word that he spoke; for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised, and have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

²¹There have I set a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of Yahweh, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

²²Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven;

²³and he said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; who keep covenant and lovingkindness with your servants, who walk before you with all their heart;

²⁴who have kept with your servant David my father that which you did promise him: yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is this day.

²⁵Now therefore, Yahweh, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, There shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.

²⁶Now therefore, God of Israel, Please let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David my father.

²⁷But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

²⁸Yet have you respect to the prayer of your servant, and to his supplication, Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you this day;

²⁹that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place whereof you have said, My name shall be there; to listen to the prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place.

³⁰Listen you to the supplication of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: yes, hear in heaven, your dwelling-place; and when you hear, forgive.

³¹If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath be laid on him to cause him to swear, and he come [and] swear before your altar in this house;

³²then hear you in heaven, and do, and judge your servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

³³When your people Israel are struck down before the enemy, because they have sinned against you; if they turn again to you, and confess your name, and pray and make supplication to you in this house:

³⁴then hear you in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to their fathers.

³⁵When the sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin, when you do afflict them:

³⁶then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.

³⁷If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting [or] mildew, locust [or] caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there be;

³⁸whatever prayer and supplication be made by any man, [or] by all your people Israel, who shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:

³⁹then hear in heaven, your dwelling-place, and forgive, and do, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know; (for you, even you only, know the hearts of all the children of men;)

⁴⁰that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

⁴¹Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he shall come out of a far country for your name's sake

⁴²(for they shall hear of your great name, and of your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm); when he shall come and pray toward this house;

⁴³hear in heaven, your dwelling-place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as does your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by my name.

⁴⁴If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to Yahweh toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name;

⁴⁵then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

⁴⁶If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn't sin), and you be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;

⁴⁷yet if they shall repent themselves in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have dealt wickedly;

⁴⁸if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name:

⁴⁹then hear you their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling-place, and maintain their cause;

⁵⁰and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them

⁵¹(for they are your people, and your inheritance, which you brought forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron);

⁵²that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant, and to the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they cry to you.

⁵³For you did separate them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your inheritance, as you spoke by Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord Yahweh.

⁵⁴It was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication to Yahweh, he arose from before the altar of Yahweh, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread forth toward heaven.

⁵⁵He stood, and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying,

⁵⁶Blessed be Yahweh, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by Moses his servant.

⁵⁷Yahweh our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us;

⁵⁸that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers.

⁵⁹Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before Yahweh, be near to Yahweh our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, as every day shall require;

⁶⁰that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh, he is God; there is none else.

⁶¹Let your heart therefore be perfect with Yahweh our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.

⁶²The king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before Yahweh.

⁶³Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which he offered to Yahweh, two and twenty thousand oxen, and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of Yahweh.

⁶⁴The same day did the king make the middle of the court holy that was before the house of Yahweh; for there he offered the burnt offering, and the meal-offering, and the fat of the peace-offerings, because the brazen altar that was before Yahweh was too little to receive the burnt offering, and the meal-offering, and the fat of the peace-offerings.

⁶⁵So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before Yahweh our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days.

⁶⁶On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that Yahweh had showed to David his servant, and to Israel his people.

9It happened, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of Yahweh, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do,

²that Yahweh appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

³Yahweh said to him, I have heard your prayer and your supplication, that you have made before me: I have made this house holy, which you have built, to put my name there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.

⁴As for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances;

⁵then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, according as I promised to David your father, saying, There shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel.

⁶But if you shall turn away from following me, you or your children, and not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

⁷then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

⁸Though this house is so high, yet shall everyone who passes by it be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why has Yahweh done thus to this land, and to this house?

⁹and they shall answer, Because they forsook Yahweh their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore has Yahweh brought all this evil on them.

¹⁰It happened at the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of Yahweh and the king's house

¹¹(now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar-trees and fir-trees, and with gold, according to all his desire), that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

¹²Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they didn't please him.

¹³He said, What cities are these which you have given me, my brother? He called them the land of Cabul to this day.

¹⁴Hiram sent to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.

¹⁵This is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised, to build the house of Yahweh, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

¹⁶Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it for a portion to his daughter, Solomon's wife.

¹⁷Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the nether,

¹⁸and Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land,

¹⁹and all the store-cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

²⁰As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel;

²¹their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy, of them did Solomon raise a levy of bondservants to this day.

²²But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondservants; but they were the men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.

²³These were the chief officers who were over Solomon's work, five hundred fifty, who bore rule over the people who labored in the work.

²⁴But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David to her house which [Solomon] had built for her: then did he build Millo.

²⁵Three times a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace-offerings on the altar which he built to Yahweh, burning incense therewith, [on the altar] that was before Yahweh. So he finished the house.

²⁶King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

²⁷Hiram sent in the navy his servants, sailors who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

²⁸They came to Ophir, and fetched from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.

10When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of Yahweh, she came to prove him with hard questions.

²She came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bore spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she was come to Solomon, she talked with him of all that was in her heart.

³Solomon told her all her questions: there was not anything hidden from the king which he didn't tell her.

⁴When the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built,

⁵and the food of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their clothing, and his cup bearers, and his ascent by which he went up to the house of Yahweh; there was no more spirit in her.

⁶She said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in my own land of your acts, and of your wisdom.

⁷However I didn't believe the words, until I came, and my eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me; your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame which I heard.

⁸Happy are your men, happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you, [and] who hear your wisdom.

⁹Blessed be Yahweh your God, who delighted in you, to set you on the throne of Israel: because Yahweh loved Israel forever, therefore made he you king, to do justice and righteousness.

¹⁰She gave the king one hundred twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.

¹¹The navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug-trees and precious stones.

¹²The king made of the almug-trees pillars for the house of Yahweh, and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for the singers: there came no such almug-trees, nor were seen, to this day.

¹³King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she asked, besides that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned, and went to her own land, she and her servants.

¹⁴Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold,

¹⁵besides [that which] the traders [brought], and the traffic of the merchants, and of all the kings of the mingled people, and of the governors of the country.

¹⁶King Solomon made two hundred bucklers of beaten gold; six hundred [shekels] of gold went to one buckler.

¹⁷[he made] three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pounds of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

¹⁸Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the finest gold.

¹⁹There were six steps to the throne, and the top of the throne was round behind; and there were stays on either side by the place of the seat, and two lions standing beside the stays.

²⁰Twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other on the six steps: there was nothing like it made in any kingdom.

²¹All king Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold: none were of silver; it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.

²²For the king had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram: once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

²³So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.

²⁴All the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

²⁵They brought every man his tribute, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and clothing, and armor, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.

²⁶Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, that he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.

²⁷The king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycamore-trees that are in the lowland, for abundance.

²⁸The horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt; and the king's merchants received them in droves, each drove at a price.

²⁹A chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred [shekels] of silver, and a horse for one hundred fifty; and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.

11Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites;

²of the nations concerning which Yahweh said to the children of Israel, You shall not go among them, neither shall they come among you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon joined to these in love.

³He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

⁴For it happened, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as was the heart of David his father.

⁵For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

⁶Solomon did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and didn't go fully after Yahweh, as did David his father.

⁷Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the mountain that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon.

⁸So did he for all his foreign wives, who burnt incense and sacrificed to their gods.

⁹Yahweh was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from Yahweh, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,

¹⁰and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he didn't keep that which Yahweh commanded.

¹¹Therefore Yahweh said to Solomon, Because this is done of you, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.

¹²Notwithstanding in your days I will not do it, for David your father's sake: but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

¹³However I will not tear away all the kingdom; but I will give one tribe to your son, for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen.

¹⁴Yahweh raised up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite: he was of the king's seed in Edom.

¹⁵For it happened, when David was in Edom, and Joab the captain of the host was gone up to bury the slain, and had struck every male in Edom

¹⁶(for Joab and all Israel remained there six months, until he had cut off every male in Edom);

¹⁷that Hadad fled, he and certain Edomites of his father's servants with him, to go into Egypt, Hadad being yet a little child.

¹⁸They arose out of Midian, and came to Paran; and they took men with them out of Paran, and they came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house, and appointed him victuals, and gave him land.

¹⁹Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him as wife the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen.

²⁰The sister of Tahpenes bore him Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh's house; and Genubath was in Pharaoh's house among the sons of Pharaoh.

²¹When Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of the host was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to my own country.

²²Then Pharaoh said to him, But what have you lacked with me, that behold, you seek to go to your own country? He answered, Nothing: however only let me depart.

²³God raised up [another] adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah.

²⁴He gathered men to him, and became captain over a troop, when David killed them [of Zobah]: and they went to Damascus, and lived therein, and reigned in Damascus.

²⁵He was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, besides the mischief that Hadad [did]: and he abhorred Israel, and reigned over Syria.

²⁶Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother's name was Zeruah, a widow, he also lifted up his hand against the king.

²⁷This was the reason why he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built Millo, and repaired the breach of the city of David his father.

²⁸The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor; and Solomon saw the young man that he was industrious, and he gave him charge over all the labor of the house of Joseph.

²⁹It happened at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; now [Ahijah] had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field.

³⁰Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it in twelve pieces.

³¹He said to Jeroboam, Take ten pieces; for thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to you

³²(but he shall have one tribe, for my servant David's sake and for Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel);

³³because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon; and they have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in my eyes, and [to keep] my statutes and my ordinances, as did David his father.

³⁴However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him prince all the days of his life, for David my servant's sake whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes;

³⁵but I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand, and will give it to you, even ten tribes.

³⁶To his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a lamp always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.

³⁷I will take you, and you shall reign according to all that your soul desires, and shall be king over Israel.

³⁸It shall be, if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my eyes, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with you, and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you.

³⁹I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not forever.

⁴⁰Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam; but Jeroboam arose, and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

⁴¹Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, aren't they written in the book of the acts of Solomon?

⁴²The time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.

⁴³Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

12Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.

²It happened, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was yet in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam lived in Egypt,

³and they sent and called him), that Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came, and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,

⁴Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make you the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.

⁵He said to them, Depart yet for three days, then come again to me. The people departed.

⁶King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying, What counsel give you me to return answer to this people?

⁷They spoke to him, saying, If you will be a servant to this people this day, and will serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.

⁸But he forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him.

⁹He said to them, What counsel do you give, that we may return answer to this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke that your father did put on us lighter?

¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, Thus shall you tell this people who spoke to you, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy, but make you it lighter to us; thus shall you speak to them, My little finger is thicker than my father's loins.

¹¹Now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

¹²So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king bade, saying, Come to me again the third day.

¹³The king answered the people roughly, and forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him,

¹⁴and spoke to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

¹⁵So the king didn't listen to the people; for it was a thing brought about of Yahweh, that he might establish his word, which Yahweh spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king didn't listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, Israel: now see to your own house, David. So Israel departed to their tents.

¹⁷But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

¹⁸Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the men subject to forced labor; and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. King Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.

¹⁹So Israel rebelled against the house of David to this day.

²⁰It happened, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was returned, that they sent and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.

²¹When Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men, who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.

²²But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,

²³Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying,

²⁴Thus says Yahweh, You shall not go up, nor fight against your brothers the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is of me. So they listened to the word of Yahweh, and returned and went their way, according to the word of Yahweh.

²⁵Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and lived therein; and he went out from there, and built Penuel.

²⁶Jeroboam said in his heart, Now will the kingdom return to the house of David:

²⁷if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem, then will the heart of this people turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.

²⁸Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: see your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

²⁹He set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.

³⁰This thing became a sin; for the people went [to worship] before the one, even to Dan.

³¹He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

³²Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; so did he in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.

³³He went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart: and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar, to burn incense.

13Behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of Yahweh to Beth- el: and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.

²He cried against the altar by the word of Yahweh, and said, altar, altar, thus says Yahweh: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men's bones shall they burn on you.

³He gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which Yahweh has spoken: Behold, the altar shall be torn, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.

⁴It happened, when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. His hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back again to him.

⁵The altar also was torn, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of Yahweh.

⁶The king answered the man of God, Entreat now the favor of Yahweh your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. The man of God entreated Yahweh, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.

⁷The king said to the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.

⁸The man of God said to the king, If you will give me half your house, I will not go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place;

⁹for so was it charged me by the word of Yahweh, saying, You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, neither return by the way that you came.

¹⁰So he went another way, and didn't return by the way that he came to Bethel.

¹¹Now there lived an old prophet in Bethel; and one of his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken to the king, them also they told to their father.

¹²Their father said to them, Which way did he go? Now his sons had seen which way the man of God went, who came from Judah.

¹³He said to his sons, Saddle me the donkey. So they saddled him the donkey; and he rode thereon.

¹⁴He went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak; and he said to him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? He said, I am.

¹⁵Then he said to him, Come home with me, and eat bread.

¹⁶He said, I may not return with you, nor go in with you; neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place:

¹⁷for it was said to me by the word of Yahweh, You shall eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that you came.

¹⁸He said to him, I also am a prophet as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying, Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water. [But] he lied to him.

¹⁹So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

²⁰It happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of Yahweh came to the prophet who brought him back;

²¹and he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, Thus says Yahweh, Because you have been disobedient to the mouth of Yahweh, and have not kept the commandment which Yahweh your God commanded you,

²²but came back, and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, Eat no bread, and drink no water; your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.

²³It happened, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the donkey, [to wit], for the prophet whom he had brought back.

²⁴When he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and killed him: and his body was cast in the way, and the donkey stood by it; the lion also stood by the body.

²⁵Behold, men passed by, and saw the body cast in the way, and the lion standing by the body; and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.

²⁶When the prophet who brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient to the mouth of Yahweh: therefore Yahweh has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him, and slain him, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke to him.

²⁷He spoke to his sons, saying, Saddle me the donkey. They saddled it.

²⁸He went and found his body cast in the way, and the donkey and the lion standing by the body: the lion had not eaten the body, nor torn the donkey.

²⁹The prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it on the donkey, and brought it back; and he came to the city of the old prophet, to mourn, and to bury him.

³⁰He laid his body in his own grave; and they mourned over him, [saying], Alas, my brother!

³¹It happened, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.

³²For the saying which he cried by the word of Yahweh against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely happen.

³³After this thing Jeroboam didn't return from his evil way, but made again from among all the people priests of the high places: whoever would, he consecrated him, that there might be priests of the high places.

³⁴This thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the surface of the earth.

14At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.

²Jeroboam said to his wife, Please get up and disguise yourself, that you not be known to be the wife of Jeroboam; and get you to Shiloh: behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, who spoke concerning me that I should be king over this people.

³Take with you ten loaves, and cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him: he will tell you what shall become of the child.

⁴Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age.

⁵Yahweh said to Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam comes to inquire of you concerning her son; for he is sick: thus and thus shall you tell her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will feign herself to be another woman.

⁶It was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, you wife of Jeroboam; why feign you yourself to be another? for I am sent to you with heavy news.

⁷Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over my people Israel,

⁸and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it you; and yet you have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in my eyes,

⁹but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made you other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back:

¹⁰therefore, behold, I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every man-child, him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung, until it be all gone.

¹¹Him who dies of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him who dies in the field shall the birds of the sky eat: for Yahweh has spoken it.

¹²Arise you therefore, get you to your house: [and] when your feet enter into the city, the child shall die.

¹³All Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.

¹⁴Moreover Yahweh will raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what? even now.

¹⁵For Yahweh will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their Asherim, provoking Yahweh to anger.

¹⁶He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he has sinned, and with which he has made Israel to sin.

¹⁷Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: [and] as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died.

¹⁸All Israel buried him, and mourned for him, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet.

¹⁹The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

²⁰The days which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.

²¹Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which Yahweh had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there: and his mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess.

²²Judah did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, above all that their fathers had done.

²³For they also built them high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill, and under every green tree;

²⁴and there were also sodomites in the land: they did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh drove out before the children of Israel.

²⁵It happened in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem;

²⁶and he took away the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

²⁷King Rehoboam made in their place shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the door of the king's house.

²⁸It was so, that as often as the king went into the house of Yahweh, the guard bore them, and brought them back into the guard-chamber.

²⁹Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

³⁰There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.

³¹Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and his mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess. Abijam his son reigned in his place.

15Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat began Abijam to reign over Judah.

²Three years reigned he in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.

³He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father.

⁴Nevertheless for David's sake did Yahweh his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem;

⁵because David did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and didn't turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

⁶Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

⁷The rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

⁸Abijam slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his place.

⁹In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Asa to reign over Judah.

¹⁰Forty-one years reigned he in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.

¹¹Asa did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, as did David his father.

¹²He put away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

¹³Also Maacah his mother he removed from being queen, because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah; and Asa cut down her image, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.

¹⁴But the high places were not taken away: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect with Yahweh all his days.

¹⁵He brought into the house of Yahweh the things that his father had dedicated, and the things that himself had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels.

¹⁶There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

¹⁷Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.

¹⁸Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king's house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants; and king Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who lived at Damascus, saying,

¹⁹[There is] a league between me and you, between my father and your father: behold, I have sent to you a present of silver and gold; go, break your league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.

²⁰Ben-hadad listened to king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel, and struck Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.

²¹It happened, when Baasha heard of it, that he left off building Ramah, and lived in Tirzah.

²²Then king Asa made a proclamation to all Judah; none was exempted: and they carried away the stones of Ramah, and the timber of it, with which Baasha had built; and king Asa built therewith Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.

²³Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.

²⁴Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.

²⁵Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah; and he reigned over Israel two years.

²⁶He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin.

²⁷Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him; and Baasha struck him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines; for Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon.

²⁸Even in the third year of Asa king of Judah did Baasha kill him, and reigned in his place.

²⁹It happened that, as soon as he was king, he struck all the house of Jeroboam: he didn't leave to Jeroboam any who breathed, until he had destroyed him; according to the saying of Yahweh, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite;

³⁰for the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and with which he made Israel to sin, because of his provocation with which he provoked Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger.

³¹Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

³²There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

³³In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah, [and reigned] twenty-four years.

³⁴He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin.

16The word of Yahweh came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying,

²Because I exalted you out of the dust, and made you prince over my people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made my people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins;

³behold, I will utterly sweep away Baasha and his house; and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

⁴Him who dies of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat; and him who dies of his in the field shall the birds of the sky eat.

⁵Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and his might, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

⁶Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah; and Elah his son reigned in his place.

⁷Moreover by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came the word of Yahweh against Baasha, and against his house, both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he struck him.

⁸In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah began Elah the son of Baasha to reign over Israel in Tirzah, [and reigned] two years.

⁹His servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him. Now he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah:

¹⁰and Zimri went in and struck him, and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place.

¹¹It happened, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he struck all the house of Baasha: he didn't leave him a single man-child, neither of his relatives, nor of his friends.

¹²Thus did Zimri destroy all the house of Baasha, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet,

¹³for all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, which they sinned, and with which they made Israel to sin, to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities.

¹⁴Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

¹⁵In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.

¹⁶The people who were encamped heard say, Zimri has conspired, and has also struck the king: therefore all Israel made Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp.

¹⁷Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah.

¹⁸It happened, when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the castle of the king's house, and burnt the king's house over him with fire, and died,

¹⁹for his sins which he sinned in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, to make Israel to sin.

²⁰Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and his treason that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

²¹Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half followed Omri.

²²But the people who followed Omri prevailed against the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath: so Tibni died, and Omri reigned.

²³In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel, [and reigned] twelve years: six years reigned he in Tirzah.

²⁴He bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver; and he built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill, Samaria.

²⁵Omri did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and dealt wickedly above all who were before him.

²⁶For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins with which he made Israel to sin, to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities.

²⁷Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and his might that he showed, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

²⁸So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria; and Ahab his son reigned in his place.

²⁹In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.

³⁰Ahab the son of Omri did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh above all that were before him.

³¹It happened, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.

³²He reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.

³³Ahab made the Asherah; and Ahab did yet more to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

³⁴In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation of it with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates of it with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.

17Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the sojourners of Gilead, said to Ahab, As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

²The word of Yahweh came to him, saying,

³Get you hence, and turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan.

⁴It shall be, that you shall drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.

⁵So he went and did according to the word of Yahweh; for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan.

⁶The ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.

⁷It happened after a while, that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

⁸The word of Yahweh came to him, saying,

⁹Arise, get you to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.

¹⁰So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks: and he called to her, and said, Please get me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.

¹¹As she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.

¹²She said, As Yahweh your God lives, I aren't they a cake, but a handful of meal in the jar, and a little oil in the jar: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

¹³Elijah said to her, Don't be afraid; go and do as you have said; but make me of it a little cake first, and bring it forth to me, and afterward make for you and for your son.

¹⁴For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, The jar of meal shall not empty, neither shall the jar of oil fail, until the day that Yahweh sends rain on the earth.

¹⁵She went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, ate [many] days.

¹⁶The jar of meal didn't empty, neither did the jar of oil fail, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by Elijah.

¹⁷It happened after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.

¹⁸She said to Elijah, What have I to do with you, you man of God? you are come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son!

¹⁹He said to her, Give me your son. He took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the chamber, where he abode, and laid him on his own bed.

²⁰He cried to Yahweh, and said, Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?

²¹He stretched himself on the child three times, and cried to Yahweh, and said, Yahweh my God, please let this child's soul come into him again.

²²Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.

²³Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, Behold, your son lives.

²⁴The woman said to Elijah, Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth.

18It happened after many days, that the word of Yahweh came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, Go, show yourself to Ahab; and I will send rain on the earth.

²Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. The famine was sore in Samaria.

³Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared Yahweh greatly:

⁴for it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of Yahweh, that Obadiah took one hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)

⁵Ahab said to Obadiah, Go through the land, to all the springs of water, and to all the brooks: peradventure we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, that we not lose all the animals.

⁶So they divided the land between them to pass throughout it: Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.

⁷As Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Is it you, my lord Elijah?

⁸He answered him, It is I: go, tell your lord, Behold, Elijah [is here].

⁹He said, Wherein have I sinned, that you would deliver your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me?

¹⁰As Yahweh your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom, where my lord has not sent to seek you: and when they said, He is not here, he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they didn't find you.

¹¹Now you say, Go, tell your lord, Behold, Elijah [is here].

¹²It will happen, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of Yahweh will carry you I don't know where; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he can't find you, he will kill me: but I your servant fear Yahweh from my youth.

¹³Wasn't it told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of Yahweh, how I hid one hundred men of Yahweh's prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water?

¹⁴Now you say, Go, tell your lord, Behold, Elijah [is here]; and he will kill me.

¹⁵Elijah said, As Yahweh of Hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.

¹⁶So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

¹⁷It happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, Is it you, you troubler of Israel?

¹⁸He answered, I have not troubled Israel; but you, and your father's house, in that you have forsaken the commandments of Yahweh, and you have followed the Baals.

¹⁹Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel to Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred fifty, and the prophets of the Asherah four hundred, who eat at Jezebel's table.

²⁰So Ahab sent to all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together to Mount Carmel.

²¹Elijah came near to all the people, and said, How long go you limping between the two sides? if Yahweh be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. The people answered him not a word.

²²Then said Elijah to the people, I, even I only, am left a prophet of Yahweh; but Baal's prophets are four hundred fifty men.

²³Let them therefore give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under; and I will dress the other bull, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under.

²⁴Call you on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Yahweh; and the God who answers by fire, let him be God. All the people answered, It is well spoken.

²⁵Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bull for yourselves, and dress it first; for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under.

²⁶They took the bull which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any who answered. They leaped about the altar which was made.

²⁷It happened at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud; for he is a god: either he is musing, or he is gone aside, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleeps and must be awakened.

²⁸They cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them.

²⁹It was so, when midday was past, that they prophesied until the time of the offering of the [evening] offering; but there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any who regarded.

³⁰Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me; and all the people came near to him. He repaired the altar of Yahweh that was thrown down.

³¹Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yahweh came, saying, Israel shall be your name.

³²With the stones he built an altar in the name of Yahweh; and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.

³³He put the wood in order, and cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. He said, Fill four jars with water, and pour it on the burnt offering, and on the wood.

³⁴He said, Do it the second time; and they did it the second time. He said, Do it the third time; and they did it the third time.

³⁵The water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.

³⁶It happened at the time of the offering of the [evening] offering, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word.

³⁷Hear me, Yahweh, hear me, that this people may know that you, Yahweh, are God, and [that] you have turned their heart back again.

³⁸Then the fire of Yahweh fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

³⁹When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, Yahweh, he is God; Yahweh, he is God.

⁴⁰and Elijah said to them, Take the prophets of Baal; don't let one of them escape. They took them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and killed them there.

⁴¹Elijah said to Ahab, Get you up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.

⁴²So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed himself down on the earth, and put his face between his knees.

⁴³He said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. He went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. He said, Go again seven times.

⁴⁴It happened at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there arises a cloud out of the sea, as small as a man's hand. He said, Go up, tell Ahab, Make ready [your chariot], and get you down, that the rain not stop you.

⁴⁵It happened in a little while, that the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel:

⁴⁶and the hand of Yahweh was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

19Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.

²Then Jezebel send a messenger to Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don't make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

³When he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

⁴But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper-tree: and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough; now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.

⁵He lay down and slept under a juniper-tree; and, behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, Arise and eat.

⁶He looked, and, behold, there was at his head a cake baked on the coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drink, and laid him down again.

⁷The angel of Yahweh came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.

⁸He arose, and ate and drink, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the Mount of God.

⁹He came there to a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, and he said to him, What do you here, Elijah?

¹⁰He said, I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword: and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

¹¹He said, Go forth, and stand on the mountain before Yahweh. Behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake:

¹²and after the earthquake a fire; but Yahweh was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

¹³It was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, there came a voice to him, and said, What do you here, Elijah?

¹⁴He said, I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

¹⁵Yahweh said to him, Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when you come, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria;

¹⁶and Jehu the son of Nimshi shall you anoint to be king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shall you anoint to be prophet in your room.

¹⁷It shall happen, that he who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu kill; and he who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha kill.

¹⁸Yet will I leave [me] seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him.

¹⁹So he departed there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing, with twelve yoke [of oxen] before him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed over to him, and cast his mantle on him.

²⁰He left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray you, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you. He said to him, Go back again; for what have I done to you?

²¹He returned from following him, and took the yoke of oxen, and killed them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave to the people, and they ate. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered to him.

20Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together; and there were thirty-two kings with him, and horses and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and fought against it.

²He sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel, into the city, and said to him, Thus says Ben-hadad,

³Your silver and your gold is mine; your wives also and your children, even the best, are mine.

⁴The king of Israel answered, It is according to your saying, my lord, O king; I am yours, and all that I have.

⁵The messengers came again, and said, Thus speaks Ben-hadad, saying, I sent indeed to you, saying, You shall deliver me your silver, and your gold, and your wives, and your children;

⁶but I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they shall search your house, and the houses of your servants; and it shall be, that whatever is pleasant in your eyes, they shall put it in their hand, and take it away.

⁷Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, Please notice how this man seeks mischief: for he sent to me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I didn't deny him.

⁸All the elders and all the people said to him, Don't you listen, neither consent.

⁹Therefore he said to the messengers of Ben-hadad, Tell my lord the king, All that you did send for to your servant at the first I will do; but this thing I may not do. The messengers departed, and brought him word again.

¹⁰Ben-hadad sent to him, and said, The gods do so to me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people who follow me.

¹¹The king of Israel answered, Tell him, Don't let him who girds on [his armor] boast himself as he who puts it off.

¹²It happened, when [Ben-hadad] heard this message, as he was drinking, he and the kings, in the pavilions, that he said to his servants, Set [yourselves in array]. They set [themselves in array] against the city.

¹³Behold, a prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel, and said, Thus says Yahweh, Have you seen all this great multitude? behold, I will deliver it into your hand this day; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

¹⁴Ahab said, By whom? He said, Thus says Yahweh, By the young men of the princes of the provinces. Then he said, Who shall begin the battle? He answered, You.

¹⁵Then he mustered the young men of the princes of the provinces, and they were two hundred and thirty-two: and after them he mustered all the people, even all the children of Israel, being seven thousand.

¹⁶They went out at noon. But Ben-hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him.

¹⁷The young men of the princes of the provinces went out first; and Ben-hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, There are men come out from Samaria.

¹⁸He said, Whether they are come out for peace, take them alive, or whether they are come out for war, taken them alive.

¹⁹So these went out of the city, the young men of the princes of the provinces, and the army which followed them.

²⁰They killed everyone his man; and the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them: and Ben-hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen.

²¹The king of Israel went out, and struck the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.

²²The prophet came near to the king of Israel, and said to him, Go, strengthen yourself, and mark, and see what you do; for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against you.

²³The servants of the king of Syria said to him, Their god is a god of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we: but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.

²⁴Do this thing: take the kings away, every man out of his place, and put captains in their room;

²⁵and number you an army, like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot; and we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. He listened to their voice, and did so.

²⁶It happened at the return of the year, that Ben-hadad mustered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel.

²⁷The children of Israel were mustered, and were provisioned, and went against them: and the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country.

²⁸A man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, Thus says Yahweh, Because the Syrians have said, Yahweh is a god of the hills, but he is not a god of the valleys; therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

²⁹They encamped one over against the other seven days. So it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel killed of the Syrians one hundred thousand footmen in one day.

³⁰But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand men who were left. Ben-hadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner chamber.

³¹His servants said to him, See now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings: let us, we pray you, put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel: peradventure he will save your life.

³²So they girded sackcloth on their loins, and [put] ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, Your servant Ben-hadad says, please let me live. He said, Is he yet alive? he is my brother.

³³Now the men observed diligently, and hurried to catch whether it were his mind; and they said, Your brother Ben-hadad. Then he said, Go you, bring him. Then Ben-hadad came forth to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot.

³⁴[Ben-hadad] said to him, The cities which my father took from your father I will restore; and you shall make streets for you in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. I, [said Ahab], will let you go with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and let him go.

³⁵A certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow by the word of Yahweh, Please strike me. The man refused to strike him.

³⁶Then said he to him, Because you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, behold, as soon as you are departed from me, a lion shall kill you. As soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and killed him.

³⁷Then he found another man, and said, Please strike me. The man struck him, smiting and wounding him.

³⁸So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with his headband over his eyes.

³⁹As the king passed by, he cried to the king; and he said, Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man to me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall your life be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.

⁴⁰As your servant was busy here and there, he was gone. The king of Israel said to him, So shall your judgment be; yourself have decided it.

⁴¹He hurried, and took the headband away from his eyes; and the king of Israel discerned him that he was of the prophets.

⁴²He said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.

⁴³The king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria.

21It happened after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.

²Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near to my house; and I will give you for it a better vineyard than it: or, if it seem good to you, I will give you the worth of it in money.

³Naboth said to Ahab, Yahweh forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you.

⁴Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. He laid him down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread.

⁵But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, Why is your spirit so sad, that you eat no bread?

⁶He said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it please you, I will give you [another] vineyard for it: and he answered, I will not give you my vineyard.

⁷Jezebel his wife said to him, Do you now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be merry: I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

⁸So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, [and] who lived with Naboth.

⁹She wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people:

¹⁰and set two men, base fellows, before him, and let them testify against him, saying, You did curse God and the king. Then carry him out, and stone him to death.

¹¹The men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, according as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them.

¹²They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.

¹³The two men, the base fellows, came in and sat before him: and the base fellows bore witness against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did curse God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him to death with stones.

¹⁴Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth is stoned, and is dead.

¹⁵It happened, when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned, and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.

¹⁶It happened, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.

¹⁷The word of Yahweh came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

¹⁸Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who dwells in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he is gone down to take possession of it.

¹⁹You shall speak to him, saying, Thus says Yahweh, Have you killed and also taken possession? You shall speak to him, saying, Thus says Yahweh, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your blood, even your.

²⁰Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me, my enemy? He answered, I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh.

²¹Behold, I will bring evil on you, and will utterly sweep you away and will cut off from Ahab every man-child, and him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel:

²²and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah for the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger, and have made Israel to sin.

²³Of Jezebel also spoke Yahweh, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel.

²⁴Him who dies of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him who dies in the field shall the birds of the sky eat.

²⁵(But there was none like Ahab, who did sell himself to do that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.

²⁶He did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.)

²⁷It happened, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.

²⁸The word of Yahweh came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

²⁹See you how Ahab humbles himself before me? because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but in his son's days will I bring the evil on his house.

22They continued three years without war between Syria and Israel.

²It happened in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel.

³The king of Israel said to his servants, "You know that Ramoth-gilead is ours, and we are still, and don't take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?"

⁴He said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to battle to Ramoth-gilead? Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.

⁵Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Please inquire first for the word of Yahweh.

⁶Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, Shall I go against Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? They said, Go up; for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.

⁷But Jehoshaphat said, Isn't there here a prophet of Yahweh besides, that we may inquire of him?

⁸The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh, Micaiah the son of Imlah: but I hate him; for he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. Jehoshaphat said, "Don't let the king say so."

⁹Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Get quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah.

¹⁰Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them.

¹¹Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron, and said, Thus says Yahweh, With these shall you push the Syrians, until they be consumed.

¹²All the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper; for Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king.

¹³The messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, See now, the words of the prophets [declare] good to the king with one mouth: please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak you good.

¹⁴Micaiah said, As Yahweh lives, what Yahweh says to me, that will I speak.

¹⁵When he was come to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we forbear? He answered him, Go up and prosper; and Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king.

¹⁶The king said to him, How many times shall I adjure you that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of Yahweh?

¹⁷He said, I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and Yahweh said, These have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace.

¹⁸The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Didn't I tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?

¹⁹[Micaiah] said, Therefore hear you the word of Yahweh: I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.

²⁰Yahweh said, Who shall entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? One said on this manner; and another said on that manner.

²¹There came forth a spirit, and stood before Yahweh, and said, I will entice him.

²²Yahweh said to him, 'How?' He said, 'I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' He said, 'You shall entice him, and shall prevail also: go forth, and do so.'

²³Now therefore, behold, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and Yahweh has spoken evil concerning you.

²⁴Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of Yahweh from me to speak to you?

²⁵Micaiah said, Behold, you shall see on that day, when you shall go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.

²⁶The king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son;

²⁷and say, Thus says the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.

²⁸Micaiah said, If you return at all in peace, Yahweh has not spoken by me. He said, Hear, you peoples, all of you.

²⁹So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead.

³⁰The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and go into the battle; but put you on your robes. The king of Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle.

³¹Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel.

³²It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the king of Israel; and they turned aside to fight against him: and Jehoshaphat cried out.

³³It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him.

³⁴A certain man drew his bow at a venture, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of the armor: why he said to the driver of his chariot, Turn your hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am sore wounded.

³⁵The battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even; and the blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot.

³⁶There went a cry throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his country.

³⁷So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria.

³⁸They washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood (now the prostitutes washed themselves [there]); according to the word of Yahweh which he spoke.

³⁹Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he built, and all the cities that he built, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

⁴⁰So Ahab slept with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.

⁴¹Jehoshaphat the 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 the daughter of Shilhi.

⁴³He walked in all the way of Asa his father; He didn't turn aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh: however the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

⁴⁴Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

⁴⁵Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he showed, and how he warred, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

⁴⁶The remnant of the sodomites, that remained in the days of his father Asa, he put away out of the land.

⁴⁷There was no king in Edom: a deputy was king.

⁴⁸Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold: but they didn't go; for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber.

⁴⁹Then said Ahaziah the son of Ahab to Jehoshaphat, Let my servants go with your servants in the ships. But Jehoshaphat would not.

⁵⁰Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; Jehoram his son reigned in his place.

⁵¹Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel.

⁵²He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, in which he made Israel to sin.

⁵³He served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger Yahweh, the God of Israel, according to all that his father had done.

1Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.

²Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said to them, Go, inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover of this sickness.

³But the angel of Yahweh said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and tell them, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you go to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?

⁴Now therefore thus says Yahweh, You shall not come down from the bed where you are gone up, but shall surely die. Elijah departed.

⁵The messengers returned to him, and he said to them, Why is it that you have returned?

⁶They said to him, There came up a man to meet us, and said to us, Go, turn again to the king who sent you, and tell him, Thus says Yahweh, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you send to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? therefore you shall not come down from the bed where you are gone up, but shall surely die.

⁷He said to them, What manner of man was he who came up to meet you, and told you these words?

⁸They answered him, He was a hairy man, and girt with a belt of leather about his loins. He said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.

⁹Then [the king] sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty. He went up to him: and, behold, he was sitting on the top of the hill. He spoke to him, man of God, the king has said, Come down.

¹⁰Elijah answered to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty. Fire came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.

¹¹Again he sent to him another captain of fifty and his fifty. He answered him, man of God, thus has the king said, Come down quickly.

¹²Elijah answered them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from the sky, and consume you and your fifty. The fire of God came down from the sky, and consumed him and his fifty.

¹³Again he sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. The third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and begged him, and said to him, man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty your servants, be precious in your sight.

¹⁴Behold, fire came down from the sky, and consumed the two former captains of fifty with their fifties; but now let my life be precious in your sight.

¹⁵The angel of Yahweh said to Elijah, Go down with him: don't be afraid of him. He arose, and went down with him to the king.

¹⁶He said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? therefore you shall not come down from the bed where you are gone up, but shall surely die.

¹⁷So he died according to the word of Yahweh which Elijah had spoken. Jehoram began to reign in his place in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because he had no son.

¹⁸Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

2It happened, when Yahweh would take up Elijah by a whirlwind into heaven, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

²Elijah said to Elisha, Please wait here, for Yahweh has sent me as far as Bethel. Elisha said, As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel.

³The sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said to him, "Do you know that Yahweh will take away your master from your head today?" He said, "Yes, I know it; hold your peace."

⁴Elijah said to him, Elisha, please wait here, for Yahweh has sent me to Jericho. He said, As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho.

⁵The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came near to Elisha, and said to him, "Do you know that Yahweh will take away your master from your head today?" He answered, "Yes, I know it. Hold your peace."

⁶Elijah said to him, "Please wait here, for Yahweh has sent me to the Jordan." He said, "As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." They two went on.

⁷Fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood over against them afar off: and they two stood by the Jordan.

⁸Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and struck the waters, and they were divided here and there, so that they two went over on dry ground.

⁹It happened, when they had gone over, that Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you. Elisha said, please let a double portion of your spirit be on me.

¹⁰He said, You have asked a hard thing: [nevertheless], if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so to you; but if not, it shall not be so.

¹¹It happened, as they still went on, and talked, that behold, [there appeared] a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, which parted them both apart; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

¹²Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen of it! He saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and tore them in two pieces.

¹³He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood by the bank of the Jordan.

¹⁴He took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and struck the waters, and said, Where is Yahweh, the God of Elijah? and when he also had struck the waters, they were divided here and there; and Elisha went over.

¹⁵When the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho over against him saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah does rest on Elisha. They came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.

¹⁶They said to him, See now, there are with your servants fifty strong men; let them go, we pray you, and seek your master, lest the Spirit of Yahweh has taken him up, and cast him on some mountain, or into some valley. He said, You shall not send.

¹⁷When they urged him until he was ashamed, he said, Send. They sent therefore fifty men; and they sought three days, but didn't find him.

¹⁸They came back to him, while he stayed at Jericho; and he said to them, "Didn't I tell you, 'Don't go?'"

¹⁹The men of the city said to Elisha, Behold, we pray you, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees: but the water is bad, and the land miscarries.

²⁰He said, Bring me a new jar, and put salt therein. They brought it to him.

²¹He went forth to the spring of the waters, and cast salt therein, and said, Thus says Yahweh, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from there any more death or miscarrying.

²²So the waters were healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.

²³He went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, there came forth young lads out of the city, and mocked him, and said to him, Go up, you baldy; go up, you baldhead.

²⁴He looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the name of Yahweh. There came forth two she-bears out of the wood, and mauled forty-two lads of them.

²⁵He went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

3Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years.

²He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, but not like his father, and like his mother; for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made.

³Nevertheless he cleaved to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin; he didn't depart therefrom.

⁴Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheep-master; and he rendered to the king of Israel the wool of one hundred thousand lambs, and of one hundred thousand rams.

⁵But it happened, when Ahab was dead, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

⁶King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time, and mustered all Israel.

⁷He went and sent to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab has rebelled against me: will you go with me against Moab to battle? He said, I will go up: I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.

⁸He said, Which way shall we go up? He answered, The way of the wilderness of Edom.

⁹So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom; and they made a circuit of seven days' journey: and there was no water for the host, nor for the animals that followed them.

¹⁰The king of Israel said, Alas! for Yahweh has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.

¹¹But Jehoshaphat said, Isn't there here a prophet of Yahweh, that we may inquire of Yahweh by him? One of the king of Israel's servants answered, Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.

¹²Jehoshaphat said, The word of Yahweh is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

¹³Elisha said to the king of Israel, What have I to do with you? get you to the prophets of your father, and to the prophets of your mother. The king of Israel said to him, No; for Yahweh has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.

¹⁴Elisha said, As Yahweh of Hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward you, nor see you.

¹⁵But now bring me a minstrel. It happened, when the minstrel played, that the hand of Yahweh came on him.

¹⁶He said, Thus says Yahweh, Make this valley full of trenches.

¹⁷For thus says Yahweh, You shall not see wind, neither shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, and you shall drink, both you and your cattle and your animals.

¹⁸This is but a light thing in the sight of Yahweh: he will also deliver the Moabites into your hand.

¹⁹You shall strike every fortified city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.

²⁰It happened in the morning, about the time of offering the offering, that behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.

²¹Now when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, they gathered themselves together, all who were able to put on armor, and upward, and stood on the border.

²²They rose up early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water, and the Moabites saw the water over against them as red as blood:

²³and they said, This is blood; the kings are surely destroyed, and they have struck each man his fellow: now therefore, Moab, to the spoil.

²⁴When they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and struck the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward into the land smiting the Moabites.

²⁵They beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land they cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the springs of water, and felled all the good trees, until in Kir-hareseth [only] they left the stones of it; however the men armed with slings went about it, and struck it.

²⁶When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too severe for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew sword, to break through to the king of Edom; but they could not.

²⁷Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. There was great wrath against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.

4Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant did fear Yahweh: and the creditor is come to take to him my two children to be bondservants.

²Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? tell me; what have you in the house? She said, Your handmaid has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.

³Then he said, Go, borrow you vessels abroad of all your neighbors, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.

⁴You shall go in, and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour out into all those vessels; and you shall set aside that which is full.

⁵So she went from him, and shut the door on her and on her sons; they brought [the vessels] to her, and she poured out.

⁶It happened, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, Bring me yet a vessel. He said to her, There isn't another vessel. The oil stayed.

⁷Then she came and told the man of God. He said, Go, sell the oil, and pay your debt, and live you and your sons of the rest.

⁸It fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. So it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread.

⁹She said to her husband, See now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, that passes by us continually.

¹⁰Let us make, Please, a little chamber on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a seat, and a lamp stand: and it shall be, when he comes to us, that he shall turn in there.

¹¹It fell on a day, that he came there, and he turned into the chamber and lay there.

¹²He said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. When he had called her, she stood before him.

¹³He said to him, Say now to her, Behold, you have been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for you? would you be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? She answered, I dwell among my own people.

¹⁴He said, What then is to be done for her? Gehazi answered, Most assuredly she has no son, and her husband is old.

¹⁵He said, Call her. When he had called her, she stood in the door.

¹⁶He said, At this season, when the time comes round, you shall embrace a son. She said, No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your handmaid.

¹⁷The woman conceived, and bore a son at that season, when the time came round, as Elisha had said to her.

¹⁸When the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.

¹⁹He said to his father, My head, my head. He said to his servant, Carry him to his mother.

²⁰When he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees until noon, and then died.

²¹She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut [the door] on him, and went out.

²²She called to her husband, and said, Please send me one of the servants, and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.

²³He said, Why will you go to him today? it is neither new moon nor Sabbath. She said, It shall be well.

²⁴Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; don't slacken me the riding, except I bid you.

²⁵So she went, and came to the man of God to Mount Carmel. It happened, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is the Shunammite:

²⁶please run now to meet her, and ask her, Is it well with you? is it well with your husband? is it well with the child? She answered, It is well.

²⁷When she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to thrust her away; but the man of God said, Let her alone: for her soul is vexed within her; and Yahweh has hid it from me, and has not told me.

²⁸Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? Didn't I say, Do not deceive me?

²⁹Then he said to Gehazi, Gird up your loins, and take my staff in your hand, and go your way: if you meet any man, Don't greet him; and if anyone greets you, don't answer him again: and lay my staff on the face of the child.

³⁰The mother of the child said, As Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. He arose, and followed her.

³¹Gehazi passed on before them, and laid the staff on the face of the child; but there was neither voice, nor hearing. Why he returned to meet him, and told him, saying, The child has not awakened.

³²When Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid on his bed.

³³He went in therefore, and shut the door on them both, and prayed to Yahweh.

³⁴He went up, and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands: and he stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child grew warm.

³⁵Then he returned, and walked in the house once back and forth; and went up, and stretched himself on him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.

³⁶He called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. When she was come in to him, he said, Take up your son.

³⁷Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground; and she took up her son, and went out.

³⁸Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him; and he said to his servant, Set on the great pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.

³⁹One went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered of it wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of stew; for they didn't recognize them.

⁴⁰So they poured out for the men to eat. It happened, as they were eating of the stew, that they cried out, and said, man of God, there is death in the pot. They could not eat of it.

⁴¹But he said, Then bring meal. He cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. There was no harm in the pot.

⁴²There came a man from Baal-shalishah, and brought the man of God bread of the first-fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and fresh ears of grain in his sack. He said, Give to the people, that they may eat.

⁴³His servant said, What, should I set this before a hundred men? But he said, Give the people, that they may eat; for thus says Yahweh, They shall eat, and shall leave of it.

⁴⁴So he set it before them, and they ate, and left of it, according to the word of Yahweh.

5Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Yahweh had given victory to Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, [but he was] a leper.

²The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman's wife.

³She said to her mistress, Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! then would he recover him of his leprosy.

⁴One went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maiden who is of the land of Israel.

⁵The king of Syria said, Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. He departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand [pieces] of gold, and ten changes of clothing.

⁶He brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come to you, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may recover him of his leprosy.

⁷It happened, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he tore his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man does send to me to recover a man of his leprosy? but consider, I pray you, and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.

⁸It was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Why have you torn your clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

⁹So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

¹⁰Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come again to you, and you shall be clean.

¹¹But Naaman was angry, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Yahweh his God, and wave his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

¹²Aren't Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

¹³His servants came near, and spoke to him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid you do some great thing, wouldn't you have done it? how much rather then, when he says to you, Wash, and be clean?

¹⁴Then went he down, and dipped [himself] seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

¹⁵He returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him; and he said, See now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, please take a present from your servant.

¹⁶But he said, As Yahweh lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none. He urged him to take it; but he refused.

¹⁷Naaman said, If not, yet, please let there be given to your servant two mules' burden of earth; for your servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice to other gods, but to Yahweh.

¹⁸In this thing Yahweh pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, Yahweh pardon your servant in this thing.

¹⁹He said to him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.

²⁰But Gehazi the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master has spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: as Yahweh lives, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.

²¹So Gehazi followed after Naaman. When Naaman saw one running after him, he alighted from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well?

²²He said, All is well. My master has sent me, saying, Behold, even now there are come to me from the hill-country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets; please give them a talent of silver, and two changes of clothing.

²³Naaman said, Be pleased to take two talents. He urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of clothing, and laid them on two of his servants; and they bore them before him.

²⁴When he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house; and he let the men go, and they departed.

²⁵But he went in, and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, Whence come you, Gehazi? He said, Your servant went no where.

²⁶He said to him, Didn't my heart go with you, when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive groves and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and men-servants and maid-servants?

²⁷The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave to you, and to your seed forever. He went out from his presence a leper [as white] as snow.

6The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, See now, the place where we dwell before you is too strait for us.

²Let us go, we pray you, to the Jordan, and take there every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. He answered, Go you.

³One said, Be pleased, I pray you, to go with your servants. He answered, I will go.

⁴So he went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood.

⁵But as one was felling a beam, the ax-head fell into the water; and he cried, and said, Alas, my master! for it was borrowed.

⁶The man of God said, Where fell it? He showed him the place. He cut down a stick, and cast it in there, and made the iron to swim.

⁷He said, Take it up to you. So he put out his hand, and took it.

⁸Now the king of Syria was warring against Israel; and he took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.

⁹The man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, Beware that you not pass such a place; for there the Syrians are coming down.

¹⁰The king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of; and he saved himself there, not once nor twice.

¹¹The heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said to them, Won't you show me which of us is for the king of Israel?

¹²One of his servants said, No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedchamber.

¹³He said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him. It was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.

¹⁴Therefore sent he there horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and surrounded the city.

¹⁵When the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, a host with horses and chariots was round about the city. His servant said to him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

¹⁶He answered, Don't be afraid; for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

¹⁷Elisha prayed, and said, Yahweh, Please open his eyes, that he may see. Yahweh opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

¹⁸When they came down to him, Elisha prayed to Yahweh, and said, Please smite this people with blindness. He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

¹⁹Elisha said to them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek. He led them to Samaria.

²⁰It happened, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Yahweh, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. Yahweh opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.

²¹The king of Israel said to Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I strike them? shall I strike them?

²²He answered, You shall not strike them: would you strike those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.

²³He prepared great provision for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. The bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.

²⁴It happened after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.

²⁵There was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until a donkey's head was sold for eighty [pieces] of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five [pieces] of silver.

²⁶As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, there cried a woman to him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.

²⁷He said, If Yahweh doesn't help you, whence shall I help you? out of the threshing floor, or out of the winepress?

²⁸The king said to her, What ails you? She answered, This woman said to me, Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.

²⁹So we boiled my son, and ate him: and I said to her on the next day, Give your son, that we may eat him; and she has hid her son.

³⁰It happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes (now he was passing by on the wall); and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within on his flesh.

³¹Then he said, God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.

³²But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him; and [the king] sent a man from before him: but before the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See you how this son of a murderer has sent to take away my head? behold, when the messenger comes, shut the door, and hold the door fast against him: isn't the sound of his master's feet behind him?

³³While he was yet talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of Yahweh; why should I wait for Yahweh any longer?

7Elisha said, Hear you the word of Yahweh: thus says Yahweh, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be [sold] for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.

²Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if Yahweh should make windows in heaven, might this thing be? He said, Behold, you shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat of it.

³Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die?

⁴If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall to the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.

⁵They rose up in the twilight, to go to the camp of the Syrians; and when they were come to the outermost part of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no man there.

⁶For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come on us.

⁷Therefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their donkeys, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life.

⁸When these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and ate and drink, and carried there silver, and gold, and clothing, and went and hid it; and they came back, and entered into another tent, and carried there also, and went and hid it.

⁹Then they said one to another, We aren't doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we hold our peace: if we wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us; now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household.

¹⁰So they came and called to the porter of the city; and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but the horses tied, and the donkeys tied, and the tents as they were.

¹¹He called the porters; and they told it to the king's household within.

¹²The king arose in the night, and said to his servants, I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive, and get into the city.

¹³One of his servants answered, Please let some take five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel who are left in it; behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel who are consumed); and let us send and see.

¹⁴They took therefore two chariots with horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see.

¹⁵They went after them to the Jordan: and, behold, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. The messengers returned, and told the king.

¹⁶The people went out, and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was [sold] for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of Yahweh.

¹⁷The king appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trod on him in the gate, and he died as the man of God had said, who spoke when the king came down to him.

¹⁸It happened, as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria;

¹⁹and that captain answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if Yahweh should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? and he said, Behold, you shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat of it:

²⁰it happened even so to him; for the people trod on him in the gate, and he died.

8Now Elisha had spoken to the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go you and your household, and sojourn wherever you can sojourn: for Yahweh has called for a famine; and it shall also come on the land seven years.

²The woman arose, and did according to the word of the man of God; and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.

³It happened at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry to the king for her house and for her land.

⁴Now the king was talking with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Please tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.

⁵It happened, as he was telling the king how he had restored to life him who was dead, that behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life.

⁶When the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed to her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.

⁷Elisha came to Damascus; and Benhadad the king of Syria was sick; and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come here.

⁸The king said to Hazael, Take a present in your hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of Yahweh by him, saying, Shall I recover of this sickness?

⁹So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden, and came and stood before him, and said, Your son Benhadad king of Syria has sent me to you, saying, Shall I recover of this sickness?

¹⁰Elisha said to him, Go, tell him, You shall surely recover; however Yahweh has showed me that he shall surely die.

¹¹He settled his gaze steadfastly [on him], until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept.

¹²Hazael said, Why weeps my lord? He answered, Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel: their strongholds will you set on fire, and their young men will you kill with the sword, and will dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child.

¹³Hazael said, But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing? Elisha answered, Yahweh has showed me that you shall be king over Syria.

¹⁴Then he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to you? He answered, He told me that you would surely recover.

¹⁵It happened on the next day, that he took the coverlet, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his place.

¹⁶In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign.

¹⁷Thirty-two years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

¹⁸He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab as wife; and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

¹⁹However Yahweh would not destroy Judah, for David his servant's sake, as he promised him to give to him a lamp for his children always.

²⁰In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves.

²¹Then Joram passed over to Zair, and all his chariots with him: and he rose up by night, and struck the Edomites who surrounded him, and the captains of the chariots; and the people fled to their tents.

²²So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah to this day. Then did Libnah revolt at the same time.

²³The rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁴Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.

²⁵In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign.

²⁶Twenty-two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel.

²⁷He walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as did the house of Ahab; for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab.

²⁸He went with Joram the son of Ahab to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead: and the Syrians wounded Joram.

²⁹King Joram returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.

9Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, Gird up your loins, and take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead.

²When you come there, look out there Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brothers, and carry him to an inner chamber.

³Then take the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus says Yahweh, I have anointed you king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and don't wait.

⁴So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead.

⁵When he came, behold, the captains of the host were sitting; and he said, I have an errand to you, captain. Jehu said, To which of us all? He said, To you, O captain.

⁶He arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I have anointed you king over the people of Yahweh, even over Israel.

⁷You shall strike the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of Yahweh, at the hand of Jezebel.

⁸For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab every man-child, and him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel.

⁹I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah.

¹⁰The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. He opened the door, and fled.

¹¹Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said to him, Is all well? why came this mad fellow to you? He said to them, You know the man and what his talk was.

¹²They said, It is false; tell us now. He said, Thus and thus spoke he to me, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I have anointed you king over Israel.

¹³Then they hurried, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the trumpet, saying, Jehu is king.

¹⁴So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. (Now Joram was keeping Ramoth-gilead, he and all Israel, because of Hazael king of Syria;

¹⁵but king Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) Jehu said, If this be your mind, then let none escape and go forth out of the city, to go to tell it in Jezreel.

¹⁶So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there. Ahaziah king of Judah was come down to see Joram.

¹⁷Now the watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, I see a company. Joram said, Take a horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, Is it peace?

¹⁸So there went one on horseback to meet him, and said, Thus says the king, Is it peace? Jehu said, What have you to do with peace? turn you behind me. The watchman told, saying, The messenger came to them, but he isn't coming back.

¹⁹Then he sent out a second on horseback, who came to them, and said, Thus says the king, Is it peace? Jehu answered, What have you to do with peace? turn you behind me.

²⁰The watchman told, saying, He came even to them, and isn't coming back: and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he drives furiously.

²¹Joram said, Make ready. They made ready his chariot. Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out to meet Jehu, and found him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.

²²It happened, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? He answered, What peace, so long as the prostitution of your mother Jezebel and her witchcraft abound?

²³Joram turned his hands, and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, Ahaziah.

²⁴Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot.

²⁵Then said [Jehu] to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; for remember how that, when I and you rode together after Ahab his father, Yahweh laid this burden on him:

²⁶Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons, says Yahweh; and I will requite you in this plat, says Yahweh. Now therefore take and cast him into the plat [of ground], according to the word of Yahweh.

²⁷But when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden-house. Jehu followed after him, and said, Smite him also in the chariot: [and they struck him] at the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam. He fled to Megiddo, and died there.

²⁸His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem, and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David.

²⁹In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah.

³⁰When Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and attired her head, and looked out at the window.

³¹As Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Is it peace, you Zimri, your master's murderer?

³²He lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? There looked out to him two or three eunuchs.

³³He said, Throw her down. So they threw her down; and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trod her under foot.

³⁴When he was come in, he ate and drink; and he said, See now to this cursed woman, and bury her; for she is a king's daughter.

³⁵They went to bury her; but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands.

³⁶Therefore they came back, and told him. He said, This is the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall the dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel;

³⁷and the body of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel, so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.

10Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and to those who brought up [the sons of] Ahab, saying,

²Now as soon as this letter comes to you, seeing your master's sons are with you, and there are with you chariots and horses, a fortified city also, and armor;

³look you out the best and meet of your master's sons, and set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house.

⁴But they were exceedingly afraid, and said, Behold, the two kings didn't stand before him: how then shall we stand?

⁵He who was over the household, and he who was over the city, the elders also, and those who brought up [the children], sent to Jehu, saying, We are your servants, and will do all that you shall bid us; we will not make any man king: you do that which is good in your eyes.

⁶Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If you be on my side, and if you will listen to my voice, take the heads of the men your master's sons, and come to me to Jezreel by tomorrow this time. Now the king's sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who brought them up.

⁷It happened, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and killed them, even seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent them to him to Jezreel.

⁸There came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. He said, Lay you them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning.

⁹It happened in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, You are righteous: behold, I conspired against my master, and killed him; but who struck all these?

¹⁰Know now that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of Yahweh, which Yahweh spoke concerning the house of Ahab: for Yahweh has done that which he spoke by his servant Elijah.

¹¹So Jehu struck all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his familiar friends, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.

¹²He arose and departed, and went to Samaria. As he was at the shearing-house of the shepherds in the way,

¹³Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, Who are you? They answered, We are the brothers of Ahaziah: and we go down to Greet the children of the king and the children of the queen.

¹⁴He said, Take them alive. They took them alive, and killed them at the pit of the shearing-house, even two and forty men; neither left he any of them.

¹⁵When he was departed there, he lighted on Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him; and he greeted him, and said to him, Is your heart right, as my heart is with your heart? Jehonadab answered, It is. If it be, give me your hand. He gave him his hand; and he took him up to him into the chariot.

¹⁶He said, Come with me, and see my zeal for Yahweh. So they made him ride in his chariot.

¹⁷When he came to Samaria, he struck all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke to Elijah.

¹⁸Jehu gathered all the people together, and said to them, Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu will serve him much.

¹⁹Now therefore call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his worshippers, and all his priests; let none be wanting: for I have a great sacrifice [to do] to Baal; whoever shall be wanting, he shall not live. But Jehu did it in subtlety, to the intent that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.

²⁰Jehu said, Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal. They proclaimed it.

²¹Jehu sent through all Israel: and all the worshippers of Baal came, so that there was not a man left that didn't come. They came into the house of Baal; and the house of Baal was filled from one end to another.

²²He said to him who was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshippers of Baal. He brought them forth vestments.

²³Jehu went, and Jehonadab the son of Rechab, into the house of Baal; and he said to the worshippers of Baal, Search, and look that there be here with you none of the servants of Yahweh, but the worshippers of Baal only.

²⁴They went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had appointed him eighty men outside, and said, If any of the men whom I bring into your hands escape, [he who lets him go], his life shall be for the life of him.

²⁵It happened, as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, that Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, Go in, and kill them; let none come forth. They struck them with the edge of the sword; and the guard and the captains cast them out, and went to the city of the house of Baal.

²⁶They brought forth the pillars that were in the house of Baal, and burned them.

²⁷They broke down the pillar of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal, and made it a draught-house, to this day.

²⁸Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.

²⁹However from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin, Jehu didn't depart from after them, [to wit], the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan.

³⁰Yahweh said to Jehu, Because you have done well in executing that which is right in my eyes, [and] have done to the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, your sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.

³¹But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of Yahweh, the God of Israel, with all his heart: he didn't depart from the sins of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin.

³²In those days Yahweh began to cut off from Israel: and Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel;

³³from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.

³⁴Now the rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

³⁵Jehu slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria. Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place.

³⁶The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

11Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.

²But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons who were slain, even him and his nurse, [and put them] in the bedchamber; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain;

³He was with her hid in the house of Yahweh six years. Athaliah reigned over the land.

⁴In the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him into the house of Yahweh; and he made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of Yahweh, and showed them the king's son.

⁵He commanded them, saying, This is the thing that you shall do: a third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath, shall be keepers of the watch of the king's house;

⁶A third part shall be at the gate Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall you keep the watch of the house, and be a barrier.

⁷The two companies of you, even all who go forth on the Sabbath, shall keep the watch of the house of Yahweh about the king.

⁸You shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand; and he who comes within the ranks, let him be slain: and be you with the king when he goes out, and when he comes in.

⁹The captains over hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded; and they took every man his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath, with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest.

¹⁰The priest delivered to the captains over hundreds the spears and shields that had been king David's, which were in the house of Yahweh.

¹¹The guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, by the king round about.

¹²Then he brought out the king's son, and put the crown on him, and [gave him] the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, [Long] live the king.

¹³When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard [and of] the people, she came to the people into the house of Yahweh:

¹⁴and she looked, and, behold, the king stood by the pillar, as the manner was, and the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and cried, Treason! treason!

¹⁵Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were set over the host, and said to them, Have her forth between the ranks; and him who follows her kill with the sword. For the priest said, Don't let her be slain in the house of Yahweh.

¹⁶So they made way for her; and she went by the way of the horses' entry to the king's house: and there was she slain.

¹⁷Jehoiada made a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people, that they should be Yahweh's people; between the king also and the people.

¹⁸All the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it down; his altars and his images broke they in pieces thoroughly, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. The priest appointed officers over the house of Yahweh.

¹⁹He took the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of Yahweh, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king's house. He sat on the throne of the kings.

²⁰So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. Athaliah they had slain with the sword at the king's house.

²¹Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.

12In the seventh year of Jehu began Jehoash to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.

²Jehoash did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.

³However the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

⁴Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the holy things that is brought into the house of Yahweh, in current money, the money of the persons for whom each man is rated, and all the money that it comes into any man's heart to bring into the house of Yahweh,

⁵let the priests take it to them, every man from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the breaches of the house, wherever any breach shall be found.

⁶But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house.

⁷Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the [other] priests, and said to them, Why don't you repair the breaches of the house? now therefore take no [more] money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house.

⁸The priests consented that they should take no [more] money from the people, neither repair the breaches of the house.

⁹But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one comes into the house of Yahweh: and the priests who kept the threshold put therein all the money that was brought into the house of Yahweh.

¹⁰It was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags and counted the money that was found in the house of Yahweh.

¹¹They gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of Yahweh: and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders, who worked on the house of Yahweh,

¹²and to the masons and the stone cutters, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house of Yahweh, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it.

¹³But there were not made for the house of Yahweh cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of Yahweh;

¹⁴for they gave that to those who did the work, and repaired therewith the house of Yahweh.

¹⁵Moreover they didn't demand an accounting from the men into whose hand they delivered the money to give to those who did the work; for they dealt faithfully.

¹⁶The money for the trespass-offerings, and the money for the sin-offerings, was not brought into the house of Yahweh: it was the priests'.

¹⁷Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.

¹⁸Jehoash king of Judah took all the holy things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own holy things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and of the king's house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem.

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁰His servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and struck Joash at the house of Millo, [on the way] that goes down to Silla.

²¹For Jozacar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

13In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] seventeen years.

²He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin; he didn't depart therefrom.

³The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, continually.

⁴Jehoahaz begged Yahweh, and Yahweh listened to him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how that the king of Syria oppressed them.

⁵(Yahweh gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel lived in their tents as before.

⁶Nevertheless they didn't depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin, but walked therein: and there remained the Asherah also in Samaria.)

⁷For he didn't leave to Jehoahaz of the people save fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria destroyed them, and made them like the dust in threshing.

⁸Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his might, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

⁹Jehoahaz slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria: and Joash his son reigned in his place.

¹⁰In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] sixteen years.

¹¹He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh; he didn't depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin; but he walked therein.

¹²Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and his might with which he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

¹³Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat on his throne: and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

¹⁴Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died: and Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over him, and said, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen of it!

¹⁵Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows; and he took to him bow and arrows.

¹⁶He said to the king of Israel, Put your hand on the bow; and he put his hand [on it]. Elisha laid his hands on the king's hands.

¹⁷He said, Open the window eastward; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot; and he shot. He said, Yahweh's arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Syria; for you shall strike the Syrians in Aphek, until you have consumed them.

¹⁸He said, Take the arrows; and he took them. He said to the king of Israel, Smite on the ground; and he struck thrice, and stayed.

¹⁹The man of God was angry with him, and said, You should have struck five or six times: then had you struck Syria until you had consumed it, whereas now you shall strike Syria but thrice.

²⁰Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year.

²¹It happened, as they were burying a man, that behold, they spied a band; and they cast the man into the tomb of Elisha: and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.

²²Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.

²³But Yahweh was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect to them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet.

²⁴Hazael king of Syria died; and Benhadad his son reigned in his place.

²⁵Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Three times did Joash strike him, and recovered the cities of Israel.

14In the second year of Joash son of Joahaz king of Israel began Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah to reign.

²He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem.

³He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, yet not like David his father: he did according to all that Joash his father had done.

⁴However the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

⁵It happened, as soon as the kingdom was established in his hand, that he killed his servants who had slain the king his father:

⁶but the children of the murderers he didn't put to death; according to that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, as Yahweh commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall die for his own sin.

⁷He killed of Edom in the Valley of Salt ten thousand, and took Sela by war, and called the name of it Joktheel, to this day.

⁸Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face.

⁹Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son as wife: and there passed by a wild animal that was in Lebanon, and trod down the thistle.

¹⁰You have indeed struck Edom, and your heart has lifted you up: glory of it, and abide at home; for why should you meddle to [your] hurt, that you should fall, even you, and Judah with you?

¹¹But Amaziah would not hear. So Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah.

¹²Judah was put to the worse before Israel; and they fled every man to his tent.

¹³Jehoash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits.

¹⁴He took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of Yahweh, and in the treasures of the king's house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria.

¹⁵Now the rest of the acts of Jehoash which he did, and his might, and how he fought with Amaziah king of Judah, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

¹⁶Jehoash slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son reigned in his place.

¹⁷Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel fifteen years.

¹⁸Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

¹⁹They made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish: but they sent after him to Lachish, and killed him there.

²⁰They brought him on horses; and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David.

²¹All the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah.

²²He built Elath, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers.

²³In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, [and reigned] forty-one years.

²⁴He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: he didn't depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin.

²⁵He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of Yahweh, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.

²⁶For Yahweh saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter; for there was none shut up nor left at large, neither was there any helper for Israel.

²⁷Yahweh didn't say that he would blot out the name of Israel from under the sky; but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

²⁸Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath, [which had belonged] to Judah, for Israel, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

²⁹Jeroboam slept with his fathers, even with the kings of Israel; and Zechariah his son reigned in his place.

15In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign.

²Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.

³He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.

⁴However the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

⁵Yahweh struck the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house. Jotham the king's son was over the household, judging the people of the land.

⁶Now the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

⁷Azariah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Jotham his son reigned in his place.

⁸In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months.

⁹He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as his fathers had done: he didn't depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin.

¹⁰Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and struck him before the people, and killed him, and reigned in his place.

¹¹Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

¹²This was the word of Yahweh which he spoke to Jehu, saying, Your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. So it came to pass.

¹³Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of Judah; and he reigned the space of a month in Samaria.

¹⁴Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and struck Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and killed him, and reigned in his place.

¹⁵Now the rest of the acts of Shallum, and his conspiracy which he made, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

¹⁶Then Menahem struck Tiphsah, and all who were therein, and the borders of it, from Tirzah: because they didn't open to him, therefore he struck it; and all the women therein who were with child he ripped up.

¹⁷In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel, [and reigned] ten years in Samaria.

¹⁸He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: he didn't depart all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin.

¹⁹There came against the land Pul the king of Assyria; and Menahem gave Pul one thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand.

²⁰Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and didn't stay there in the land.

²¹Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

²²Menahem slept with his fathers; and Pekahiah his son reigned in his place.

²³In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] two years.

²⁴He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: he didn't depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin.

²⁵Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him, and struck him in Samaria, in the castle of the king's house, with Argob and Arieh; and with him were fifty men of the Gileadites: and he killed him, and reigned in his place.

²⁶Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

²⁷In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] twenty years.

²⁸He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: he didn't depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin.

²⁹In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maacah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria.

³⁰Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and struck him, and killed him, and reigned in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.

³¹Now the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

³²In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign.

³³He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok.

³⁴He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh; he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done.

³⁵However the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of Yahweh.

³⁶Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

³⁷In those days Yahweh began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah.

³⁸Jotham slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Ahaz his son reigned in his place.

16In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.

²Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and he didn't do that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh his God, like David his father.

³But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yes, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations, whom Yahweh cast out from before the children of Israel.

⁴He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.

⁶At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath; and the Syrians came to Elath, and lived there, to this day.

⁷So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me.

⁸Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of Yahweh, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

⁹The king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried [the people of] it captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.

¹⁰King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar that was at Damascus; and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship of it.

¹¹Urijah the priest built an altar: according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so did Urijah the priest make it against the coming of king Ahaz from Damascus.

¹²When the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king drew near to the altar, and offered thereon.

¹³He burnt his burnt offering and his meal-offering, and poured his drink-offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace-offerings, on the altar.

¹⁴The brazen altar, which was before Yahweh, he brought from the forefront of the house, from between his altar and the house of Yahweh, and put it on the north side of his altar.

¹⁵King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meal-offering, and the king's burnt offering, and his meal-offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meal-offering, and their drink-offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: but the brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by.

¹⁶Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.

¹⁷King Ahaz cut off the panels of the bases, and removed the basin from off them, and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stone.

¹⁸The covered way for the Sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry outside, turned he to the house of Yahweh, because of the king of Assyria.

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁰Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

17In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel, [and reigned] nine years.

²He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him.

³Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and brought him tribute.

⁴The king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.

⁵Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.

⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁷It was so, because the children of Israel had sinned against Yahweh their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,

⁸and walked in the statutes of the nations, whom Yahweh cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they made.

⁹The children of Israel did secretly things that were not right against Yahweh their God: and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city;

¹⁰and they set them up pillars and Asherim on every high hill, and under every green tree;

¹¹and there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the nations whom Yahweh carried away before them; and they worked wicked things to provoke Yahweh to anger;

¹²and they served idols, whereof Yahweh had said to them, You shall not do this thing.

¹³Yet Yahweh testified to Israel, and to Judah, by every prophet, and every seer, saying, Turn you from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.

¹⁴Notwithstanding, they would not hear, but hardened their neck, like the neck of their fathers, who didn't believe in Yahweh their God.

¹⁵They rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and [went] after the nations that were round about them, concerning whom Yahweh had charged those who they should not do like them.

¹⁶They forsook all the commandments of Yahweh their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshipped all the host of the sky, and served Baal.

¹⁷They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger.

¹⁸Therefore Yahweh was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

¹⁹Also Judah didn't keep the commandments of Yahweh their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.

²⁰Yahweh rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

²¹For he tore Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drove Israel from following Yahweh, and made them sin a great sin.

²²The children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they didn't depart from them;

²³until Yahweh removed Israel out of his sight, as he spoke by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria to this day.

²⁴The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and lived in the cities of it.

²⁵So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they didn't fear Yahweh: therefore Yahweh sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

²⁶Therefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which you have carried away, and placed in the cities of Samaria, don't know the law of the god of the land: therefore he has sent lions among them, and, behold, they kill them, because they don't know the law of the god of the land.

²⁷Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from there; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the law of the god of the land.

²⁸So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear Yahweh.

²⁹However every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived.

³⁰The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,

³¹and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

³²So they feared Yahweh, and made to them from among themselves priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.

³³They feared Yahweh, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

³⁴To this day they do after the former manner: they don't fear Yahweh, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law or after the commandment which Yahweh commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;

³⁵with whom Yahweh had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:

³⁶but Yahweh, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, him shall you fear, and to him shall you bow yourselves, and to him shall you sacrifice:

³⁷and the statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do forevermore; and you shall not fear other gods:

³⁸and the covenant that I have made with you you shall not forget; neither shall you fear other gods:

³⁹but Yahweh your God shall you fear; and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.

⁴⁰However they did not listen, but they did after their former manner.

⁴¹So these nations feared Yahweh, and served their engraved images; their children likewise, and their children's children, as did their fathers, so do they to this day.

18Now it happened in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.

²He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah.

³He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that David his father had done.

⁴He removed the high places, and broke the pillars, and cut down the Asherah: and he broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for to those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan.

⁵He trusted in Yahweh, the God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor [among them] that were before him.

⁶For he joined with Yahweh; he didn't depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which Yahweh commanded Moses.

⁷Yahweh was with him; wherever he went forth he prospered: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and didn't serve him.

⁸He struck the Philistines to Gaza and the borders of it, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city.

⁹It happened in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.

¹⁰At the end of three years they took it: in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.

¹¹The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,

¹²because they didn't obey the voice of Yahweh their God, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded, and would not hear it, nor do it.

¹³Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them.

¹⁴Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which you put on me will I bear. The king of Assyria appointed to Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

¹⁵Hezekiah gave [him] all the silver that was found in the house of Yahweh, and in the treasures of the king's house.

¹⁶At that time did Hezekiah cut off [the gold from] the doors of the temple of Yahweh, and [from] the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

¹⁷The king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field.

¹⁸When they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.

¹⁹Rabshakeh said to them, Say you now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trust?

²⁰You say (but they are but vain words), [There is] counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

²¹Now, behold, you trust on the staff of this bruised reed, even on Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him.

²²But if you tell me, We trust in Yahweh our God; isn't that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?

²³Now therefore, Please give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you be able on your part to set riders on them.

²⁴How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

²⁵Am I now come up without Yahweh against this place to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.

²⁶Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebnah, and Joah, to Rabshakeh, Please speak to your servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and don't speak with us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people who are on the wall.

²⁷But Rabshakeh said to them, Has my master sent me to your master, and to you, to speak these words? Hasn't he sent me to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water with you?

²⁸Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spoke, saying, Hear you the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.

²⁹Thus says the king, Don't let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you out of his hand:

³⁰neither let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, Yahweh will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

³¹Don't listen to Hezekiah: for thus says the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and eat you everyone of his vine, and everyone of his fig-tree, and everyone drink the waters of his own cistern;

³²Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive-trees and of honey, that you may live, and not die: and don't listen to Hezekiah, when he persuades you, saying, Yahweh will deliver us.

³³Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

³⁴Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

³⁵Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

³⁶But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, saying, Don't answer him.

³⁷Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

19It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh.

²He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

³They said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

⁴It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard: why lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.

⁵So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶Isaiah said to them, Thus shall you tell your master, Thus says Yahweh, Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

⁷Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear news, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

⁸So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

⁹When he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against you, he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,

¹⁰Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

¹¹Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shall you be delivered?

¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden that were in Telassar?

¹³Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?

¹⁴Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of Yahweh, and spread it before Yahweh.

¹⁵Hezekiah prayed before Yahweh, and said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, who sit [above] the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.

¹⁶Incline your ear, Yahweh, and hear; open your eyes, Yahweh, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, with which he has sent him to defy the living God.

¹⁷Of a truth, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,

¹⁸and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.

¹⁹Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save you us, I beg you, out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you Yahweh are God alone.

²⁰Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Whereas you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard [you].

²¹This is the word that Yahweh has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

²²Whom have you defied and blasphemed? and against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? [even] against the Holy One of Israel.

²³By your messengers you have defied the Lord, and have said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars of it, and the choice fir-trees of it; and I will enter into his farthest lodging-place, the forest of his fruitful field.

²⁴I have dug and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.

²⁵Haven't you heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? now have I brought it to pass, that it should be yours to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

²⁶Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as grain blasted before it is grown up.

²⁷But I know your sitting down, and your going out, and your coming in, and your raging against me.

²⁸Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance is come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.

²⁹This shall be the sign to you: You shall eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of it.

³⁰The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

³¹For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion those who shall escape: the zeal of Yahweh shall perform this.

³²Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.

³³By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come to this city, says Yahweh.

³⁴For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

³⁵It happened that night, that the angel of Yahweh went forth, and struck in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred eighty-five thousand: and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

³⁶So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and lived at Nineveh.

³⁷It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar-haddon his son reigned in his place.

20In those days was Hezekiah sick to death. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Set your house in order: for you shall die, and not live.

²Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Yahweh, saying,

³Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight. Hezekiah wept sore.

⁴It happened, before Isaiah was gone out into the middle part of the city, that the word of Yahweh came to him, saying,

⁵Turn back, and tell Hezekiah the prince of my people, Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: behold, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of Yahweh.

⁶I will add to your days fifteen years; and I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

⁷Isaiah said, Take a cake of figs. They took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.

⁸Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What shall be the sign that Yahweh will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh the third day?

⁹Isaiah said, This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do the thing that he has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?

¹⁰Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to decline ten steps: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten steps.

¹¹Isaiah the prophet cried to Yahweh; and he brought the shadow ten steps backward, by which it had gone down on the dial of Ahaz.

¹²At that time Berodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.

¹³Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn't show them.

¹⁴Then came Isaiah the prophet to king Hezekiah, and said to him, What said these men? and from whence came they to you? Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country, even from Babylon.

¹⁵He said, What have they seen in your house? Hezekiah answered, All that is in my house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them.

¹⁶Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Yahweh.

¹⁷Behold, the days come, that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store to this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, says Yahweh.

¹⁸Of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you shall father, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

¹⁹Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of Yahweh which you have spoken. He said moreover, Isn't it so, if peace and truth shall be in my days?

²⁰Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool, and the conduit, and brought water into the city, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²¹Hezekiah slept with his fathers; and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

21Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hephzibah.

²He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, after the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.

³For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as did Ahab king of Israel, and worshipped all the host of the sky, and served them.

⁴He built altars in the house of Yahweh, whereof Yahweh said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.

⁵He built altars for all the host of the sky in the two courts of the house of Yahweh.

⁶He made his son to pass through the fire, and practiced sorcery, and used enchantments, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he worked much evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger.

⁷He set the engraved image of Asherah, that he had made, in the house of which Yahweh said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever;

⁸neither will I cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.

⁹But they didn't listen: and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is evil more than did the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel.

¹⁰Yahweh spoke by his servants the prophets, saying,

¹¹Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols;

¹²therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Behold, I bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle.

¹³I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.

¹⁴I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;

¹⁵because they have done that which is evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even to this day.

¹⁶Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

¹⁷Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

¹⁸Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his place.

¹⁹Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.

²⁰He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as did Manasseh his father.

²¹He walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:

²²and he forsook Yahweh, the God of his fathers, and didn't walk in the way of Yahweh.

²³The servants of Amon conspired against him, and put the king to death in his own house.

²⁴But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

²⁵Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁶He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his place.

22Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

²He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in all the way of David his father, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

³It happened in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of Yahweh, saying,

⁴Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the money which is brought into the house of Yahweh, which the keepers of the threshold have gathered of the people:

⁵and let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of Yahweh; and let them give it to the workmen who are in the house of Yahweh, to repair the breaches of the house,

⁶to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house.

⁷However there was no reckoning made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand; for they dealt faithfully.

⁸Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of Yahweh. Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, and he read it.

⁹Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of Yahweh.

¹⁰Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has delivered me a book. Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹It happened, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he tore his clothes.

¹²The king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,

¹³Go you, inquire of Yahweh for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that which is written concerning us.

¹⁴So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter); and they talked with her.

¹⁵She said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Tell you the man who sent you to me,

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and on the inhabitants of it, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read.

¹⁷Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it shall not be quenched.

¹⁸But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, thus shall you tell him, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: As touching the words which you have heard,

¹⁹because your heart was tender, and you did humble yourself before Yahweh, when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against the inhabitants of it, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you, says Yahweh.

²⁰Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the evil which I will bring on this place. They brought the king word again.

23The king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.

²The king went up to the house of Yahweh, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of Yahweh.

³The king stood by the pillar, and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all [his] heart, and all [his] soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book: and all the people stood to the covenant.

⁴The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring forth out of the temple of Yahweh all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of the sky, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Bethel.

⁵He put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of the sky.

⁶He brought out the Asherah from the house of Yahweh, outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast the dust of it on the graves of the common people.

⁷He broke down the houses of the sodomites, that were in the house of Yahweh, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.

⁸He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.

⁹Nevertheless the priests of the high places didn't come up to the altar of Yahweh in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.

¹⁰He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.

¹¹He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of Yahweh, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

¹²The altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Yahweh, did the king break down, and beat [them] down from there, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

¹³The high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mountain of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.

¹⁴He broke in pieces the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and filled their places with the bones of men.

¹⁵Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and beat it to dust, and burned the Asherah.

¹⁶As Josiah turned himself, he spied the tombs that were there in the mountain; and he sent, and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of Yahweh which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.

¹⁷Then he said, What monument is that which I see? The men of the city told him, It is the tomb of the man of God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel.

¹⁸He said, Let him be; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.

¹⁹All the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke [Yahweh] to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.

²⁰He killed all the priests of the high places that were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.

²¹The king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.

²²Surely there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;

²³but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah was this Passover kept to Yahweh in Jerusalem.

²⁴Moreover those who had familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Yahweh.

²⁵Like him was there no king before him, who turned to Yahweh with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.

²⁶Notwithstanding, Yahweh didn't turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocation with which Manasseh had provoked him.

²⁷Yahweh said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.

²⁸Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

²⁹In his days Pharaoh-necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and [Pharaoh-necoh] killed him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.

³⁰His servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's place.

³¹Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

³²He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had done.

³³Pharaoh-necoh put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of one hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.

³⁴Pharaoh-necoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim: but he took Jehoahaz away; and he came to Egypt, and died there.

³⁵Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of everyone according to his taxation, to give it to Pharaoh-necoh.

³⁶Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.

³⁷He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his fathers had done.

24In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him.

²Yahweh sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by his servants the prophets.

³Surely at the commandment of Yahweh came this on Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did,

⁴and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood: and Yahweh would not pardon.

⁵Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

⁶So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers; and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

⁷The king of Egypt didn't come again out of his land any more; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt.

⁸Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned in Jerusalem three months: and his mother's name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.

⁹He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that his father had done.

¹⁰At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.

¹¹Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city, while his servants were besieging it;

¹²and Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign.

¹³He carried out there all the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold, which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of Yahweh, as Yahweh had said.

¹⁴He carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valor, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths; none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land.

¹⁵He carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon; and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the chief men of the land, carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.

¹⁶All the men of might, even seven thousand, and the craftsmen and the smiths one thousand, all of them strong and apt for war, even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.

¹⁷The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, [Jehoiachin's] father's brother, king is his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.

¹⁸Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

¹⁹He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

²⁰For through the anger of Yahweh did it happen in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

25It happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about.

²So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

³On the ninth day of the [fourth] month the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

⁴Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war [fled] by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city round about); and [the king] went by the way of the Arabah.

⁵But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

⁶Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment on him.

⁷They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

⁸Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, to Jerusalem.

⁹He burnt the house of Yahweh, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burnt he with fire.

¹⁰All the army of the Chaldeans, who were [with] the captain of the guard, broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about.

¹¹The residue of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away captive.

¹²But the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

¹³The pillars of brass that were in the house of Yahweh, and the bases and the brazen sea that were in the house of Yahweh, did the Chaldeans break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon.

¹⁴The pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered, took they away.

¹⁵The fire pans, and the basins, that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver, the captain of the guard took away.

¹⁶The two pillars, the one sea, and the bases, which Solomon had made for the house of Yahweh, the brass of all these vessels was without weight.

¹⁷The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a capital of brass was on it; and the height of the capital was three cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital round about, all of brass: and like to these had the second pillar with network.

¹⁸The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold:

¹⁹and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and five men of those who saw the king's face, who were found in the city; and the scribe, the captain of the host, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the city.

²⁰Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.

²¹The king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.

²²As for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor.

²³Now when all the captains of the forces, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.

²⁴Gedaliah swore to them and to their men, and said to them, Don't be afraid because of the servants of the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.

²⁵But it happened in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal seed came, and ten men with him, and struck Gedaliah, so that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldeans that were with him at Mizpah.

²⁶All the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces, arose, and came to Egypt; for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.

²⁷It happened in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, did lift up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison;

²⁸and he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon,

²⁹and changed his prison garments. [Jehoiachin] ate bread before him continually all the days of his life:

³⁰and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him of the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life.

1Adam, Seth, Enosh,

²Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared,

³Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech,

⁴Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

⁵The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.

⁶The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, and Diphath, and Togarmah.

⁷The sons of Javan: Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim.

⁸The sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.

⁹The sons of Cush: Seba, and Havilah, and Sabta, and Raama, and Sabteca. The sons of Raamah: Sheba, and Dedan.

¹⁰Cush became the father of Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

¹¹Mizraim became the father of Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,

¹²and Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whence came the Philistines), and Caphtorim.

¹³Canaan became the father of Sidon his firstborn, and Heth,

¹⁴and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite,

¹⁵and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,

¹⁶and the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite.

¹⁷The sons of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arpachshad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech.

¹⁸Arpachshad became the father of Shelah, and Shelah became the father of Eber.

¹⁹To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.

²⁰Joktan became the father of Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah,

²¹and Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah,

²²and Ebal, and Abimael, and Sheba,

²³and Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.

²⁴Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah,

²⁵Eber, Peleg, Reu,

²⁶Serug, Nahor, Terah,

²⁷Abram (the same is Abraham).

²⁸The sons of Abraham: Isaac, and Ishmael.

²⁹These are their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth; then Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam,

³⁰Mishma, and Dumah, Massa, Hadad, and Tema,

³¹Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael.

³²The sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine: she bore Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. The sons of Jokshan: Sheba, and Dedan.

³³The sons of Midian: Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah.

³⁴Abraham became the father of Isaac. The sons of Isaac: Esau, and Israel.

³⁵The sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Reuel, and Jeush, and Jalam, and Korah.

³⁶The sons of Eliphaz: Teman, and Omar, Zephi, and Gatam, Kenaz, and Timna, and Amalek.

³⁷The sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.

³⁸The sons of Seir: Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah, and Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan.

³⁹The sons of Lotan: Hori, and Homam; and Timna was Lotan's sister.

⁴⁰The sons of Shobal: Alian, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shephi, and Onam. The sons of Zibeon: Aiah, and Anah.

⁴¹The sons of Anah: Dishon. The sons of Dishon: Hamran, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Cheran.

⁴²The sons of Ezer: Bilhan, and Zaavan, Jaakan. The sons of Dishan: Uz, and Aran.

⁴³Now these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before there resigned any king over the children of Israel: Bela the son of Beor; and the name of his city was Dinhabah.

⁴⁴Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his place.

⁴⁵Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his place.

⁴⁶Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad, who struck Midian in the field of Moab, reigned in his place; and the name of his city was Avith.

⁴⁷Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his place.

⁴⁸Samlah died, and Shaul of Rehoboth by the River reigned in his place.

⁴⁹Shaul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his place.

⁵⁰Baal-hanan died, and Hadad reigned in his place; and the name of his city was Pai: and his wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-zahab.

⁵¹Hadad died. The chiefs of Edom were: chief Timna, chief Aliah, chief Jetheth,

⁵²chief Oholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon,

⁵³chief Kenaz, chief Teman, chief Mibzar,

⁵⁴chief Magdiel, chief Iram. These are the chiefs of Edom.

2These are the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun,

²Dan, Joseph, and Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

³The sons of Judah: Er, and Onan, and Shelah; which three were born to him of Shua's daughter the Canaanitess. Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of Yahweh; and he killed him.

⁴Tamar his daughter-in-law bore him Perez and Zerah. All the sons of Judah were five.

⁵The sons of Perez: Hezron, and Hamul.

⁶The sons of Zerah: Zimri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Calcol, and Dara; five of them in all.

⁷The sons of Carmi: Achar, the troubler of Israel, who committed a trespass in the devoted thing.

⁸The sons of Ethan: Azariah.

⁹The sons also of Hezron, who were born to him: Jerahmeel, and Ram, and Chelubai.

¹⁰Ram became the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, prince of the children of Judah;

¹¹and Nahshon became the father of Salma, and Salma became the father of Boaz,

¹²and Boaz became the father of Obed, and Obed became the father of Jesse;

¹³and Jesse became the father of his firstborn Eliab, and Abinadab the second, and Shimea the third,

¹⁴Nethanel the fourth, Raddai the fifth,

¹⁵Ozem the sixth, David the seventh;

¹⁶and their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. The sons of Zeruiah: Abishai, and Joab, and Asahel, three.

¹⁷Abigail bore Amasa; and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite.

¹⁸Caleb the son of Hezron became the father of [children] of Azubah [his] wife, and of Jerioth; and these were her sons: Jesher, and Shobab, and Ardon.

¹⁹Azubah died, and Caleb took to him Ephrath, who bore him Hur.

²⁰Hur became the father of Uri, and Uri became the father of Bezalel.

²¹Afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir the father of Gilead, whom he took [as wife] when he was sixty years old; and she bore him Segub.

²²Segub became the father of Jair, who had twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead.

²³Geshur and Aram took the towns of Jair from them, with Kenath, and the villages of it, even sixty cities. All these were the sons of Machir the father of Gilead.

²⁴After that Hezron was dead in Caleb-ephrathah, then Abijah Hezron's wife bore him Ashhur the father of Tekoa.

²⁵The sons of Jerahmeel the firstborn of Hezron were Ram the firstborn, and Bunah, and Oren, and Ozem, Ahijah.

²⁶Jerahmeel had another wife, whose name was Atarah; she was the mother of Onam.

²⁷The sons of Ram the firstborn of Jerahmeel were Maaz, and Jamin, and Eker.

²⁸The sons of Onam were Shammai, and Jada. The sons of Shammai: Nadab, and Abishur.

²⁹The name of the wife of Abishur was Abihail; and she bore him Ahban, and Molid.

³⁰The sons of Nadab: Seled, and Appaim; but Seled died without children.

³¹The sons of Appaim: Ishi. The sons of Ishi: Sheshan. The sons of Sheshan: Ahlai.

³²The sons of Jada the brother of Shammai: Jether, and Jonathan; and Jether died without children.

³³The sons of Jonathan: Peleth, and Zaza. These were the sons of Jerahmeel.

³⁴Now Sheshan had no sons, but daughters. Sheshan had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Jarha.

³⁵Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his servant as wife; and she bore him Attai.

³⁶Attai became the father of Nathan, and Nathan became the father of Zabad,

³⁷and Zabad became the father of Ephlal, and Ephlal became the father of Obed,

³⁸and Obed became the father of Jehu, and Jehu became the father of Azariah,

³⁹and Azariah became the father of Helez, and Helez became the father of Eleasah,

⁴⁰and Eleasah became the father of Sismai, and Sismai became the father of Shallum,

⁴¹and Shallum became the father of Jekamiah, and Jekamiah became the father of Elishama.

⁴²The sons of Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel were Mesha his firstborn, who was the father of Ziph; and the sons of Mareshah the father of Hebron.

⁴³The sons of Hebron: Korah, and Tappuah, and Rekem, and Shema.

⁴⁴Shema became the father of Raham, the father of Jorkeam; and Rekem became the father of Shammai.

⁴⁵The son of Shammai was Maon; and Maon was the father of Beth-zur.

⁴⁶Ephah, Caleb's concubine, bore Haran, and Moza, and Gazez; and Haran became the father of Gazez.

⁴⁷The sons of Jahdai: Regem, and Jothan, and Geshan, and Pelet, and Ephah, and Shaaph.

⁴⁸Maacah, Caleb's concubine, bore Sheber and Tirhanah.

⁴⁹She bore also Shaaph the father of Madmannah, Sheva the father of Machbena, and the father of Gibea; and the daughter of Caleb was Achsah.

⁵⁰These were the sons of Caleb, the son of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah: Shobal the father of Kiriath-jearim,

⁵¹Salma the father of Beth-lehem, Hareph the father of Beth-gader.

⁵²Shobal the father of Kiriath-jearim had sons: Haroeh, half of the Menuhoth.

⁵³The families of Kiriath-jearim: The Ithrites, and the Puthites, and the Shumathites, and the Mishraites; of them came the Zorathites and the Eshtaolites.

⁵⁴The sons of Salma: Beth-lehem, and the Netophathites, Atroth-beth-joab, and half of the Manahathites, the Zorites.

⁵⁵The families of scribes who lived at Jabez: the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, the Sucathites. These are the Kenites who came of Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.

3Now these were the sons of David, who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn, Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; the second, Daniel, of Abigail the Carmelitess;

²the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith;

³the fifth, Shephatiah of Abital; the sixth, Ithream by Eglah his wife:

⁴six were born to him in Hebron; and there he reigned seven years and six months. In Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years;

⁵and these were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, four, of Bath-shua the daughter of Ammiel;

⁶and Ibhar, and Elishama, and Eliphelet,

⁷and Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japhia,

⁸and Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphelet, nine.

⁹All these were the sons of David, besides the sons of the concubines; and Tamar was their sister.

¹⁰Solomon's son was Rehoboam, Abijah his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son,

¹¹Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son,

¹²Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son,

¹³Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son,

¹⁴Amon his son, Josiah his son.

¹⁵The sons of Josiah: the firstborn Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum.

¹⁶The sons of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son.

¹⁷The sons of Jeconiah, the captive: Shealtiel his son,

¹⁸and Malchiram, and Pedaiah, and Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah.

¹⁹The sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel, and Shimei. The sons of Zerubbabel: Meshullam, and Hananiah; and Shelomith was their sister;

²⁰and Hashubah, and Ohel, and Berechiah, and Hasadiah, Jushab-hesed, five.

²¹The sons of Hananiah: Pelatiah, and Jeshaiah; the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, the sons of Shecaniah.

²²The sons of Shecaniah: Shemaiah. The sons of Shemaiah: Hattush, and Igal, and Bariah, and Neariah, and Shaphat, six.

²³The sons of Neariah: Elioenai, and Hizkiah, and Azrikam, three.

²⁴The sons of Elioenai: Hodaviah, and Eliashib, and Pelaiah, and Akkub, and Johanan, and Delaiah, and Anani, seven.

4The sons of Judah: Perez, Hezron, and Carmi, and Hur, and Shobal.

²Reaiah the son of Shobal became the father of Jahath; and Jahath became the father of Ahumai and Lahad. These are the families of the Zorathites.

³These were [the sons of] the father of Etam: Jezreel, and Ishma, and Idbash; and the name of their sister was Hazzelelponi;

⁴and Penuel the father of Gedor, and Ezer the father of Hushah. These are the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah, the father of Beth-lehem.

⁵Ashhur the father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah.

⁶Naarah bore him Ahuzzam, and Hepher, and Temeni, and Haahashtari. These were the sons of Naarah.

⁷The sons of Helah were Zereth, Izhar, and Ethnan.

⁸Hakkoz became the father of Anub, and Zobebah, and the families of Aharhel the son of Harum.

⁹Jabez was more honorable than his brothers: and his mother named him Jabez, saying, Because I bore him with sorrow.

¹⁰Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that it not be to my sorrow! God granted him that which he requested.

¹¹Chelub the brother of Shuhah became the father of Mehir, who was the father of Eshton.

¹²Eshton became the father of Beth-rapha, and Paseah, and Tehinnah the father of Ir-nahash. These are the men of Recah.

¹³The sons of Kenaz: Othniel, and Seraiah. The sons of Othniel: Hathath.

¹⁴Meonothai became the father of Ophrah: and Seraiah became the father of Joab the father of Ge-harashim; for they were craftsmen.

¹⁵The sons of Caleb the son of Jephunneh: Iru, Elah, and Naam; and the sons of Elah; and Kenaz.

¹⁶The sons of Jehallelel: Ziph, and Ziphah, Tiria, and Asarel.

¹⁷The sons of Ezrah: Jether, and Mered, and Epher, and Jalon; and she bore Miriam, and Shammai, and Ishbah the father of Eshtemoa.

¹⁸His wife the Jewess bore Jered the father of Gedor, and Heber the father of Soco, and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah. These are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered took.

¹⁹The sons of the wife of Hodiah, the sister of Naham, were the father of Keilah the Garmite, and Eshtemoa the Maacathite.

²⁰The sons of Shimon: Amnon, and Rinnah, Ben-hanan, and Tilon. The sons of Ishi: Zoheth, and Ben-zoheth.

²¹The sons of Shelah the son of Judah: Er the father of Lecah, and Laadah the father of Mareshah, and the families of the house of those who worked fine linen, of the house of Ashbea;

²²and Jokim, and the men of Cozeba, and Joash, and Saraph, who had dominion in Moab, and Jashubilehem. The records are ancient.

²³These were the potters, and the inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah: there they lived with the king for his work.

²⁴The sons of Simeon: Nemuel, and Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, Shaul;

²⁵Shallum his son, Mibsam his son, Mishma his son.

²⁶The sons of Mishma: Hammuel his son, Zaccur his son, Shimei his son.

²⁷Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters; but his brothers didn't have many children, neither did all their family multiply like the children of Judah.

²⁸They lived at Beersheba, and Moladah, and Hazarshual,

²⁹and at Bilhah, and at Ezem, and at Tolad,

³⁰and at Bethuel, and at Hormah, and at Ziklag,

³¹and at Beth-marcaboth, and Hazar-susim, and at Beth-biri, and at Shaaraim. These were their cities to the reign of David.

³²Their villages were Etam, and Ain, Rimmon, and Tochen, and Ashan, five cities;

³³and all their villages that were round about the same cities, to Baal. These were their habitations, and they have their genealogy.

³⁴Meshobab, and Jamlech, and Joshah the son of Amaziah,

³⁵and Joel, and Jehu the son of Joshibiah, the son of Seraiah, the son of Asiel,

³⁶and Elioenai, and Jaakobah, and Jeshohaiah, and Asaiah, and Adiel, and Jesimiel, and Benaiah,

³⁷and Ziza the son of Shiphi, the son of Allon, the son of Jedaiah, the son of Shimri, the son of Shemaiah-

³⁸these mentioned by name were princes in their families: and their fathers' houses increased greatly.

³⁹They went to the entrance of Gedor, even to the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks.

⁴⁰They found fat pasture and good, and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceable; for those who lived there before were of Ham.

⁴¹These written by name came in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and struck their tents, and the Meunim who were found there, and destroyed them utterly to this day, and lived in their place; because there was pasture there for their flocks.

⁴²Some of them, even of the sons of Simeon, five hundred men, went to Mount Seir, having for their captains Pelatiah, and Neariah, and Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi.

⁴³They struck the remnant of the Amalekites who escaped, and have lived there to this day.

5The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn; but, because he defiled his father's couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel; and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.

²For Judah prevailed above his brothers, and of him came the prince; but the birthright was Joseph's:)

³the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

⁴The sons of Joel: Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son,

⁵Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son,

⁶Beerah his son, whom Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria carried away captive: he was prince of the Reubenites.

⁷His brothers by their families, when the genealogy of their generations was reckoned: the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah,

⁸and Bela the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel, who lived in Aroer, even to Nebo and Baal-meon:

⁹and eastward he lived even to the entrance of the wilderness from the river Euphrates, because their cattle were multiplied in the land of Gilead.

¹⁰In the days of Saul, they made war with the Hagrites, who fell by their hand; and they lived in their tents throughout all the [land] east of Gilead.

¹¹The sons of Gad lived over against them, in the land of Bashan to Salecah:

¹²Joel the chief, and Shapham the second, and Janai, and Shaphat in Bashan.

¹³Their brothers of their fathers' houses: Michael, and Meshullam, and Sheba, and Jorai, and Jacan, and Zia, and Eber, seven.

¹⁴These were the sons of Abihail, the son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz;

¹⁵Ahi the son of Abdiel, the son of Guni, chief of their fathers' houses.

¹⁶They lived in Gilead in Bashan, and in its towns, and in all the suburbs of Sharon, as far as their borders.

¹⁷All these were reckoned by genealogies in the days of Jotham king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel.

¹⁸The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword, and to shoot with bow, and skillful in war, were forty-four thousand seven hundred and sixty, that were able to go forth to war.

¹⁹They made war with the Hagrites, with Jetur, and Naphish, and Nodab.

²⁰They were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them; for they cried to God in the battle, and he was entreated of them, because they put their trust in him.

²¹They took away their cattle; of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred fifty thousand, and of donkeys two thousand, and of men one hundred thousand.

²²For there fell many slain, because the war was of God. They lived in their place until the captivity.

²³The children of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land: they increased from Bashan to Baal-hermon and Senir and Mount Hermon.

²⁴These were the heads of their fathers' houses: even Epher, and Ishi, and Eliel, and Azriel, and Jeremiah, and Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty men of valor, famous men, heads of their fathers' houses.

²⁵They trespassed against the God of their fathers, and played the prostitute after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God destroyed before them.

²⁶The God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river of Gozan, to this day.

6The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

²The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel.

³The children of Amram: Aaron, and Moses, and Miriam. The sons of Aaron: Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

⁴Eleazar became the father of Phinehas, Phinehas became the father of Abishua,

⁵and Abishua became the father of Bukki, and Bukki became the father of Uzzi,

⁶and Uzzi became the father of Zerahiah, and Zerahiah became the father of Meraioth,

⁷Meraioth became the father of Amariah, and Amariah became the father of Ahitub,

⁸and Ahitub became the father of Zadok, and Zadok became the father of Ahimaaz,

⁹and Ahimaaz became the father of Azariah, and Azariah became the father of Johanan,

¹⁰and Johanan became the father of Azariah, (he it is who executed the priest's office in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem),

¹¹and Azariah became the father of Amariah, and Amariah became the father of Ahitub,

¹²and Ahitub became the father of Zadok, and Zadok became the father of Shallum,

¹³and Shallum became the father of Hilkiah, and Hilkiah became the father of Azariah,

¹⁴and Azariah became the father of Seraiah, and Seraiah became the father of Jehozadak;

¹⁵Jehozadak went [into captivity], when Yahweh carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

¹⁶The sons of Levi: Gershom, Kohath, and Merari.

¹⁷These are the names of the sons of Gershom: Libni and Shimei.

¹⁸The sons of Kohath were Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel.

¹⁹The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites according to their fathers' [houses].

²⁰Of Gershom: Libni his son, Jahath his son, Zimmah his son,

²¹Joah his son, Iddo his son, Zerah his son, Jeatherai his son.

²²The sons of Kohath: Amminadab his son, Korah his son, Assir his son,

²³Elkanah his son, and Ebiasaph his son, and Assir his son,

²⁴Tahath his son, Uriel his son, Uzziah his son, and Shaul his son.

²⁵The sons of Elkanah: Amasai, and Ahimoth.

²⁶As for Elkanah, the sons of Elkanah: Zophai his son, and Nahath his son,

²⁷Eliab his son, Jeroham his son, Elkanah his son.

²⁸The sons of Samuel: the firstborn [Joel], and the second Abijah.

²⁹The sons of Merari: Mahli, Libni his son, Shimei his son, Uzzah his son,

³⁰Shimea his son, Haggiah his son, Asaiah his son.

³¹These are they whom David set over the service of song in the house of Yahweh, after that the ark had rest.

³²They ministered with song before the tent of the tent of meeting, until Solomon had built the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem: and they waited on their office according to their order.

³³These are those who waited, and their sons. Of the sons of the Kohathites: Heman the singer, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel,

³⁴the son of Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Eliel, the son of Toah,

³⁵the son of Zuph, the son of Elkanah, the son of Mahath, the son of Amasai,

³⁶the son of Elkanah, the son of Joel, the son of Azariah, the son of Zephaniah,

³⁷the son of Tahath, the son of Assir, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah,

³⁸the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel.

³⁹His brother Asaph, who stood on his right hand, even Asaph the son of Berechiah, the son of Shimea,

⁴⁰the son of Michael, the son of Baaseiah, the son of Malchijah,

⁴¹the son of Ethni, the son of Zerah, the son of Adaiah,

⁴²the son of Ethan, the son of Zimmah, the son of Shimei,

⁴³the son of Jahath, the son of Gershom, the son of Levi.

⁴⁴On the left hand their brothers the sons of Merari: Ethan the son of Kishi, the son of Abdi, the son of Malluch,

⁴⁵the son of Hashabiah, the son of Amaziah, the son of Hilkiah,

⁴⁶the son of Amzi, the son of Bani, the son of Shemer,

⁴⁷the son of Mahli, the son of Mushi, the son of Merari, the son of Levi.

⁴⁸Their brothers the Levites were appointed for all the service of the tent of the house of God.

⁴⁹But Aaron and his sons offered on the altar of burnt offering, and on the altar of incense, for all the work of the most holy place, and to make atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded.

⁵⁰These are the sons of Aaron: Eleazar his son, Phinehas his son, Abishua his son,

⁵¹Bukki his son, Uzzi his son, Zerahiah his son,

⁵²Meraioth his son, Amariah his son, Ahitub his son,

⁵³Zadok his son, Ahimaaz his son.

⁵⁴Now these are their dwelling-places according to their encampments in their borders: to the sons of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites (for theirs was the [first] lot),

⁵⁵to them they gave Hebron in the land of Judah, and the suburbs of it round about it;

⁵⁶but the fields of the city, and the villages of it, they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

⁵⁷To the sons of Aaron they gave the cities of refuge, Hebron; Libnah also with its suburbs, and Jattir, and Eshtemoa with its suburbs,

⁵⁸and Hilen with its suburbs, Debir with its suburbs,

⁵⁹and Ashan with its suburbs, and Beth-shemesh with its suburbs;

⁶⁰and out of the tribe of Benjamin, Geba with its suburbs, and Allemeth with its suburbs, and Anathoth with its suburbs. All their cities throughout their families were thirteen cities.

⁶¹To the rest of the sons of Kohath [were given] by lot, out of the family of the tribe, out of the half-tribe, the half of Manasseh, ten cities.

⁶²To the sons of Gershom, according to their families, out of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.

⁶³To the sons of Merari [were given] by lot, according to their families, out of the tribe of Reuben, and out of the tribe of Gad, and out of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve cities.

⁶⁴The children of Israel gave to the Levites the cities with their suburbs.

⁶⁵They gave by lot out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, and out of the tribe of the children of Benjamin, these cities which are mentioned by name.

⁶⁶Some of the families of the sons of Kohath had cities of their borders out of the tribe of Ephraim.

⁶⁷They gave to them the cities of refuge, Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim with its suburbs; Gezer also with its suburbs,

⁶⁸and Jokmeam with its suburbs, and Beth-horon with its suburbs,

⁶⁹and Aijalon with its suburbs, and Gath-rimmon with its suburbs;

⁷⁰and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Aner with its suburbs, and Bileam with its suburbs, for the rest of the family of the sons of Kohath.

⁷¹To the sons of Gershom [were given], out of the family of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan with its suburbs, and Ashtaroth with its suburbs;

⁷²and out of the tribe of Issachar, Kedesh with its suburbs, Daberath with its suburbs,

⁷³and Ramoth with its suburbs, and Anem with its suburbs;

⁷⁴and out of the tribe of Asher, Mashal with its suburbs, and Abdon with its suburbs,

⁷⁵and Hukok with its suburbs, and Rehob with its suburbs;

⁷⁶and out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with its suburbs, and Hammon with its suburbs, and Kiriathaim with its suburbs.

⁷⁷To the rest of [the Levites], the sons of Merari, [were given], out of the tribe of Zebulun, Rimmono with its suburbs, Tabor with its suburbs;

⁷⁸and beyond the Jordan at Jericho, on the east side of the Jordan, [were given them], out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer in the wilderness with its suburbs, and Jahzah with its suburbs,

⁷⁹and Kedemoth with its suburbs, and Mephaath with its suburbs;

⁸⁰and out of the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with its suburbs, and Mahanaim with its suburbs,

⁸¹and Heshbon with its suburbs, and Jazer with its suburbs.

7Of the sons of Issachar: Tola, and Puah, Jashub, and Shimron, four.

²The sons of Tola: Uzzi, and Rephaiah, and Jeriel, and Jahmai, and Ibsam, and Shemuel, heads of their fathers' houses, [to wit], of Tola; mighty men of valor in their generations: their number in the days of David was twenty-two thousand six hundred.

³The sons of Uzzi: Izrahiah. The sons of Izrahiah: Michael, and Obadiah, and Joel, Isshiah, five; all of them chief men.

⁴With them, by their generations, after their fathers' houses, were bands of the host for war, thirty-six thousand; for they had many wives and sons.

⁵Their brothers among all the families of Issachar, mighty men of valor, reckoned in all by genealogy, were eighty-seven thousand.

⁶[The sons of] Benjamin: Bela, and Becher, and Jediael, three.

⁷The sons of Bela: Ezbon, and Uzzi, and Uzziel, and Jerimoth, and Iri, five; heads of fathers' houses, mighty men of valor; and they were reckoned by genealogy twenty-two thousand thirty-four.

⁸The sons of Becher: Zemirah, and Joash, and Eliezer, and Elioenai, and Omri, and Jeremoth, and Abijah, and Anathoth, and Alemeth. All these were the sons of Becher.

⁹They were reckoned by genealogy, after their generations, heads of their fathers' houses, mighty men of valor, twenty thousand two hundred.

¹⁰The sons of Jediael: Bilhan. The sons of Bilhan: Jeush, and Benjamin, and Ehud, and Chenaanah, and Zethan, and Tarshish, and Ahishahar.

¹¹All these were sons of Jediael, according to the heads of their fathers' [houses], mighty men of valor, seventeen thousand and two hundred, who were able to go forth in the host for war.

¹²Shuppim also, and Huppim, the sons of Ir, Hushim, the sons of Aher.

¹³The sons of Naphtali: Jahziel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shallum, the sons of Bilhah.

¹⁴The sons of Manasseh: Asriel, whom his concubine the Aramitess bore: she bore Machir the father of Gilead:

¹⁵and Machir took a wife of Huppim and Shuppim, whose sister's name was Maacah; and the name of the second was Zelophehad: and Zelophehad had daughters.

¹⁶Maacah the wife of Machir bore a son, and she named him Peresh; and the name of his brother was Sheresh; and his sons were Ulam and Rakem.

¹⁷The sons of Ulam: Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh.

¹⁸His sister Hammolecheth bore Ishhod, and Abiezer, and Mahlah.

¹⁹The sons of Shemida were Ahian, and Shechem, and Likhi, and Aniam.

²⁰The sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, and Bered his son, and Tahath his son, and Eleadah his son, and Tahath his son,

²¹and Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Ezer, and Elead, whom the men of Gath who were born in the land killed, because they came down to take away their cattle.

²²Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him.

²³He went in to his wife, and she conceived, and bore a son, and he named him Beriah, because it went evil with his house.

²⁴His daughter was Sheerah, who built Beth-horon the nether and the upper, and Uzzen-sheerah.

²⁵Rephah was his son, and Resheph, and Telah his son, and Tahan his son,

²⁶Ladan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son,

²⁷Nun his son, Joshua his son.

²⁸Their possessions and habitations were Bethel and the towns of it, and eastward Naaran, and westward Gezer, with the towns of it; Shechem also and the towns of it, to Azzah and the towns of it;

²⁹and by the borders of the children of Manasseh, Beth-shean and its towns, Taanach and its towns, Megiddo and its towns, Dor and its towns. In these lived the children of Joseph the son of Israel.

³⁰The sons of Asher: Imnah, and Ishvah, and Ishvi, and Beriah, and Serah their sister.

³¹The sons of Beriah: Heber, and Malchiel, who was the father of Birzaith.

³²Heber became the father of Japhlet, and Shomer, and Hotham, and Shua their sister.

³³The sons of Japhlet: Pasach, and Bimhal, and Ashvath. These are the children of Japhlet.

³⁴The sons of Shemer: Ahi, and Rohgah, Jehubbah, and Aram.

³⁵The sons of Helem his brother: Zophah, and Imna, and Shelesh, and Amal.

³⁶The sons of Zophah: Suah, and Harnepher, and Shual, and Beri, and Imrah,

³⁷Bezer, and Hod, and Shamma, and Shilshah, and Ithran, and Beera.

³⁸The sons of Jether: Jephunneh, and Pispa, and Ara.

³⁹The sons of Ulla: Arah, and Hanniel, and Rizia.

⁴⁰All these were the children of Asher, heads of the fathers' houses, choice and mighty men of valor, chief of the princes. The number of them reckoned by genealogy for service in war was twenty-six thousand men.

8Benjamin became the father of Bela his firstborn, Ashbel the second, and Aharah the third,

²Nohah the fourth, and Rapha the fifth.

³Bela had sons: Addar, and Gera, and Abihud,

⁴and Abishua, and Naaman, and Ahoah,

⁵and Gera, and Shephuphan, and Huram.

⁶These are the sons of Ehud: these are the heads of fathers' [houses] of the inhabitants of Geba, and they carried them captive to Manahath:

⁷and Naaman, and Ahijah, and Gera, he carried them captive: and he became the father of Uzza and Ahihud.

⁸Shaharaim became the father of children in the field of Moab, after he had sent them away; Hushim and Baara were his wives.

⁹He became the father of Hodesh his wife, Jobab, and Zibia, and Mesha, and Malcam,

¹⁰and Jeuz, and Shachia, and Mirmah. These were his sons, heads of fathers' [houses].

¹¹Of Hushim he became the father of Abitub and Elpaal.

¹²The sons of Elpaal: Eber, and Misham, and Shemed, who built Ono and Lod, with the towns of it;

¹³and Beriah, and Shema, who were heads of fathers' [houses] of the inhabitants of Aijalon, who put to flight the inhabitants of Gath;

¹⁴and Ahio, Shashak, and Jeremoth,

¹⁵and Zebadiah, and Arad, and Eder,

¹⁶and Michael, and Ishpah, and Joha, the sons of Beriah,

¹⁷and Zebadiah, and Meshullam, and Hizki, and Heber,

¹⁸and Ishmerai, and Izliah, and Jobab, the sons of Elpaal,

¹⁹and Jakim, and Zichri, and Zabdi,

²⁰and Elienai, and Zillethai, and Eliel,

²¹and Adaiah, and Beraiah, and Shimrath, the sons of Shimei,

²²and Ishpan, and Eber, and Eliel,

²³and Abdon, and Zichri, and Hanan,

²⁴and Hananiah, and Elam, and Anthothijah,

²⁵and Iphdeiah, and Penuel, the sons of Shashak,

²⁶and Shamsherai, and Shehariah, and Athaliah,

²⁷and Jaareshiah, and Elijah, and Zichri, the sons of Jeroham.

²⁸These were heads of fathers' [houses] throughout their generations, chief men: these lived in Jerusalem.

²⁹In Gibeon there lived the father of Gibeon, [Jeiel], whose wife's name was Maacah;

³⁰and his firstborn son Abdon, and Zur, and Kish, and Baal, and Nadab,

³¹and Gedor, and Ahio, and Zecher.

³²Mikloth became the father of Shimeah. They also lived with their brothers in Jerusalem, over against their brothers.

³³Ner became the father of Kish; and Kish became the father of Saul; and Saul became the father of Jonathan, and Malchi-shua, and Abinadab, and Eshbaal.

³⁴The son of Jonathan was Merib-baal; and Merib-baal became the father of Micah.

³⁵The sons of Micah: Pithon, and Melech, and Tarea, and Ahaz.

³⁶Ahaz became the father of Jehoaddah; and Jehoaddah became the father of Alemeth, and Azmaveth, and Zimri; and Zimri became the father of Moza.

³⁷Moza became the father of Binea; Raphah was his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son.

³⁸Azel had six sons, whose names are these: Azrikam, Bocheru, and Ishmael, and Sheariah, and Obadiah, and Hanan. All these were the sons of Azel.

³⁹The sons of Eshek his brother: Ulam his firstborn, Jeush the second, and Eliphelet the third.

⁴⁰The sons of Ulam were mighty men of valor, archers, and had many sons, and sons' sons, one hundred fifty. All these were of the sons of Benjamin.

9So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies; and, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel: and Judah was carried away captive to Babylon for their disobedience.

²Now the first inhabitants who lived in their possessions in their cities were Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the Nethinim.

³In Jerusalem lived of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh:

⁴Uthai the son of Ammihud, the son of Omri, the son of Imri, the son of Bani, of the children of Perez the son of Judah.

⁵Of the Shilonites: Asaiah the firstborn, and his sons.

⁶Of the sons of Zerah: Jeuel, and their brothers, six hundred ninety.

⁷Of the sons of Benjamin: Sallu the son of Meshullam, the son of Hodaviah, the son of Hassenuah,

⁸and Ibneiah the son of Jeroham, and Elah the son of Uzzi, the son of Michri, and Meshullam the son of Shephatiah, the son of Reuel, the son of Ibnijah;

⁹and their brothers, according to their generations, nine hundred fifty-six. All these men were heads of fathers' [houses] by their fathers' houses.

¹⁰Of the priests: Jedaiah, and Jehoiarib, Jachin,

¹¹and Azariah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God;

¹²and Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malchijah, and Maasai the son of Adiel, the son of Jahzerah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Meshillemith, the son of Immer;

¹³and their brothers, heads of their fathers' houses, one thousand seven hundred sixty; very able men for the work of the service of the house of God.

¹⁴Of the Levites: Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, of the sons of Merari;

¹⁵and Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal, and Mattaniah the son of Mica, the son of Zichri, the son of Asaph,

¹⁶and Obadiah the son of Shemaiah, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun, and Berechiah the son of Asa, the son of Elkanah, who lived in the villages of the Netophathites.

¹⁷The porters: Shallum, and Akkub, and Talmon, and Ahiman, and their brothers (Shallum was the chief),

¹⁸who hitherto [waited] in the king's gate eastward: they were the porters for the camp of the children of Levi.

¹⁹Shallum the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brothers, of his father's house, the Korahites, were over the work of the service, keepers of the thresholds of the tent: and their fathers had been over the camp of Yahweh, keepers of the entry.

²⁰Phinehas the son of Eleazar was ruler over them in time past, [and] Yahweh was with him.

²¹Zechariah the son of Meshelemiah was porter of the door of the tent of meeting.

²²All these who were chosen to be porters in the thresholds were two hundred and twelve. These were reckoned by genealogy in their villages, whom David and Samuel the seer did ordain in their office of trust.

²³So they and their children had the oversight of the gates of the house of Yahweh, even the house of the tent, by wards.

²⁴On the four sides were the porters, toward the east, west, north, and south.

²⁵Their brothers, in their villages, were to come in every seven days from time to time to be with them:

²⁶for the four chief porters, who were Levites, were in an office of trust, and were over the chambers and over the treasuries in the house of God.

²⁷They lodged round about the house of God, because the charge [of it] was on them; and to them pertained the opening of it morning by morning.

²⁸Certain of them had charge of the vessels of service; for by count were these brought in and by count were these taken out.

²⁹Some of them also were appointed over the furniture, and over all the vessels of the sanctuary, and over the fine flour, and the wine, and the oil, and the frankincense, and the spices.

³⁰Some of the sons of the priests prepared the confection of the spices.

³¹Mattithiah, one of the Levites, who was the firstborn of Shallum the Korahite, had the office of trust over the things that were baked in pans.

³²Some of their brothers, of the sons of the Kohathites, were over the show bread, to prepare it every Sabbath.

³³These are the singers, heads of fathers' [houses] of the Levites, [who lived] in the chambers [and were] free [from other service]; for they were employed in their work day and night.

³⁴These were heads of fathers' [houses] of the Levites, throughout their generations, chief men: these lived at Jerusalem.

³⁵In Gibeon there lived the father of Gibeon, Jeiel, whose wife's name was Maacah:

³⁶and his firstborn son Abdon, and Zur, and Kish, and Baal, and Ner, and Nadab,

³⁷and Gedor, and Ahio, and Zechariah, and Mikloth.

³⁸Mikloth became the father of Shimeam. They also lived with their brothers in Jerusalem, over against their brothers.

³⁹Ner became the father of Kish; and Kish became the father of Saul; and Saul became the father of Jonathan, and Malchishua, and Abinadab, and Eshbaal.

⁴⁰The son of Jonathan was Merib-baal; and Merib-baal became the father of Micah.

⁴¹The sons of Micah: Pithon, and Melech, and Tahrea, [and Ahaz].

⁴²Ahaz became the father of Jarah; and Jarah became the father of Alemeth, and Azmaveth, and Zimri; and Zimri became the father of Moza;

⁴³and Moza became the father of Binea; and Rephaiah his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son.

⁴⁴Azel had six sons, whose names are these: Azrikam, Bocheru, and Ishmael, and Sheariah, and Obadiah, and Hanan: these were the sons of Azel.

10Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa.

²The Philistines followed hard after Saul and after his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul.

³The battle went sore against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was distressed by reason of the archers.

⁴Then said Saul to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me. But his armor-bearer would not; for he was sore afraid. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it.

⁵When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died.

⁶So Saul died, and his three sons; and all his house died together.

⁷When all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that they fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook their cities, and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them.

⁸It happened on the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

⁹They stripped him, and took his head, and his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry the news to their idols, and to the people.

¹⁰They put his armor in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the house of Dagon.

¹¹When all Jabesh-gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul,

¹²all the valiant men arose, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

¹³So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against Yahweh, because of the word of Yahweh, which he didn't keep; and also because he asked counsel of one who had a familiar spirit, to inquire [thereby],

¹⁴and didn't inquire of Yahweh: therefore he killed him, and turned the kingdom to David the son of Jesse.

11Then all Israel gathered themselves to David to Hebron, saying, Behold, we are your bone and your flesh.

²In times past, even when Saul was king, it was you who led out and brought in Israel: and Yahweh your God said to you, You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over my people Israel.

³So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahweh; and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of Yahweh by Samuel.

⁴David and all Israel went to Jerusalem (the same is Jebus); and the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, were there.

⁵The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, You shall not come in here. Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David.

⁶David said, Whoever strikes the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain. Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first, and was made chief.

⁷David lived in the stronghold; therefore they called it the city of David.

⁸He built the city round about, from Millo even round about; and Joab repaired the rest of the city.

⁹David grew greater and greater; for Yahweh of Hosts was with him.

¹⁰Now these are the chief of the mighty men whom David had, who showed themselves strong with him in his kingdom, together with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of Yahweh concerning Israel.

¹¹This is the number of the mighty men whom David had: Jashobeam, the son of a Hachmonite, the chief of the thirty; he lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them at one time.

¹²After him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, who was one of the three mighty men.

¹³He was with David at Pasdammim, and there the Philistines were gathered together to battle, where was a plot of ground full of barley; and the people fled from before the Philistines.

¹⁴They stood in the midst of the plot, and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and Yahweh saved them by a great victory.

¹⁵Three of the thirty chief men went down to the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam; and the host of the Philistines were encamped in the valley of Rephaim.

¹⁶David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Beth-lehem.

¹⁷David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Beth-lehem, which is by the gate!

¹⁸The three broke through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Beth-lehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but David would not drink of it, but poured it out to Yahweh,

¹⁹and said, My God forbid it me, that I should do this: shall I drink the blood of these men who have put their lives in jeopardy? for with [the jeopardy of] their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men.

²⁰Abishai, the brother of Joab, he was chief of the three; for he lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three.

²¹Of the three, he was more honorable than the two, and was made their captain: however he didn't attain to the [first] three.

²²Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, he killed the two [sons of] Ariel of Moab: he went down also and killed a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow.

²³He killed an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits high; and in the Egyptian's hand was a spear like a weaver's beam; and he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear.

²⁴These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and had a name among the three mighty men.

²⁵Behold, he was more honorable than the thirty, but he didn't attain to the [first] three: and David set him over his guard.

²⁶Also the mighty men of the armies: Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan the son of Dodo of Beth-lehem,

²⁷Shammoth the Harorite, Helez the Pelonite,

²⁸Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, Abiezer the Anathothite,

²⁹Sibbecai the Hushathite, Ilai the Ahohite,

³⁰Maharai the Netophathite, Heled the son of Baanah the Netophathite,

³¹Ithai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin, Benaiah the Pirathonite,

³²Hurai of the brooks of Gaash, Abiel the Arbathite,

³³Azmaveth the Baharumite, Eliahba the Shaalbonite,

³⁴the sons of Hashem the Gizonite, Jonathan the son of Shagee the Hararite,

³⁵Ahiam the son of Sacar the Hararite, Eliphal the son of Ur,

³⁶Hepher the Mecherathite, Ahijah the Pelonite,

³⁷Hezro the Carmelite, Naarai the son of Ezbai,

³⁸Joel the brother of Nathan, Mibhar the son of Hagri,

³⁹Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Berothite, the armor bearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah,

⁴⁰Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

⁴¹Uriah the Hittite, Zabad the son of Ahlai,

⁴²Adina the son of Shiza the Reubenite, a chief of the Reubenites, and thirty with him,

⁴³Hanan the son of Maacah, and Joshaphat the Mithnite,

⁴⁴Uzzia the Ashterathite, Shama and Jeiel the sons of Hotham the Aroerite,

⁴⁵Jediael the son of Shimri, and Joha his brother, the Tizite,

⁴⁶Eliel the Mahavite, and Jeribai, and Joshaviah, the sons of Elnaam, and Ithmah the Moabite,

⁴⁷Eliel, and Obed, and Jaasiel the Mezobaite.

12Now these are those who came to David to Ziklag, while he yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish; and they were among the mighty men, his helpers in war.

²They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in slinging stones and in shooting arrows from the bow: they were of Saul's brothers of Benjamin.

³The chief was Ahiezer; then Joash, the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite, and Jeziel, and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth, and Beracah, and Jehu the Anathothite,

⁴and Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty, and over the thirty, and Jeremiah, and Jahaziel, and Johanan, and Jozabad the Gederathite,

⁵Eluzai, and Jerimoth, and Bealiah, and Shemariah, and Shephatiah the Haruphite,

⁶Elkanah, and Isshiah, and Azarel, and Joezer, and Jashobeam, the Korahites,

⁷and Joelah, and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham of Gedor.

⁸Of the Gadites there separated themselves to David to the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men of valor, men trained for war, that could handle shield and spear; whose faces were like the faces of lions, and they were as swift as the roes on the mountains;

⁹Ezer the chief, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third,

¹⁰Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth,

¹¹Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh,

¹²Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth,

¹³Jeremiah the tenth, Machbannai the eleventh.

¹⁴These of the sons of Gad were captains of the host: he who was least was equal to one hundred, and the greatest to one thousand.

¹⁵These are those who went over the Jordan in the first month, when it had overflowed all its banks; and they put to flight all them of the valleys, both toward the east, and toward the west.

¹⁶There came of the children of Benjamin and Judah to the stronghold to David.

¹⁷David went out to meet them, and answered them, If you be come peaceably to me to help me, my heart shall be knit to you; but if [you be come] to betray me to my adversaries, seeing there is no wrong in my hands, the God of our fathers look thereon, and rebuke it.

¹⁸Then the Spirit came on Amasai, who was chief of the thirty, [and he said], Your are we, David, and on your side, you son of Jesse: peace, peace be to you, and peace be to your helpers; for your God helps you. Then David received them, and made them captains of the band.

¹⁹Of Manasseh also there fell away some to David, when he came with the Philistines against Saul to battle: but they didn't help them; for the lords of the Philistines on advise sent him away, saying, He will fall away to his master Saul to the jeopardy of our heads.

²⁰As he went to Ziklag, there fell to him of Manasseh, Adnah, and Jozabad, and Jediael, and Michael, and Jozabad, and Elihu, and Zillethai, captains of thousands who were of Manasseh.

²¹They helped David against the band of rovers: for they were all mighty men of valor, and were captains in the host.

²²For from day to day men came to David to help him, until there was a great host, like the host of God.

²³These are the numbers of the heads of those who were armed for war, who came to David to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him, according to the word of Yahweh.

²⁴The children of Judah who bore shield and spear were six thousand and eight hundred, armed for war.

²⁵Of the children of Simeon, mighty men of valor for the war, seven thousand and one hundred.

²⁶Of the children of Levi four thousand and six hundred.

²⁷Jehoiada was the leader of [the house of] Aaron; and with him were three thousand and seven hundred,

²⁸and Zadok, a young man mighty of valor, and of his father's house twenty-two captains.

²⁹Of the children of Benjamin, the brothers of Saul, three thousand: for hitherto the greatest part of them had kept their allegiance to the house of Saul.

³⁰Of the children of Ephraim twenty thousand eight hundred, mighty men of valor, famous men in their fathers' houses.

³¹Of the half-tribe of Manasseh eighteen thousand, who were mentioned by name, to come and make David king.

³²Of the children of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brothers were at their commandment.

³³Of Zebulun, such as were able to go out in the host, who could set the battle in array, with all manner of instruments of war, fifty thousand, and who could order [the battle array, and were] not of double heart.

³⁴Of Naphtali one thousand captains, and with them with shield and spear thirty-seven thousand.

³⁵Of the Danites who could set the battle in array, twenty-eight thousand six hundred.

³⁶Of Asher, such as were able to go out in the host, who could set the battle in array, forty thousand.

³⁷On the other side of the Jordan, of the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and of the half-tribe of Manasseh, with all manner of instruments of war for the battle, one hundred twenty thousand.

³⁸All these being men of war, who could order the battle array, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel: and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king.

³⁹They were there with David three days, eating and drinking; for their brothers had made preparation for them.

⁴⁰Moreover those who were near to them, [even] as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought bread on donkeys, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen, victuals of meal, cakes of figs, and clusters of raisins, and wine, and oil, and oxen, and sheep in abundance: for there was joy in Israel.

13David consulted with the captains of thousands and of hundreds, even with every leader.

²David said to all the assembly of Israel, If it seem good to you, and if it be of Yahweh our God, let us send abroad everywhere to our brothers who are left in all the land of Israel, with whom the priests and Levites are in their cities that have suburbs, that they may gather themselves to us;

³and let us bring again the ark of our God to us: for we didn't seek it in the days of Saul.

⁴All the assembly said that they would do so; for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.

⁵So David assembled all Israel together, from the Shihor [the brook] of Egypt even to the entrance of Hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-jearim.

⁶David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, [that is], to Kiriath-jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God Yahweh that sits [above] the cherubim, that is called by the Name.

⁷They carried the ark of God on a new cart, [and brought it] out of the house of Abinadab: and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart.

⁸David and all Israel played before God with all their might, even with songs, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with tambourines, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.

⁹When they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled.

¹⁰The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Uzza, and he struck him, because he put forth his hand to the ark; and there he died before God.

¹¹David was displeased, because Yahweh had broken forth on Uzza; and he called that place Perez-uzza, to this day.

¹²David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?

¹³So David didn't move the ark to him into the city of David, but carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

¹⁴The ark of God remained with the family of Obed-edom in his house three months: and Yahweh blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that he had.

14Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar-trees, and masons, and carpenters, to build him a house.

²David perceived that Yahweh had established him king over Israel; for his kingdom was exalted on high, for his people Israel's sake.

³David took more wives at Jerusalem; and David became the father of more sons and daughters.

⁴These are the names of the children whom he had in Jerusalem: Shammua, and Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon,

⁵and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Elpelet,

⁶and Nogah, and Nepheg, and Japhia,

⁷and Elishama, and Beeliada, and Eliphelet.

⁸When the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David: and David heard of it, and went out against them.

⁹Now the Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim.

¹⁰David inquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? and will you deliver them into my hand? Yahweh said to him, Go up; for I will deliver them into your hand.

¹¹So they came up to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there; and David said, God has broken my enemies by my hand, like the breach of waters. Therefore they called the name of that place Baal-perazim.

¹²They left their gods there; and David gave commandment, and they were burned with fire.

¹³The Philistines yet again made a raid in the valley.

¹⁴David inquired again of God; and God said to him, You shall not go up after them: turn away from them, and come on them over against the mulberry-trees.

¹⁵It shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry-trees, that then you shall go out to battle; for God is gone out before you to strike the host of the Philistines.

¹⁶David did as God commanded him: and they struck the host of the Philistines from Gibeon even to Gezer.

¹⁷The fame of David went out into all lands; and Yahweh brought the fear of him on all nations.

15[David] made him houses in the city of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent.

²Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them has Yahweh chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister to him forever.

³David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of Yahweh to its place, which he had prepared for it.

⁴David gathered together the sons of Aaron, and the Levites:

⁵of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, and his brothers one hundred twenty;

⁶of the sons of Merari, Asaiah the chief, and his brothers two hundred twenty;

⁷of the sons of Gershom, Joel the chief, and his brothers one hundred thirty;

⁸of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the chief, and his brothers two hundred;

⁹of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the chief, and his brothers eighty;

¹⁰of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the chief, and his brothers one hundred twelve.

¹¹David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, and Joel, Shemaiah, and Eliel, and Amminadab,

¹²and said to them, You are the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both you and your brothers, that you may bring up the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel, to [the place] that I have prepared for it.

¹³For because you didn't carry it at the first, Yahweh our God made a breach on us, because we didn't seek him according to the ordinance.

¹⁴So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

¹⁵The children of the Levites bore the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles thereon, as Moses commanded according to the word of Yahweh.

¹⁶David spoke to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brothers the singers, with instruments of music, psalteries and harps and cymbals, sounding aloud and lifting up the voice with joy.

¹⁷So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel; and of his brothers, Asaph the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari their brothers, Ethan the son of Kushaiah;

¹⁸and with them their brothers of the second degree, Zechariah, Ben, and Jaaziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni, Eliab, and Benaiah, and Maaseiah, and Mattithiah, and Eliphelehu, and Mikneiah, and Obed-edom, and Jeiel, the doorkeepers.

¹⁹So the singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, [were appointed] with cymbals of brass to sound aloud;

²⁰and Zechariah, and Aziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni, and Eliab, and Maaseiah, and Benaiah, with psalteries set to Alamoth;

²¹and Mattithiah, and Eliphelehu, and Mikneiah, and Obed-edom, and Jeiel, and Azaziah, with harps tuned to the eight-stringed lyre, to lead.

²²Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was over the song: he instructed about the song, because he was skillful.

²³Berechiah and Elkanah were doorkeepers for the ark.

²⁴Shebaniah, and Joshaphat, and Nethanel, and Amasai, and Zechariah, and Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, did blow the trumpets before the ark of God: and Obed-edom and Jehiah were doorkeepers for the ark.

²⁵So David, and the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh out of the house of Obed-edom with joy.

²⁶It happened, when God helped the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, that they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.

²⁷David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites who bore the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the song [with] the singers: and David had on him an ephod of linen.

²⁸Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh with shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, sounding aloud with psalteries and harps.

²⁹It happened, as the ark of the covenant of Yahweh came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out at the window, and saw king David dancing and playing; and she despised him in her heart.

16They brought in the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it: and they offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings before God.

²When David had made an end of offering the burnt offering and the peace-offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Yahweh.

³He dealt to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to every one a loaf of bread, and a portion [of flesh], and a cake of raisins.

⁴He appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of Yahweh, and to celebrate and to thank and praise Yahweh, the God of Israel:

⁵Asaph the chief, and second to him Zechariah, Jeiel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Mattithiah, and Eliab, and Benaiah, and Obed-edom, and Jeiel, with psalteries and with harps; and Asaph with cymbals, sounding aloud;

⁶and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests with trumpets continually, before the ark of the covenant of God.

⁷Then on that day David first ordained to give thanks to Yahweh, by the hand of Asaph and his brothers.

⁸Oh give thanks to Yahweh, call on his name; Make known his doings among the peoples.

⁹Sing to him, sing praises to him; Talk you of all his marvelous works.

¹⁰Glory you in his holy name; Let the heart of them rejoice who seek Yahweh.

¹¹Seek you Yahweh and his strength; Seek his face forever more.

¹²Remember his marvelous works that he has done, His wonders, and the judgments of his mouth,

¹³You seed of Israel his servant, You children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

¹⁴He is Yahweh our God; His judgments are in all the earth.

¹⁵Remember his covenant forever, The word which he commanded to a thousand generations,

¹⁶[The covenant] which he made with Abraham, His oath to Isaac,

¹⁷Confirmed the same to Jacob for a statute, To Israel for an everlasting covenant,

¹⁸Saying, To you will I give the land of Canaan, The lot of your inheritance;

¹⁹When you were but a few men in number, Yes, very few, and sojourners in it;

²⁰They went about from nation to nation, From one kingdom to another people.

²¹He allowed no man to do them wrong; Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes,

²²[Saying], Don't touch my anointed ones, Do my prophets no harm.

²³Sing to Yahweh, all the earth; Show forth his salvation from day to day.

²⁴Declare his glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples.

²⁵For great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised: He also is to be feared above all gods.

²⁶For all the gods of the peoples are idols: But Yahweh made the heavens.

²⁷Honor and majesty are before him: Strength and gladness are in his place.

²⁸Ascribe to Yahweh, you relatives of the peoples, Ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength;

²⁹Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name: Bring an offering, and come before him: Worship Yahweh in holy array.

³⁰Tremble before him, all the earth: The world also is established that it can't be moved.

³¹Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; Let them say among the nations, Yahweh reigns.

³²Let the sea roar, and the fullness of it; Let the field exult, and all that is therein;

³³Then shall the trees of the wood sing for joy before Yahweh; For he comes to judge the earth.

³⁴Oh give thanks to Yahweh; for he is good; For his lovingkindness endures forever.

³⁵Say you, Save us, God of our salvation, Gather us together and deliver us from the nations, To give thanks to your holy name, To triumph in your praise.

³⁶Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. All the people said, Amen, and praised Yahweh.

³⁷So he left there, before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, Asaph and his brothers, to minister before the ark continually, as every day's work required;

³⁸and Obed-edom with their brothers, sixty-eight; Obed-edom also the son of Jeduthun and Hosah to be doorkeepers;

³⁹and Zadok the priest, and his brothers the priests, before the tent of Yahweh in the high place that was at Gibeon,

⁴⁰to offer burnt offerings to Yahweh on the altar of burnt offering continually morning and evening, even according to all that is written in the law of Yahweh, which he commanded to Israel;

⁴¹and with them Heman and Jeduthun, and the rest who were chosen, who were mentioned by name, to give thanks to Yahweh, because his lovingkindness endures forever;

⁴²and with them Heman and Jeduthun [with] trumpets and cymbals for those that should sound aloud, and [with] instruments for the songs of God; and the sons of Jeduthun to be at the gate.

⁴³All the people departed every man to his house: and David returned to bless his house.

17It happened, when David lived in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of Yahweh [dwells] under curtains.

²Nathan said to David, Do all that is in your heart; for God is with you.

³It happened the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying,

⁴Go and tell David my servant, Thus says Yahweh, You shall not build me a house to dwell in:

⁵for I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up Israel, to this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and from [one] tent [to another].

⁶In all places in which I have walked with all Israel, spoke I a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar?

⁷Now therefore thus shall you tell my servant David, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel:

⁸and I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a name, like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.

⁹I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the first,

¹⁰and [as] from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover I tell you that Yahweh will build you a house.

¹¹It shall happen, when your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who shall be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom.

¹²He shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever.

¹³I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my lovingkindness away from him, as I took it from him that was before you;

¹⁴but I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever.

¹⁵According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak to David.

¹⁶Then David the king went in, and sat before Yahweh; and he said, Who am I, Yahweh God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?

¹⁷This was a small thing in your eyes, God; but you have spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, Yahweh God.

¹⁸What can David [say] yet more to you concerning the honor which is done to your servant? for you know your servant.

¹⁹Yahweh, for your servant's sake, and according to your own heart, have you worked all this greatness, to make known all [these] great things.

²⁰Yahweh, there is none like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

²¹What one nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, to make you a name by great and awesome things, in driving out nations from before your people, whom you redeem out of Egypt?

²²For your people Israel did you make your own people forever; and you, Yahweh, became their God.

²³Now, Yahweh, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, be established forever, and do as you have spoken.

²⁴Let your name be established and magnified forever, saying, Yahweh of Hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel: and the house of David your servant is established before you.

²⁵For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build him a house: therefore has your servant found [in his heart] to pray before you.

²⁶Now, Yahweh, you are God, and have promised this good thing to your servant:

²⁷and now it has pleased you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you: for you, Yahweh, have blessed, and it is blessed forever.

18After this it happened, that David struck the Philistines, and subdued them, and took Gath and its towns out of the hand of the Philistines.

²He struck Moab; and the Moabites became servants to David, and brought tribute.

³David struck Hadarezer king of Zobah to Hamath, as he went to establish his dominion by the river Euphrates.

⁴David took from him one thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen; and David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for one hundred chariots.

⁵When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadarezer king of Zobah, David struck of the Syrians twenty-two thousand men.

⁶Then David put [garrisons] in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought tribute. Yahweh gave victory to David wherever he went.

⁷David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadarezer, and brought them to Jerusalem.

⁸From Tibhath and from Cun, cities of Hadarezer, David took very much brass, with which Solomon made the brazen sea, and the pillars, and the vessels of brass.

⁹When Tou king of Hamath heard that David had struck all the host of Hadarezer king of Zobah,

¹⁰he sent Hadoram his son to king David, to Greet him, and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadarezer and struck him; (for Hadarezer had wars with Tou;) and [he had with him] all manner of vessels of gold and silver and brass.

¹¹These also did king David dedicate to Yahweh, with the silver and the gold that he carried away from all the nations; from Edom, and from Moab, and from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines, and from Amalek.

¹²Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah struck of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt eighteen thousand.

¹³He put garrisons in Edom; and all the Edomites became servants to David. Yahweh gave victory to David wherever he went.

¹⁴David reigned over all Israel; and he executed justice and righteousness to all his people.

¹⁵Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the host; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder;

¹⁶and Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Abimelech the son of Abiathar, were priests; and Shavsha was scribe;

¹⁷and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and the sons of David were chief about the king.

19It happened after this, that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon died, and his son reigned in his place.

²David said, I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me. So David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father. David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon to Hanun, to comfort him.

³But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Think you that David does honor your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Aren't his servants come to you to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land?

⁴So Hanun took David's servants, and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away.

⁵Then there went certain persons, and told David how the men were served. He sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. The king said, Stay at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.

⁶When the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent one thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and out of Arammaacah, and out of Zobah.

⁷So they hired them thirty-two thousand chariots, and the king of Maacah and his people, who came and encamped before Medeba. The children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities, and came to battle.

⁸When David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the host of the mighty men.

⁹The children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the gate of the city: and the kings who had come were by themselves in the field.

¹⁰Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians.

¹¹The rest of the people he committed into the hand of Abishai his brother; and they put themselves in array against the children of Ammon.

¹²He said, If the Syrians be too strong for me, then you shall help me; but if the children of Ammon be too strong for you, then I will help you.

¹³Be of good courage, and let us play the man for our people, and for the cities of our God: and Yahweh do that which seems him good.

¹⁴So Joab and the people who were with him drew near before the Syrians to the battle; and they fled before him.

¹⁵When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, they likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem.

¹⁶When the Syrians saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they sent messengers, and drew forth the Syrians who were beyond the River, with Shophach the captain of the host of Hadarezer at their head.

¹⁷It was told David; and he gathered all Israel together, and passed over the Jordan, and came on them, and set the battle in array against them. So when David had put the battle in array against the Syrians, they fought with him.

¹⁸The Syrians fled before Israel; and David killed of the Syrians [the men of] seven thousand chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Shophach the captain of the host.

¹⁹When the servants of Hadarezer saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they made peace with David, and served him: neither would the Syrians help the children of Ammon any more.

20It happened, at the time of the return of the year, at the time when kings go out [to battle], that Joab led forth the army, and wasted the country of the children of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Joab struck Rabbah, and overthrew it.

²David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it; and it was set on David's head: and he brought forth the spoil of the city, exceeding much.

³He brought forth the people who were therein, and cut [them] with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes. Thus did David to all the cities of the children of Ammon. David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

⁴It happened after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, of the sons of the giant; and they were subdued.

⁵There was again war with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

⁶There was again war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were twenty-four, six [on each hand], and six [on each foot]; and he also was born to the giant.

⁷When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David's brother killed him.

⁸These were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

21Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

²David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them.

³Joab said, Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are: but, my lord the king, aren't they all my lord's servants? why does my lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?

⁴Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Why Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.

⁵Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew sword: and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew sword.

⁶But he didn't count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab.

⁷God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.

⁸David said to God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing: but now, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.

⁹Yahweh spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,

¹⁰Go and speak to David, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I offer you three things: choose you one of them, that I may do it to you.

¹¹So Gad came to David, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Take which you will:

¹²either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of Yahweh destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.

¹³David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall, I pray, into the hand of Yahweh; for very great are his mercies: and let me not fall into the hand of man.

¹⁴So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.

¹⁵God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the destroying angel, It is enough; now stay your hand. The angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁶David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.

¹⁷David said to God, Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.

¹⁸Then the angel of Yahweh commanded Gad to tell David, that David should go up, and raise an altar to Yahweh in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁹David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of Yahweh.

²⁰Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

²¹As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

²²Then David said to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build thereon an altar to Yahweh: for the full price shall you give it me, that the plague may be stayed from the people.

²³Ornan said to David, Take it to you, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: behold, I give [you] the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal-offering; I give it all.

²⁴King David said to Ornan, No; but I will most assuredly buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is your for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt-offering without cost.

²⁵So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.

²⁶David built there an altar to Yahweh, and offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings, and called on Yahweh; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.

²⁷Yahweh commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath of it.

²⁸At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.

²⁹For the tent of Yahweh, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.

³⁰But David couldn't go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of Yahweh.

22Then David said, This is the house of Yahweh God, and this is the altar of burnt-offering for Israel.

²David commanded to gather together the sojourners who were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew worked stones to build the house of God.

³David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the couplings; and brass in abundance without weight;

⁴and cedar-trees without number: for the Sidonians and they of Tyre brought cedar-trees in abundance to David.

⁵David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be built for Yahweh must be exceeding magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.

⁶Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build a house for Yahweh, the God of Israel.

⁷David said to Solomon his son, As for me, it was in my heart to build a house to the name of Yahweh my God.

⁸But the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, You have shed blood abundantly, and have made great wars: you shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.

⁹Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days:

¹⁰he shall build a house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.

¹¹Now, my son, Yahweh be with you; and prosper you, and build the house of Yahweh your God, as he has spoken concerning you.

¹²Only Yahweh give you discretion and understanding, and give you charge concerning Israel; that so you may keep the law of Yahweh your God.

¹³Then shall you prosper, if you observe to do the statutes and the ordinances which Yahweh charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage; don't be afraid, neither be dismayed.

¹⁴Now, behold, in my affliction I have prepared for the house of Yahweh one hundred thousand talents of gold, and one thousand thousand talents of silver, and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and you may add thereto.

¹⁵Moreover there are workmen with you in abundance, cutters and workers of stone and timber, and all men who are skillful in every manner of work:

¹⁶of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise and be doing, and Yahweh be with you.

¹⁷David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son, [saying],

¹⁸Isn't Yahweh your God with you? and hasn't he given you rest on every side? for he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand; and the land is subdued before Yahweh, and before his people.

¹⁹Now set your heart and your soul to seek after Yahweh your God; arise therefore, and build you the sanctuary of Yahweh God, to bring the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of Yahweh.

23Now David was old and full of days; and he made Solomon his son king over Israel.

²He gathered together all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites.

³The Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty-eight thousand.

⁴Of these, twenty-four thousand were to oversee the work of the house of Yahweh; and six thousand were officers and judges;

⁵and four thousand were doorkeepers; and four thousand praised Yahweh with the instruments which I made, [said David], to praise therewith.

⁶David divided them into courses according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

⁷Of the Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei.

⁸The sons of Ladan: Jehiel the chief, and Zetham, and Joel, three.

⁹The sons of Shimei: Shelomoth, and Haziel, and Haran, three. These were the heads of the fathers' [houses] of Ladan.

¹⁰The sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, and Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei.

¹¹Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second: but Jeush and Beriah didn't have many sons; therefore they became a fathers' house in one reckoning.

¹²The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four.

¹³The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was separated, that he should sanctify the most holy things, he and his sons, forever, to burn incense before Yahweh, to minister to him, and to bless in his name, forever.

¹⁴But as for Moses the man of God, his sons were named among the tribe of Levi.

¹⁵The sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer.

¹⁶The sons of Gershom: Shebuel the chief.

¹⁷The sons of Eliezer were: Rehabiah the chief; and Eliezer had no other sons; but the sons of Rehabiah were very many.

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, and had no sons, but daughters only: and their brothers the sons of Kish took them [to wife].

²³The sons of Mushi: Mahli, and Eder, and Jeremoth, three.

²⁴These were the sons of Levi after their fathers' houses, even the heads of the fathers' [houses] of those of those who were counted, in the number of names by their polls, who did the work for the service of the house of Yahweh, from twenty years old and upward.

²⁵For David said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, has given rest to his people; and he dwells in Jerusalem forever:

²⁶and also the Levites shall no more have need to carry the tent and all the vessels of it for the service of it.

²⁷For by the last words of David the sons of Levi were numbered, from twenty years old and upward.

²⁸For their office was to wait on the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of Yahweh, in the courts, and in the chambers, and in the purifying of all holy things, even the work of the service of the house of God;

²⁹for the show bread also, and for the fine flour for a meal-offering, whether of unleavened wafers, or of that which is baked in the pan, or of that which is soaked, and for all manner of measure and size;

³⁰and to stand every morning to thank and praise Yahweh, and likewise at even;

³¹and to offer all burnt offerings to Yahweh, on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts, in number according to the ordinance concerning them, continually before Yahweh;

³²and that they should keep the charge of the tent of meeting, and the charge of the holy place, and the charge of the sons of Aaron their brothers, for the service of the house of Yahweh.

24The courses of the sons of Aaron [were these]. The sons of Aaron: Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children: therefore Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priest's office.

³David with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, divided them according to their ordering in their service.

⁴There were more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar; and [thus] were they divided: of the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen, heads of fathers' houses; and of the sons of Ithamar, according to their fathers' houses, eight.

⁵Thus were they divided by lot, one sort with another; for there were princes of the sanctuary, and princes of God, both of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar.

⁶Shemaiah the son of Nethanel the scribe, who was of the Levites, wrote them in the presence of the king, and the princes, and Zadok the priest, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, and the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the priests and of the Levites; one fathers' house being taken for Eleazar, and one taken for Ithamar.

⁷Now the first lot came forth 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 Jeshebeab,

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 one and twentieth to Jachin, the two and twentieth to Gamul,

¹⁸the three and twentieth to Delaiah, the four and twentieth to Maaziah.

¹⁹This was the ordering of them in their service, to come into the house of Yahweh according to the ordinance [given] to them by Aaron their father, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, had commanded him.

²⁰Of the rest of the sons of Levi: of the sons of Amram, Shubael; of the sons of Shubael, Jehdeiah.

²¹Of Rehabiah: of the sons of Rehabiah, Isshiah the chief.

²²Of the Izharites, Shelomoth; of the sons of Shelomoth, Jahath.

²³The sons [of Hebron]: Jeriah [the chief], Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, Jekameam the fourth.

²⁴The sons of Uzziel, Micah; of the sons of Micah, Shamir.

²⁵The brother of Micah, Isshiah; of the sons of Isshiah, Zechariah.

²⁶The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi; the sons of Jaaziah: Beno.

²⁷The sons of Merari: of Jaaziah, Beno, and Shoham, and Zaccur, and Ibri.

²⁸Of Mahli: Eleazar, who had no sons.

²⁹Of Kish; the sons of Kish: Jerahmeel.

³⁰The sons of Mushi: Mahli, and Eder, and Jerimoth. These were the sons of the Levites after their fathers' houses.

³¹These likewise cast lots even as their brothers the sons of Aaron in the presence of David the king, and Zadok, and Ahimelech, and the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the priests and of the Levites; the fathers' [houses] of the chief even as those of his younger brother.

25Moreover David and the captains of the host set apart for the service certain of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals: and the number of those who did the work according to their service was:

²of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, and Joseph, and Nethaniah, and Asharelah, the sons of Asaph, under the hand of Asaph, who prophesied after the order of the king.

³Of Jeduthun; the sons of Jeduthun: Gedaliah, and Zeri, and Jeshaiah, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, six, under the hands of their father Jeduthun with the harp, who prophesied in giving thanks and praising Yahweh.

⁴Of Heman; the sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, and Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, and Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth.

⁵All these were the sons of Heman the king's seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn. God gave to Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.

⁶All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of Yahweh, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God; Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman being under the order of the king.

⁷The number of them, with their brothers who were instructed in singing to Yahweh, even all who were skillful, was two hundred eighty-eight.

⁸They cast lots for their offices, all alike, as well the small as the great, the teacher as the scholar.

⁹Now the first lot came forth for Asaph to Joseph: the second to Gedaliah; he and his brothers and sons were twelve:

¹⁰the third to Zaccur, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

¹¹the fourth to Izri, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

¹²the fifth to Nethaniah, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

¹³the sixth to Bukkiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

¹⁴the seventh to Jesharelah, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

¹⁵the eighth to Jeshaiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

¹⁶the ninth to Mattaniah, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

¹⁷the tenth to Shimei, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

¹⁸the eleventh to Azarel, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

¹⁹the twelfth to Hashabiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

²⁰for the thirteenth, Shubael, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

²¹for the fourteenth, Mattithiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

²²for the fifteenth to Jeremoth, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

²³for the sixteenth to Hananiah, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

²⁴for the seventeenth to Joshbekashah, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

²⁵for the eighteenth to Hanani, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

²⁶for the nineteenth to Mallothi, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

²⁷for the twentieth to Eliathah, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

²⁸for the one and twentieth to Hothir, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

²⁹for the two and twentieth to Giddalti, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

³⁰for the three and twentieth to Mahazioth, his sons and his brothers, twelve:

³¹for the four and twentieth to Romamtiezer, his sons and his brothers, twelve.

26For the courses of the doorkeepers: of the Korahites, Meshelemiah the son of Kore, of the sons of Asaph.

²Meshelemiah had sons: Zechariah the firstborn, Jediael the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth,

³Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Eliehoenai the seventh.

⁴Obed-edom had sons: Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, and Sacar the fourth, and Nethanel the fifth,

⁵Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peullethai the eighth; for God blessed him.

⁶Also to Shemaiah his son were sons born, who ruled over the house of their father; for they were mighty men of valor.

⁷The sons of Shemaiah: Othni, and Rephael, and Obed, Elzabad, whose brothers were valiant men, Elihu, and Semachiah.

⁸All these were of the sons of Obed-edom: they and their sons and their brothers, able men in strength for the service; sixty-two of Obed-edom.

⁹Meshelemiah had sons and brothers, valiant men, eighteen.

¹⁰Also Hosah, of the children of Merari, had sons: Shimri the chief, (for though he was not the firstborn, yet his father made him chief),

¹¹Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth: all the sons and brothers of Hosah were thirteen.

¹²Of these were the courses of the doorkeepers, even of the chief men, having offices like their brothers, to minister in the house of Yahweh.

¹³They cast lots, as well the small as the great, according to their fathers' houses, for every gate.

¹⁴The lot eastward fell to Shelemiah. Then for Zechariah his son, a discreet counselor, they cast lots; and his lot came out northward.

¹⁵To Obed-edom southward; and to his sons the store-house.

¹⁶To Shuppim and Hosah westward, by the gate of Shallecheth, at the causeway that goes up, watch against watch.

¹⁷Eastward were six Levites, northward four a day, southward four a day, and for the store-house two and two.

¹⁸For Parbar westward, four at the causeway, and two at Parbar.

¹⁹These were the courses of the doorkeepers; of the sons of the Korahites, and of the sons of Merari.

²⁰Of the Levites, Ahijah was over the treasures of the house of God, and over the treasures of the dedicated things.

²¹The sons of Ladan, the sons of the Gershonites belonging to Ladan, the heads of the fathers' [houses] belonging to Ladan the Gershonite: Jehieli.

²²The sons of Jehieli: Zetham, and Joel his brother, over the treasures of the house of Yahweh.

²³Of the Amramites, of the Izharites, of the Hebronites, of the Uzzielites:

²⁴and Shebuel the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, was ruler over the treasures.

²⁵His brothers: of Eliezer [came] Rehabiah his son, and Jeshaiah his son, and Joram his son, and Zichri his son, and Shelomoth his son.

²⁶This Shelomoth and his brothers were over all the treasures of the dedicated things, which David the king, and the heads of the fathers' [houses], the captains over thousands and hundreds, and the captains of the host, had dedicated.

²⁷Out of the spoil won in battles did they dedicate to repair the house of Yahweh.

²⁸All that Samuel the seer, and Saul the son of Kish, and Abner the son of Ner, and Joab the son of Zeruiah, had dedicated, whoever had dedicated anything, it was under the hand of Shelomoth, and of his brothers.

²⁹Of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons were for the outward business over Israel, for officers and judges.

³⁰Of the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brothers, men of valor, one thousand seven hundred, had the oversight of Israel beyond the Jordan westward, for all the business of Yahweh, and for the service of the king.

³¹Of the Hebronites was Jerijah the chief, even of the Hebronites, according to their generations by fathers' [houses]. In the fortieth year of the reign of David they were sought for, and there were found among them mighty men of valor at Jazer of Gilead.

³²His brothers, men of valor, were two thousand and seven hundred, heads of fathers' [houses], whom king David made overseers over the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites, for every matter pertaining to God, and for the affairs of the king.

27Now the children of Israel after their number, [to wit], the heads of fathers' [houses] and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and their officers who served the king, in any matter of the courses which came in and went out month by month throughout all the months of the year-of every course were twenty-four thousand.

²Over the first course for the first month was Jashobeam the son of Zabdiel: and in his course were twenty-four thousand.

³[He was] of the children of Perez, the chief of all the captains of the host for the first month.

⁴Over the course of the second month was Dodai the Ahohite, and his course; and Mikloth the ruler: and in his course were twenty-four thousand.

⁵The third captain of the host for the third month was Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, chief: and in his course were twenty-four thousand.

⁶This is that Benaiah, who was the mighty man of the thirty, and over the thirty: and [of] his course was Ammizabad his son.

⁷The fourth [captain] for the fourth month was Asahel the brother of Joab, and Zebadiah his son after him: and in his course were twenty-four thousand.

⁸The fifth captain for this fifth month was Shamhuth the Izrahite: and in his course were twenty-four thousand.

⁹The sixth [captain] for the sixth month was Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite: and in his course were twenty-four thousand.

¹⁰The seventh [captain] for the seventh month was Helez the Pelonite, of the children of Ephraim: and in his course were twenty-four thousand.

¹¹The eighth [captain] for the eighth month was Sibbecai the Hushathite, of the Zerahites: and in his course were twenty-four thousand.

¹²The ninth [captain] for the ninth month was Abiezer the Anathothite, of the Benjamites: and in his course were twenty-four thousand.

¹³The tenth [captain] for the tenth month was Maharai the Netophathite, of the Zerahites: and in his course were Twenty-four thousand.

¹⁴The eleventh [captain] for the eleventh month was Benaiah the Pirathonite, of the children of Ephraim: and in his course were Twenty-four thousand.

¹⁵The twelfth [captain] for the twelfth month was Heldai the Netophathite, of Othniel: and in his course were twenty-four thousand.

¹⁶Furthermore over the tribes of Israel: of the Reubenites was Eliezer the son of Zichri the ruler: of the Simeonites, Shephatiah the son of Maacah:

¹⁷of Levi, Hashabiah the son of Kemuel: of Aaron, Zadok:

¹⁸of Judah, Elihu, one of the brothers of David: of Issachar, Omri the son of Michael:

¹⁹of Zebulun, Ishmaiah the son of Obadiah: of Naphtali, Jeremoth the son of Azriel:

²⁰of the children of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Azaziah: of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joel the son of Pedaiah:

²¹of the half -[tribe] of Manasseh in Gilead, Iddo the son of Zechariah: of Benjamin, Jaasiel the son of Abner:

²²of Dan, Azarel the son of Jeroham. These were the captains of the tribes of Israel.

²³But David didn't take the number of them from twenty years old and under, because Yahweh had said he would increase Israel like the stars of the sky.

²⁴Joab the son of Zeruiah began to number, but didn't finish; and there came wrath for this on Israel; neither was the number put into the account in the chronicles of king David.

²⁵Over the king's treasures was Azmaveth the son of Adiel: and over the treasures in the fields, in the cities, and in the villages, and in the castles, was Jonathan the son of Uzziah:

²⁶Over those who did the work of the field for tillage of the ground was Ezri the son of Chelub:

²⁷and over the vineyards was Shimei the Ramathite: and over the increase of the vineyards for the wine-cellars was Zabdi the Shiphmite:

²⁸and over the olive-trees and the sycamore-trees that were in the lowland was Baal-hanan the Gederite: and over the cellars of oil was Joash:

²⁹and over the herds that fed in Sharon was Shitrai the Sharonite: and over the herds that were in the valleys was Shaphat the son of Adlai:

³⁰and over the camels was Obil the Ishmaelite: and over the donkeys was Jehdeiah the Meronothite: and over the flocks was Jaziz the Hagrite.

³¹All these were the rulers of the substance which was king David's.

³²Also Jonathan, David's uncle, was a counselor, a man of understanding, and a scribe: and Jehiel the son of Hachmoni was with the king's sons:

³³Ahithophel was the king's counselor: and Hushai the Archite was the king's friend:

³⁴and after Ahithophel was Jehoiada the son of Benaiah, and Abiathar: and the captain of the king's host was Joab.

28David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the captains of the companies who served the king by course, and the captains of thousands, and the captains of hundreds, and the rulers over all the substance and possessions of the king and of his sons, with the officers, and the mighty men, even all the mighty men of valor, to Jerusalem.

²Then David the king stood up on his feet, and said, Hear me, my brothers, and my people: as for me, it was in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and for the footstool of our God; and I had made ready for the building.

³But God said to me, You shall not build a house for my name, because you are a man of war, and have shed blood.

⁴However Yahweh, the God of Israel, chose me out of all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever: for he has chosen Judah to be prince; and in the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father he took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel;

⁵Of all my sons (for Yahweh has given me many sons), he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of Yahweh over Israel.

⁶He said to me, Solomon your son, he shall build my house and my courts; for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.

⁷I will establish his kingdom forever, if he be constant to do my commandments and my ordinances, as at this day.

⁸Now therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of Yahweh, and in the audience of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of Yahweh your God; that you may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever.

⁹You, Solomon my son, know you the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts: if you seek him, he will be found of you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

¹⁰Take heed now; for Yahweh has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it.

¹¹Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch [of the temple], and of the houses of it, and of the treasuries of it, and of the upper rooms of it, and of the inner chambers of it, and of the place of the mercy seat;

¹²and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit, for the courts of the house of Yahweh, and for all the chambers round about, for the treasuries of the house of God, and for the treasuries of the dedicated things;

¹³also for the courses of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of Yahweh, and for all the vessels of service in the house of Yahweh;

¹⁴of gold by weight for the [vessels of] gold, for all vessels of every kind of service; [of silver] for all the vessels of silver by weight, for all vessels of every kind of service;

¹⁵by weight also for the lampstands of gold, and for the lamps of it, of gold, by weight for every lampstand and for the lamps of it; and for the lampstands of silver, [silver] by weight for [every] lampstand and for the lamps of it, according to the use of every lampstand;

¹⁶and the gold by weight for the tables of show bread, for every table; and silver for the tables of silver;

¹⁷and the flesh-hooks, and the basins, and the cups, of pure gold; and for the golden bowls by weight for every bowl; and for the silver bowls by weight for every bowl;

¹⁸and for the altar of incense refined gold by weight; and gold for the pattern of the chariot, [even] the cherubim, that spread out [their wings], and covered the ark of the covenant of Yahweh.

¹⁹All this, [said David], have I been made to understand in writing from the hand of Yahweh, even all the works of this pattern.

²⁰David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it: don't be afraid, nor be dismayed; for Yahweh God, even my God, is with you; he will not fail you, nor forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of Yahweh is finished.

²¹Behold, there are the courses of the priests and the Levites, for all the service of the house of God: and there shall be with you in all manner of work every willing man who has skill, for any manner of service: also the captains and all the people will be wholly at your commandment.

29David the king said to all the assembly, Solomon my son, whom alone God has chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great; for the palace is not for man, but for Yahweh God.

²Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for the [things of] gold, and the silver for the [things of] silver, and the brass for the [things of] brass, the iron for the [things of] iron, and wood for the [things of] wood; onyx stones, and [stones] to be set, stones for inlaid work, and of various colors, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance.

³Moreover also, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, seeing that I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, I give it to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house,

⁴even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, with which to overlay the walls of the houses;

⁵of gold for the [things of] gold, and of silver for the [things of] silver, and for all manner of work [to be made] by the hands of artificers. Who then offers willingly to consecrate himself this day to Yahweh?

⁶Then the princes of the fathers' [houses], and the princes of the tribes of Israel, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the rulers over the king's work, offered willingly;

⁷and they gave for the service of the house of God of gold five thousand talents and ten thousand darics, and of silver ten thousand talents, and of brass eighteen thousand talents, and of iron a hundred thousand talents.

⁸They with whom [precious] stones were found gave them to the treasure of the house of Yahweh, under the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite.

⁹Then the people rejoiced, because they offered willingly, because with a perfect heart they offered willingly to Yahweh: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.

¹⁰Therefore David blessed Yahweh before all the assembly; and David said, Blessed be you, Yahweh, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever.

¹¹Yours, Yahweh, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heavens and in the earth [is your]; your is the kingdom, Yahweh, and you are exalted as head above all.

¹²Both riches and honor come of you, and you rule over all; and in your hand is power and might; and in your hand it is to make great, and to give strength to all.

¹³Now therefore, our God, we thank you, and praise your glorious name.

¹⁴But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of you, and of your own have we given you.

¹⁵For we are strangers before you, and sojourners, as all our fathers were: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding.

¹⁶Yahweh our God, all this store that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name comes of your hand, and is all your own.

¹⁷I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy your people, that are present here, offer willingly to you.

¹⁸Yahweh, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of your people, and prepare their heart to you;

¹⁹and give to Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep your commandments, your testimonies, and your statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for which I have made provision.

²⁰David said to all the assembly, Now bless Yahweh your God. All the assembly blessed Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped Yahweh, and the king.

²¹They sacrificed sacrifices to Yahweh, and offered burnt offerings to Yahweh, on the next day after that day, even one thousand bulls, one thousand rams, and one thousand lambs, with their drink-offerings, and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel,

²²and ate and drink before Yahweh on that day with great gladness. They made Solomon the son of David king the second time, and anointed him to Yahweh to be prince, and Zadok to be priest.

²³Then Solomon sat on the throne of Yahweh as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him.

²⁴All the princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons likewise of king David, submitted themselves to Solomon the king.

²⁵Yahweh magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel.

²⁶Now David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel.

²⁷The time that he reigned over Israel was forty years; seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty-three [years] reigned he in Jerusalem.

²⁸He died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor: and Solomon his son reigned in his place.

²⁹Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the history of Samuel the seer, and in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the history of Gad the seer,

³⁰with all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.

1Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and Yahweh his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly.

²Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and to the judges, and to every prince in all Israel, the heads of the fathers' [houses].

³So Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for there was the tent of meeting of God, which Moses the servant of Yahweh had made in the wilderness.

⁴But the ark of God had David brought up from Kiriath-jearim to [the place] that David had prepared for it; for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem.

⁵Moreover the brazen altar, that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the tent of Yahweh: and Solomon and the assembly sought to it.

⁶Solomon went up there to the brazen altar before Yahweh, which was at the tent of meeting, and offered one thousand burnt offerings on it.

⁷In that night did God appear to Solomon, and said to him, Ask what I shall give you.

⁸Solomon said to God, You have showed great lovingkindness to David my father, and have made me king in his place.

⁹Now, Yahweh God, let your promise to David my father be established; for you have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude.

¹⁰Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this your people, that is so great?

¹¹God said to Solomon, Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches, wealth, or honor, nor the life of those who hate you, neither yet have asked long life; but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge my people, over whom I have made you king:

¹²wisdom and knowledge is granted to you; and I will give you riches, and wealth, and honor, such as none of the kings have had who have been before you; neither shall there any after you have the like.

¹³So Solomon came from the high place that was at Gibeon, from before the tent of meeting, to Jerusalem; and he reigned over Israel.

¹⁴Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen: and he had one thousand four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, that he placed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.

¹⁵The king made silver and gold to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycamore-trees that are in the lowland, for abundance.

¹⁶The horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt; the king's merchants received them in droves, each drove at a price.

¹⁷They fetched up and brought out of Egypt a chariot for six hundred [shekels] of silver, and a horse for one hundred fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means.

2Now Solomon purposed to build a house for the name of Yahweh, and a house for his kingdom.

²Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to bear burdens, and eighty thousand men who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand and six hundred to oversee them.

³Solomon sent to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, As you did deal with David my father, and did send him cedars to build him a house to dwell therein, [even so deal with me].

⁴Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of Yahweh my God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before him incense of sweet spices, and for the continual show bread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts of Yahweh our God. This is [an ordinance] forever to Israel.

⁵The house which I build is great; for great is our God above all gods.

⁶But who is able to build him a house, seeing heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain him? who am I then, that I should build him a house, save only to burn incense before him?

⁷Now therefore send me a man skillful to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and who knows how to engrave [all manner of] engravings, [to be] with the skillful men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide.

⁸Send me also cedar-trees, fir-trees, and algum-trees, out of Lebanon; for I know that your servants know how to cut timber in Lebanon: and, behold, my servants shall be with your servants,

⁹even to prepare me timber in abundance; for the house which I am about to build shall be great and wonderful.

¹⁰Behold, I will give to your servants, the cutters who cut timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.

¹¹Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, Because Yahweh loves his people, he has made you king over them.

¹²Huram said moreover, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, that made heaven and earth, who has given to David the king a wise son, endowed with discretion and understanding, that should build a house for Yahweh, and a house for his kingdom.

¹³Now I have sent a skillful man, endowed with understanding, of Huram my father's,

¹⁴the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan; and his father was a man of Tyre, skillful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson, also to engrave any manner of engraving, and to devise any device; that there may be [a place] appointed to him with your skillful men, and with the skillful men of my lord David your father.

¹⁵Now therefore the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine, which my lord has spoken of, let him send to his servants:

¹⁶and we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as you shall need; and we will bring it to you in floats by sea to Joppa; and you shall carry it up to Jerusalem.

¹⁷Solomon numbered all the sojourners who were in the land of Israel, after the numbering with which David his father had numbered them; and they were found one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred.

¹⁸He set seventy thousand of them to bear burdens, and eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains, and three thousand six hundred overseers to set the people at work.

3Then Solomon began to build the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where [Yahweh] appeared to David his father, which he made ready in the place that David had appointed, in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

²He began to build in the second [day] of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.

³Now these are the foundations which Solomon laid for the building of the house of God. The length by cubits after the first measure was sixty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.

⁴The porch that was before [the house], the length of it, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the height one hundred twenty; and he overlaid it within with pure gold.

⁵The greater house he made a ceiling with fir-wood, which he overlaid with fine gold, and worked thereon palm-trees and chains.

⁶He garnished the house with precious stones for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim.

⁷He overlaid also the house, the beams, the thresholds, and the walls of it, and the doors of it, with gold; and engraved cherubim on the walls.

⁸He made the most holy house: the length of it, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the breadth of it twenty cubits; and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents.

⁹The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He overlaid the upper chambers with gold.

¹⁰In the most holy house he made two cherubim of image work; and they overlaid them with gold.

¹¹The wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits long: the wing of the one [cherub] was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house; and the other wing was [likewise] five cubits, reaching to the wing of the other cherub.

¹²The wing of the other cherub was five cubits, reaching to the wall of the house; and the other wing was five cubits [also], joining to the wing of the other cherub.

¹³The wings of these cherubim spread themselves forth twenty cubits: and they stood on their feet, and their faces were toward the house.

¹⁴He made the veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and worked cherubim thereon.

¹⁵Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty-five cubits high, and the capital that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.

¹⁶He made chains in the oracle, and put [them] on the tops of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains.

¹⁷He set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz.

4Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length of it, and twenty cubits the breadth of it, and ten cubits the height of it.

²Also he made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass; and the height of it was five cubits; and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about.

³Under it was the likeness of oxen, which did compass it round about, for ten cubits, compassing the sea round about. The oxen were in two rows, cast when it was cast.

⁴It stood on twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east: and the sea was set on them above, and all their hinder parts were inward.

⁵It was a handbreadth thick; and the brim of it was worked like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily: it received and held three thousand baths.

⁶He made also ten basins, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as belonged to the burnt-offering they washed in them; but the sea was for the priests to wash in.

⁷He made the ten lampstands of gold according to the ordinance concerning them; and he set them in the temple, five on the right hand, and five on the left.

⁸He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. He made one hundred basins of gold.

⁹Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great court, and doors for the court, and overlaid the doors of them with brass.

¹⁰He set the sea on the right side [of the house] eastward, toward the south.

¹¹Huram made the pots, and the shovels, and the basins. So Huram made an end of doing the work that he did for king Solomon in the house of God:

¹²the two pillars, and the bowls, and the two capitals which were on the top of the pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars,

¹³and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks; two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars.

¹⁴He made also the bases, and the basins made he on the bases;

¹⁵one sea, and the twelve oxen under it.

¹⁶The pots also, and the shovels, and the flesh-hooks, and all the vessels of it, did Huram his father make for king Solomon for the house of Yahweh of bright brass.

¹⁷In the plain of the Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredah.

¹⁸Thus Solomon made all these vessels in great abundance: for the weight of the brass could not be found out.

¹⁹Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of God, the golden altar also, and the tables whereon was the show bread;

²⁰and the lampstands with their lamps, to burn according to the ordinance before the oracle, of pure gold;

²¹and the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, of gold, and that perfect gold;

²²and the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and the fire pans, of pure gold: and as for the entry of the house, the inner doors of it for the most holy place, and the doors of the house, [to wit], of the temple, were of gold.

5Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of Yahweh was finished. Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated, even the silver, and the gold, and all the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the house of God.

²Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers' [houses] of the children of Israel, to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh out of the city of David, which is Zion.

³nd all the men of Israel assembled themselves to the king at the feast, which was [in] the seventh month.

⁴All the elders of Israel came: and the Levites took up the ark;

⁵and they brought up the ark, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent; these did the priests the Levites bring up.

⁶King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, that were assembled to him, were before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be counted nor numbered for multitude.

⁷The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim.

⁸For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and the poles of it above.

⁹The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the ark before the oracle; but they were not seen outside: and there it is to this day.

¹⁰There was nothing in the ark save the two tables which Moses put [there] at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt.

¹¹It happened, when the priests were come out of the holy place, (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, and did not keep their courses;

¹²also the Levites who were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them one hundred twenty priests sounding with trumpets;)

¹³it happened, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Yahweh; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised Yahweh, [saying], For he is good; for his lovingkindness endures forever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of Yahweh,

¹⁴so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of God.

6Then spoke Solomon, Yahweh has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

²But I have built you a house of habitation, and a place for you to dwell in forever.

³The king turned his face, and blessed all the assembly of Israel: and all the assembly of Israel stood.

⁴He said, Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David my father, and has with his hands fulfilled it, saying,

⁵Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be prince over my people Israel:

⁶but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.

⁷Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

⁸But Yahweh said to David my father, Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart:

⁹nevertheless you shall not build the house; but your son who shall come forth out of your loins, he shall build the house for my name.

¹⁰Yahweh has performed his word that he spoke; for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised, and have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

¹¹There have I set the ark, in which is the covenant of Yahweh, which he made with the children of Israel.

¹²He stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands

¹³(for Solomon had made a brazen scaffold, five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and on it he stood, and kneeled down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven;)

¹⁴and he said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven, or on earth; who keep covenant and lovingkindness with your servants, who walk before you with all their heart;

¹⁵who have kept with your servant David my father that which you did promise him: yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is this day.

¹⁶Now therefore, Yahweh, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, There shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as you have walked before me.

¹⁷Now therefore, Yahweh, the God of Israel, let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David.

¹⁸But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain you; how much less this house which I have built!

¹⁹Yet have you respect to the prayer of your servant, and to his supplication, Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you;

²⁰that your eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place whereof you have said that you would put your name there; to listen to the prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place.

²¹Listen you to the petitions of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: yes, hear from your dwelling-place, even from heaven; and when you hear, forgive.

²²If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house;

²³then hear from heaven, and do, and judge your servants, requiting the wicked, to bring his way on his own head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

²⁴If your people Israel be struck down before the enemy, because they have sinned against you, and shall turn again and confess your name, and pray and make supplication before you in this house;

²⁵then hear from heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers.

²⁶When the sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin, when you do afflict them:

²⁷then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.

²⁸If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting or mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there be;

²⁹whatever prayer and supplication be made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall know every man his own plague and his own sorrow, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house:

³⁰then hear from heaven, your dwelling-place and forgive, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know; (for you, even you only, know the hearts of the children of men;)

³¹that they may fear you, to walk in your ways, so long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

³²Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he shall come from a far country for your great name's sake, and your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm; when they shall come and pray toward this house:

³³then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling-place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, and fear you, as does your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

³⁴If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to you toward this city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name;

³⁵then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

³⁶If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn't sin), and you be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to a land far off or near;

³⁷yet if they shall repent themselves in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly;

³⁸if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have carried them captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name:

³⁹then hear from heaven, even from your dwelling-place, their prayer and their petitions, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

⁴⁰Now, my God, let, I beg you, your eyes be open, and let your ears be attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place.

⁴¹Now therefore arise, Yahweh God, into your resting-place, you, and the ark of your strength: let your priests, Yahweh God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in goodness.

⁴²Yahweh God, don't turn away the face of your anointed: remember [your] lovingkindnesses to David your servant.

7Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Yahweh filled the house.

²The priests could not enter into the house of Yahweh, because the glory of Yahweh filled Yahweh's house.

³All the children of Israel looked on, when the fire came down, and the glory of Yahweh was on the house; and they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshipped, and gave thanks to Yahweh, [saying], For he is good; for his lovingkindness endures for ever.

⁴Then the king and all the people offered sacrifice before Yahweh.

⁵King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.

⁶The priests stood, according to their offices; the Levites also with instruments of music of Yahweh, which David the king had made to give thanks to Yahweh, (for his lovingkindness endures for ever,) when David praised by their ministry: and the priests sounded trumpets before them; and all Israel stood.

⁷Moreover Solomon made the middle of the court holy that was before the house of Yahweh; for there he offered the burnt offerings, and the fat of the peace-offerings, because the brazen altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offering, and the meal-offering, and the fat.

⁸So Solomon held the feast at that time seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt.

⁹On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly: for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.

¹⁰On the three and twentieth day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that Yahweh had showed to David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.

¹¹Thus Solomon finished the house of Yahweh, and the king's house: and all that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of Yahweh, and in his own house, he prosperously effected.

¹²Yahweh appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him, I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice.

¹³If I shut up the sky so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;

¹⁴if my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

¹⁵Now my eyes shall be open, and my ears attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place.

¹⁶For now have I chosen and made this house holy, that my name may be there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.

¹⁷As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances;

¹⁸then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, according as I covenanted with David your father, saying, There shall not fail you a man to be ruler in Israel.

¹⁹But if you turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;

²⁰then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

²¹This house, which is so high, everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall say, Why has Yahweh done thus to this land, and to this house?

²²They shall answer, Because they forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore has he brought all this evil on them.

8It happened at the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of Yahweh, and his own house,

²that the cities which Huram had given to Solomon, Solomon built them, and caused the children of Israel to dwell there.

³Solomon went to Hamath-zobah, and prevailed against it.

⁴He built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the store-cities, which he built in Hamath.

⁵Also he built Beth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, fortified cities, with walls, gates, and bars;

⁶and Baalath, and all the store-cities that Solomon had, and all the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

⁷As for all the people who were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel;

⁸of their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel didn't consume, of them did Solomon raise a levy [of bondservants] to this day.

⁹But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.

¹⁰These were the chief officers of king Solomon, even two hundred fifty, who ruled over the people.

¹¹Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David to the house that he had built for her; for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy, whereunto the ark of Yahweh has come.

¹²Then Solomon offered burnt-offerings to Yahweh on the altar of Yahweh, which he had built before the porch,

¹³even as the duty of every day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times in the year, [even] in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents.

¹⁴He appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the courses of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their offices, to praise, and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required; the doorkeepers also by their courses at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded.

¹⁵They didn't depart from the commandment of the king to the priests and Levites concerning any matter, or concerning the treasures.

¹⁶Now all the work of Solomon was prepared to the day of the foundation of the house of Yahweh, and until it was finished. [So] the house of Yahweh was completed.

¹⁷Then went Solomon to Ezion-geber, and to Eloth, on the seashore in the land of Edom.

¹⁸Huram sent him by the hands of his servants ships, and servants who had knowledge of the sea; and they came with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and fetched from there four hundred fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.

9When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great train, and camels that bore spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she talked with him of all that was in her heart.

²Solomon told her all her questions; and there was not anything hid from Solomon which he didn't tell her.

³When the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built,

⁴and the food of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their clothing, his cup bearers also, and their clothing, and his ascent by which he went up to the house of Yahweh; there was no more spirit in her.

⁵She said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in my own land of your acts, and of your wisdom.

⁶However I didn't believe their words, until I came, and my eyes had seen it; and, behold, the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me: you exceed the fame that I heard.

⁷Happy are your men, and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you, and hear your wisdom.

⁸Blessed be Yahweh your God, who delighted in you, to set you on his throne, to be king for Yahweh your God: because your God loved Israel, to establish them forever, therefore made he you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.

⁹She gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, and spices in great abundance, and precious stones: neither was there any such spice as the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.

¹⁰The servants also of Huram, and the servants of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, brought algum-trees and precious stones.

¹¹The king made of the algum-trees terraces for the house of Yahweh, and for the king's house, and harps and psalteries for the singers: and there were none such seen before in the land of Judah.

¹²King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatever she asked, besides that which she had brought to the king. So she turned, and went to her own land, she and her servants.

¹³Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,

¹⁴besides that which the traders and merchants brought: and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵King Solomon made two hundred bucklers of beaten gold; six hundred [shekels] of beaten gold went to one buckler.

¹⁶[he made] three hundred shields of beaten gold; three hundred [shekels] of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold.

¹⁸nd there were six steps to the throne, with a footstool of gold, which were fastened to the throne, and stays on either side by the place of the seat, and two lions standing beside the stays.

¹⁹Twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other on the six steps: there was nothing like it made in any kingdom.

²⁰All king Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold: silver was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.

²¹For the king had ships that went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.

²²So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

²³All the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

²⁴They brought every man his tribute, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and clothing, armor, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.

²⁵Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, that he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.

²⁶He ruled over all the kings from the River even to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt.

²⁷The king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycamore-trees that are in the lowland, for abundance.

²⁸They brought horses for Solomon out of Egypt, and out of all lands.

²⁹Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, aren't they written in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

³⁰Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.

³¹Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

10Rehoboam went to Shechem; for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.

²It happened, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it, (for he was in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of king Solomon,) that Jeroboam returned out of Egypt.

³They sent and called him; and Jeroboam and all Israel came, and they spoke to Rehoboam, saying,

⁴Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make you the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.

⁵He said to them, Come again to me after three days. The people departed.

⁶King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying, What counsel give you me to return answer to this people?

⁷They spoke to him, saying, If you be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.

⁸But he forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him.

⁹He said to them, What counsel give you, that we may return answer to this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke that your father did put on us lighter?

¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, Thus shall you tell the people who spoke to you, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy, but make you it lighter to us; thus shall you say to them, My little finger is thicker than my father's loins.

¹¹Now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I [will chastise you] with scorpions.

¹²So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king bade, saying, Come to me again the third day.

¹³The king answered them roughly; and king Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men,

¹⁴and spoke to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I [will chastise you] with scorpions.

¹⁵So the king didn't listen to the people; for it was brought about of God, that Yahweh might establish his word, which he spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king didn't listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to your tents, Israel: now see to your own house, David. So all Israel departed to their tents.

¹⁷But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

¹⁸Then king Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was over the men subject to forced labor; and the children of Israel stoned him to death with stones. King Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.

¹⁹So Israel rebelled against the house of David to this day.

11When Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, one hundred eighty thousand chosen men, who were warriors, to fight against Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam.

²But the word of Yahweh came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,

³Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying,

⁴Thus says Yahweh, You shall not go up, nor fight against your brothers: return every man to his house; for this thing is of me. So they listened to the words of Yahweh, and returned from going against Jeroboam.

⁵Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and built cities for defense in Judah.

⁶He built Beth-lehem, and Etam, and Tekoa,

⁷Beth-zur, and Soco, and Adullam,

⁸and Gath, and Mareshah, and Ziph,

⁹and Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah,

¹⁰and Zorah, and Aijalon, and Hebron, which are in Judah and in Benjamin, fortified cities.

¹¹He fortified the strongholds, and put captains in them, and stores of victuals, and oil and wine.

¹²In every city [he put] shields and spears, and made them exceeding strong. Judah and Benjamin belonged to him.

¹³The priests and the Levites who were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their border.

¹⁴For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons cast them off, that they should not execute the priest's office to Yahweh;

¹⁵and he appointed him priests for the high places, and for the male goats, and for the calves which he had made.

¹⁶After them, out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

¹⁷So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong, three years; for they walked three years in the way of David and Solomon.

¹⁸Rehoboam took him a wife, Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David, [and of] Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse;

¹⁹and she bore him sons: Jeush, and Shemariah, and Zaham.

²⁰After her he took Maacah the daughter of Absalom; and she bore him Abijah, and Attai, and Ziza, and Shelomith.

²¹Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines: (for he took eighteen wives, and sixty concubines, and became the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.)

²²Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maacah to be chief, [even] the prince among his brothers; for [he was minded] to make him king.

²³He dealt wisely, and dispersed of all his sons throughout all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, to every fortified city: and he gave them victuals in abundance. He sought [for them] many wives.

12It happened, when the kingdom of Rehoboam was established, and he was strong, that he forsook the law of Yahweh, and all Israel with him.

²It happened in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had trespassed against Yahweh,

³with twelve hundred chariots, and sixty thousand horsemen. The people were without number who came with him out of Egypt: the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians.

⁴He took the fortified cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem.

⁵Now Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam, and to the princes of Judah, who were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, Thus says Yahweh, You have forsaken me, therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.

⁶Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, Yahweh is righteous.

⁷When Yahweh saw that they humbled themselves, the word of Yahweh came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves: I will not destroy them; but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.

⁸Nevertheless they shall be his servants, that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.

⁹So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king's house: he took all away: he took away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

¹⁰King Rehoboam made in their place shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the door of the king's house.

¹¹It was so, that as often as the king entered into the house of Yahweh, the guard came and bore them, and brought them back into the guard-chamber.

¹²When he humbled himself, the wrath of Yahweh turned from him, so as not to destroy him altogether: and moreover in Judah there were good things [found].

¹³So king Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem, and reigned: for Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which Yahweh had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there: and his mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess.

¹⁴He did that which was evil, because he didn't set his heart to seek Yahweh.

¹⁵Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, aren't they written in the histories of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, after the manner of genealogies? There were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.

¹⁶Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David: and Abijah his son reigned in his place.

13In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah.

²Three years reigned he in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.

³Abijah joined battle with an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men: and Jeroboam set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, who were mighty men of valor.

⁴Abijah stood up on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill-country of Ephraim, and said, Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel:

⁵Ought you not to know that Yahweh, the God of Israel, gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?

⁶Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up, and rebelled against his lord.

⁷There were gathered to him worthless men, base fellows, who strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tender-hearted, and could not withstand them.

⁸Now you think to withstand the kingdom of Yahweh in the hand of the sons of David; and you are a great multitude, and there are with you the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods.

⁹Haven't you driven out the priests of Yahweh, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made you priests after the manner of the peoples of [other] lands? so that whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams, the same may be a priest of [those who are] no gods.

¹⁰But as for us, Yahweh is our God, and we have not forsaken him; and [we have] priests ministering to Yahweh, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites in their work:

¹¹and they burn to Yahweh every morning and every evening burnt offerings and sweet incense: the show bread also [set they] in order on the pure table; and the lampstand of gold with the lamps of it, to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of Yahweh our God; but you have forsaken him.

¹²Behold, God is with us at our head, and his priests with the trumpets of alarm to sound an alarm against you. Children of Israel, don't you fight against Yahweh, the God of your fathers; for you shall not prosper.

¹³But Jeroboam caused an ambush to come about behind them: so they were before Judah, and the ambush was behind them.

¹⁴When Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them; and they cried to Yahweh, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.

¹⁵Then the men of Judah gave a shout: and as the men of Judah shouted, it happened, that God struck Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.

¹⁶The children of Israel fled before Judah; and God delivered them into their hand.

¹⁷Abijah and his people killed them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men.

¹⁸Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied on Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

¹⁹Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Bethel with the towns of it, and Jeshanah with the towns of it, and Ephron with the towns of it.

²⁰Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of Abijah: and Yahweh struck him, and he died.

²¹But Abijah grew mighty, and took to himself fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons, and sixteen daughters.

²²The rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings, are written in the commentary of the prophet Iddo.

14So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet ten years.

²Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of Yahweh his God:

³for he took away the foreign altars, and the high places, and broke down the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim,

⁴and commanded Judah to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment.

⁵Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-images: and the kingdom was quiet before him.

⁶He built fortified cities in Judah; for the land was quiet, and he had no war in those years, because Yahweh had given him rest.

⁷For he said to Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars; the land is yet before us, because we have sought Yahweh our God; we have sought him, and he has given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered.

⁸Asa had an army that bore bucklers and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bore shields and drew bows, two hundred eighty thousand: all these were mighty men of valor.

⁹There came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an army of a million troops, and three hundred chariots; and he came to Mareshah.

¹⁰Then Asa went out to meet him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.

¹¹Asa cried to Yahweh his God, and said, Yahweh, there is none besides you to help, between the mighty and him who has no strength: help us, Yahweh our God; for we rely on you, and in your name are we come against this multitude. Yahweh, you are our God; don't let man prevail against you.

¹²So Yahweh struck the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled.

¹³Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar: and there fell of the Ethiopians so many that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before Yahweh, and before his host; and they carried away very much booty.

¹⁴They struck all the cities round about Gerar; for the fear of Yahweh came on them: and they despoiled all the cities; for there was much spoil in them.

¹⁵They struck also the tents of cattle, and carried away sheep in abundance, and camels, and returned to Jerusalem.

15The Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded:

²and he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, Hear you me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: Yahweh is with you, while you are with him; and if you seek him, he will be found of you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

³Now for a long season Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law:

⁴But when in their distress they turned to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them.

⁵In those times there was no peace to him who went out, nor to him who came in; but great vexations were on all the inhabitants of the lands.

⁶They were broken in pieces, nation against nation, and city against city; for God did vex them with all adversity.

⁷But be you strong, and don't let your hands be slack; for your work shall be rewarded.

⁸When Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he renewed the altar of Yahweh, that was before the porch of Yahweh.

⁹He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who sojourned with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that Yahweh his God was with him.

¹⁰So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.

¹¹They sacrificed to Yahweh in that day, of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.

¹²They entered into the covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul;

¹³and that whoever would not seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.

¹⁴They swore to Yahweh with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets.

¹⁵All Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and Yahweh gave them rest round about.

¹⁶Also Maacah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed from being queen, because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah; and Asa cut down her image, and made dust of it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.

¹⁷But the high places were not taken away out of Israel: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.

¹⁸He brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated, and that he himself had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels.

¹⁹There was no more war to the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa.

16In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.

²Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of Yahweh and of the king's house, and sent to Ben-hadad king of Syria, who lived at Damascus, saying,

³[There is] a league between me and you, as [there was] between my father and your father: behold, I have sent you silver and gold; go, break your league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.

⁴Ben-hadad listened to king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel; and they struck Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-maim, and all the store-cities of Naphtali.

⁵It happened, when Baasha heard of it, that he left off building Ramah, and let his work cease.

⁶Then Asa the king took all Judah; and they carried away the stones of Ramah, and the timber of it, with which Baasha had built; and he built therewith Geba and Mizpah.

⁷At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him, Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on Yahweh your God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of your hand.

⁸Weren't the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge host, with chariots and horsemen exceeding many? yet, because you did rely on Yahweh, he delivered them into your hand.

⁹For the eyes of Yahweh run back and forth throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein you have done foolishly; for from henceforth you shall have wars.

¹⁰Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in the prison-house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.

¹¹Behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

¹²In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet; his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he didn't seek Yahweh, but to the physicians.

¹³Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign.

¹⁴They buried him in his own tombs, which he had hewn out for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and various kinds [of spices] prepared by the perfumers' are: and they made a very great burning for him.

17Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place, and strengthened himself against Israel.

²He placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken.

³Yahweh was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and didn't seek the Baals,

⁴but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.

⁵Therefore Yahweh established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat tribute; and he had riches and honor in abundance.

⁶His heart was lifted up in the ways of Yahweh: and furthermore he took away the high places and the Asherim out of Judah.

⁷Also in the third year of his reign he sent his princes, even Ben-hail, and Obadiah, and Zechariah, and Nethanel, and Micaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah;

⁸and with them the Levites, even Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asahel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and Tob-adonijah, the Levites; and with them Elishama and Jehoram, the priests.

⁹They taught in Judah, having the book of the law of Yahweh with them; and they went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught among the people.

¹⁰The fear of Yahweh fell on all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat.

¹¹Some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents, and silver for tribute; the Arabians also brought him flocks, seven thousand and seven hundred rams, and seven thousand and seven hundred male goats.

¹²Jehoshaphat grew great exceedingly; and he built in Judah castles and cities of store.

¹³He had many works in the cities of Judah; and men of war, mighty men of valor, in Jerusalem.

¹⁴This was the numbering of them according to their fathers' houses: Of Judah, the captains of thousands: Adnah the captain, and with him mighty men of valor three hundred thousand;

¹⁵and next to him Jehohanan the captain, and with him two hundred eighty thousand;

¹⁶and next to him Amasiah the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself to Yahweh; and with him two hundred thousand mighty men of valor.

¹⁷Of Benjamin: Eliada a mighty man of valor, and with him two hundred thousand armed with bow and shield;

¹⁸and next to him Jehozabad and with him one hundred eighty thousand ready prepared for war.

¹⁹These were those who waited on the king, besides those whom the king put in the fortified cities throughout all Judah.

18Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance; and he joined affinity with Ahab.

²After certain years he went down to Ahab to Samaria. Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, and for the people who were with him, and moved him to go up [with him] to Ramoth-gilead.

³Ahab king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead? He answered him, I am as you are, and my people as your people; and [we will be] with you in the war.

⁴Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, Please inquire first for the word of Yahweh.

⁵Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred men, and said to them, Shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? They said, Go up; for God will deliver it into the hand of the king.

⁶But Jehoshaphat said, Isn't there here a prophet of Yahweh besides, that we may inquire of him?

⁷The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of Yahweh: but I hate him; for he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil: the same is Micaiah the son of Imla. Jehoshaphat said, Don't let the king say so.

⁸Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Get quickly Micaiah the son of Imla.

⁹Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, and they were sitting in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them.

¹⁰Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron, and said, Thus says Yahweh, With these shall you push the Syrians, until they be consumed.

¹¹All the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper; for Yahweh will deliver it into the hand of the king.

¹²The messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, Behold, the words of the prophets [declare] good to the king with one mouth: let your word therefore, Please be like one of theirs, and speak you good.

¹³Micaiah said, As Yahweh lives, what my God says, that will I speak.

¹⁴When he was come to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? He said, Go you up, and prosper; and they shall be delivered into your hand.

¹⁵The king said to him, How many times shall I adjure you that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of Yahweh?

¹⁶He said, I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and Yahweh said, These have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace.

¹⁷The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Didn't I tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?

¹⁸[Micaiah] said, Therefore hear you the word of Yahweh: I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left.

¹⁹Yahweh said, Who shall entice Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? One spoke saying after this manner, and another saying after that manner.

²⁰There came forth a spirit, and stood before Yahweh, and said, I will entice him. Yahweh said to him, 'How?'

²¹He said, 'I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' He said, 'You shall entice him, and shall prevail also: go forth, and do so.'

²²Now therefore, behold, Yahweh has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets; and Yahweh has spoken evil concerning you.

²³Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the Spirit of Yahweh from me to speak to you?

²⁴Micaiah said, Behold, you shall see on that day, when you shall go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.

²⁵The king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son;

²⁶and say, Thus says the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I return in peace.

²⁷Micaiah said, If you return at all in peace, Yahweh has not spoken by me. He said, Hear, you peoples, all of you.

²⁸So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead.

²⁹The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and go into the battle; but put you on your robes. So the king of Israel disguised himself; and they went into the battle.

³⁰Now the king of Syria had commanded the captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel.

³¹It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, It is the king of Israel. Therefore they turned about to fight against him: but Jehoshaphat cried out, and Yahweh helped him; and God moved them [to depart] from him.

³²It happened, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him.

³³A certain man drew his bow at a venture, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of the armor: why he said to the driver of the chariot, Turn your hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am sore wounded.

³⁴The battle increased that day: however the king of Israel stayed himself up in his chariot against the Syrians until the even; and about the time of the going down of the sun he died.

19Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem.

²Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Should you help the wicked, and love those who hate Yahweh? for this thing wrath is on you from before Yahweh.

³Nevertheless there are good things found in you, in that you have put away the Asheroth out of the land, and have set your heart to seek God.

⁴Jehoshaphat lived at Jerusalem: and he went out again among the people from Beersheba to the hill-country of Ephraim, and brought them back to Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

⁵He set judges in the land throughout all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city,

⁶and said to the judges, Consider what you do: for you don't judge for man, but for Yahweh; and [he is] with you in the judgment.

⁷Now therefore let the fear of Yahweh be on you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with Yahweh our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of bribes.

⁸Moreover in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites and the priests, and of the heads of the fathers' [houses] of Israel, for the judgment of Yahweh, and for controversies. They returned to Jerusalem.

⁹He charged them, saying, Thus shall you do in the fear of Yahweh, faithfully, and with a perfect heart.

¹⁰Whenever any controversy shall come to you from your brothers who dwell in their cities, between blood and blood, between law and commandment, statutes and ordinances, you shall warn them, that they not be guilty towards Yahweh, and so wrath come on you and on your brothers: this do, and you shall not be guilty.

¹¹Behold, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters of Yahweh; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, in all the king's matters: also the Levites shall be officers before you. Deal courageously, and Yahweh be with the good.

20It happened after this, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them some of the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.

²Then there came some who told Jehoshaphat, saying, There comes a great multitude against you from beyond the sea from Syria; and, behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (the same is En-gedi).

³Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek to Yahweh; and he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

⁴Judah gathered themselves together, to seek [help] of Yahweh: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek Yahweh.

⁵Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of Yahweh, before the new court;

⁶and he said, Yahweh, the God of our fathers, aren't you God in heaven? and aren't you ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? and in your hand is power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.

⁷Did not you, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it to the seed of Abraham your friend forever?

⁸They lived therein, and have built you a sanctuary therein for your name, saying,

⁹If evil come on us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house, and before you, (for your name is in this house,) and cry to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.

¹⁰Now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned aside from them, and didn't destroy them;

¹¹behold, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit.

¹²Our God, will you not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that comes against us; neither know we what to do: but out eyes are on you.

¹³All Judah stood before Yahweh, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.

¹⁴Then on Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, the Levite, of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of Yahweh in the midst of the assembly;

¹⁵and he said, Listen you, all Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you king Jehoshaphat: Thus says Yahweh to you, Don't be afraid you, neither be dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.

¹⁶Tomorrow go you down against them: behold, they come up by the ascent of Ziz; and you shall find them at the end of the valley, before the wilderness of Jeruel.

¹⁷You shall not need to fight in this [battle]: set yourselves, stand you still, and see the salvation of Yahweh with you, O Judah and Jerusalem; don't be afraid, nor be dismayed: tomorrow go out against them: for Yahweh is with you.

¹⁸Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before Yahweh, worshipping Yahweh.

¹⁹The Levites, of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites, stood up to praise Yahweh, the God of Israel, with an exceeding loud voice.

²⁰They rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: believe in Yahweh your God, so shall you be established; believe his prophets, so shall you prosper.

²¹When he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who should sing to Yahweh, and give praise in holy array, as they went out before the army, and say, Give thanks to Yahweh; for his lovingkindness endures forever.

²²When they began to sing and to praise, Yahweh set liers-in-wait against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were struck.

²³For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to kill and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy another.

²⁴When Judah came to the watch-tower of the wilderness, they looked at the multitude; and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and there were none who escaped.

²⁵When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches and dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away: and they were three days in taking the spoil, it was so much.

²⁶On the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Beracah; for there they blessed Yahweh: therefore the name of that place was called The valley of Beracah to this day.

²⁷Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, and Jehoshaphat in the forefront of them, to go again to Jerusalem with joy; for Yahweh had made them to rejoice over their enemies.

²⁸They came to Jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets to the house of Yahweh.

²⁹The fear of God was on all the kingdoms of the countries, when they heard that Yahweh fought against the enemies of Israel.

³⁰So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet; for his God gave him rest round about.

³¹Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah: he was thirty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi.

³²He walked in the way of Asa his father, and didn't turn aside from it, doing that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh.

³³However the high places were not taken away; neither as yet had the people set their hearts to the God of their fathers.

³⁴Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, behold, they are written in the history of Jehu the son of Hanani, which is inserted in the book of the kings of Israel.

³⁵After this did Jehoshaphat king of Judah join himself with Ahaziah king of Israel; the same did very wickedly:

³⁶and he joined himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish; and they made the ships in Ezion-geber.

³⁷Then Eliezer the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, Because you have joined yourself with Ahaziah, Yahweh has destroyed your works. The ships were broken, so that they were not able to go to Tarshish.

21Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Jehoram his son reigned in his place.

²He had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah, and Jehiel, and Zechariah, and Azariah, and Michael, and Shephatiah; all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel.

³Their father gave them great gifts, of silver, and of gold, and of precious things, with fortified cities in Judah: but the kingdom gave he to Jehoram, because he was the firstborn.

⁴Now when Jehoram was risen up over the kingdom of his father, and had strengthened himself, he killed all his brothers with the sword, and various also of the princes of Israel.

⁵Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

⁶He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab; for he had the daughter of Ahab as wife: and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

⁷However Yahweh would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and as he promised to give a lamp to him and to his children always.

⁸In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves.

⁹Then Jehoram passed over with his captains, and all his chariots with him: and he rose up by night, and struck the Edomites who surrounded him, along with the captains of the chariots.

¹⁰So Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah to this day: then did Libnah revolt at the same time from under his hand, because he had forsaken Yahweh, the God of his fathers.

¹¹Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and made the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the prostitute, and led Judah astray.

¹²There came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your father, Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah,

¹³but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to play the prostitute, like as the house of Ahab did, and also have slain your brothers of your father's house, who were better than yourself:

¹⁴behold, Yahweh will strike with a great plague your people, and your children, and your wives, and all your substance;

¹⁵and you shall have great sickness by disease of your bowels, until your bowels fall out by reason of the sickness, day by day.

¹⁶Yahweh stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians who are beside the Ethiopians:

¹⁷and they came up against Judah, and broke into it, and carried away all the substance that was found in the king's house, and his sons also, and his wives; so that there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.

¹⁸After all this Yahweh struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease.

¹⁹It happened, in process of time, at the end of two years, that his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness, and he died of sore diseases. His people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers.

²⁰Thirty-two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years: and he departed without being desired; and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

22The inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his place; for the band of men who came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the eldest. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned.

²Forty-two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri.

³He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab; for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly.

⁴He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as did the house of Ahab; for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his destruction.

⁵He walked also after their counsel, and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel to war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramoth-gilead: and the Syrians wounded Joram.

⁶He returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which they had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. Azariah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.

⁷Now the destruction of Ahaziah was of God, in that he went to Joram: for when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom Yahweh had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.

⁸It happened, when Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, that he found the princes of Judah, and the sons of the brothers of Ahaziah, ministering to Ahaziah, and killed them.

⁹He sought Ahaziah, and they caught him (now he was hiding in Samaria), and they brought him to Jehu, and killed him; and they buried him, for they said, He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought Yahweh with all his heart. The house of Ahaziah had no power to hold the kingdom.

¹⁰Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah.

¹¹But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons who were slain, and put him and his nurse in the bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah, so that she didn't kill him.

¹²He was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land.

23In the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds, Azariah the son of Jeroham, and Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, and Azariah the son of Obed, and Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri, into covenant with him.

²They went about in Judah, and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the heads of fathers' [houses] of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.

³All the assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. He said to them, Behold, the king's son shall reign, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the sons of David.

⁴This is the thing that you shall do: a third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be porters of the thresholds;

⁵and a third part shall be at the king's house; and a third part at the gate of the foundation: and all the people shall be in the courts of the house of Yahweh.

⁶But let none come into the house of Yahweh, save the priests, and those who minister of the Levites; they shall come in, for they are holy: but all the people shall keep the charge of Yahweh.

⁷The Levites shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand; and whoever comes into the house, let him be slain: and be you with the king when he comes in, and when he goes out.

⁸So the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they took every man his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath; with those who were to go out on the Sabbath; for Jehoiada the priest didn't dismiss the shift.

⁹Jehoiada the priest delivered to the captains of hundreds the spears, and bucklers, and shields, that had been king David's, which were in the house of God.

¹⁰He set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, by the king round about.

¹¹Then they brought out the king's son, and put the crown on him, and [gave him] the testimony, and made him king: and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him; and they said, [Long] live the king.

¹²When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the house of Yahweh:

¹³and she looked, and, behold, the king stood by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew trumpets; the singers also [played] on instruments of music, and led the singing of praise. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and said, Treason! treason!

¹⁴Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds who were set over the host, and said to them, Have her forth between the ranks; and whoever follows her, let him be slain with the sword: for the priest said, Don't kill her in the house of Yahweh.

¹⁵So they made way for her; and she went to the entrance of the horse gate to the king's house: and they killed her there.

¹⁶Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, and all the people, and the king, that they should be Yahweh's people.

¹⁷All the people went to the house of Baal, and broke it down, and broke his altars and his images in pieces, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.

¹⁸Jehoiada appointed the officers of the house of Yahweh under the hand of the priests the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of Yahweh, to offer the burnt offerings of Yahweh, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, according to the order of David.

¹⁹He set the porters at the gates of the house of Yahweh, that no one who was unclean in anything should enter in.

²⁰He took the captains of hundreds, and the nobles, and the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought down the king from the house of Yahweh: and they came through the upper gate to the king's house, and set the king on the throne of the kingdom.

²¹So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. Athaliah they had slain with the sword.

24Joash was seven years old when he began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zibiah, of Beersheba.

²Joash did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

³Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he became the father of sons and daughters.

⁴It happened after this, that Joash was minded to restore the house of Yahweh.

⁵He gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather of all Israel money to repair the house of your God from year to year; and see that you hasten the matter. However the Levites didn't hurry.

⁶The king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, Why haven't you required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the tax of Moses the servant of Yahweh, and of the assembly of Israel, for the tent of the testimony?

⁷For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of Yahweh did they bestow on the Baals.

⁸So the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the house of Yahweh.

⁹They made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in for Yahweh the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness.

¹⁰All the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had made an end.

¹¹It was so, that whenever the chest was brought to the king's officers by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king's scribe and the chief priest's officer came and emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance.

¹²The king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of Yahweh; and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of Yahweh, and also such as worked iron and brass to repair the house of Yahweh.

¹³So the workmen worked, and the work of repairing went forward in their hands, and they set up the house of God in its state, and strengthened it.

¹⁴When they had made an end, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada, whereof were made vessels for the house of Yahweh, even vessels with which to minister and to offer, and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver. They offered burnt offerings in the house of Yahweh continually all the days of Jehoiada.

¹⁵But Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died; one hundred thirty years old was he when he died.

¹⁶They buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house.

¹⁷Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king listened to them.

¹⁸They forsook the house of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols: and wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness.

¹⁹Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again to Yahweh; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear.

²⁰The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, Thus says God, Why disobey you the commandments of Yahweh, so that you can't prosper? because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has also forsaken you.

²¹They conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of Yahweh.

²²Thus Joash the king didn't remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. When he died, he said, Yahweh look on it, and require it.

²³It happened at the end of the year, that the army of the Syrians came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoil of them to the king of Damascus.

²⁴For the army of the Syrians came with a small company of men; and Yahweh delivered a very great host into their hand, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers. So they executed judgment on Joash.

²⁵When they were departed for him (for they left him very sick), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and killed him on his bed, and he died; and they buried him in the city of David, but they didn't bury him in the tombs of the kings.

²⁶These are those who conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath the Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith the Moabitess.

²⁷Now concerning his sons, and the greatness of the burdens [laid] on him, and the rebuilding of the house of God, behold, they are written in the commentary of the book of the kings. Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

25Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jehoaddan, of Jerusalem.

²He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, but not with a perfect heart.

³Now it happened, when the kingdom was established to him, that he killed his servants who had killed the king his father.

⁴But he didn't put their children to death, but did according to that which is written in the law in the book of Moses, as Yahweh commanded, saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers; but every man shall die for his own sin.

⁵Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and ordered them according to their fathers' houses, under captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, even all Judah and Benjamin: and he numbered them from twenty years old and upward, and found them three hundred thousand chosen men, able to go forth to war, who could handle spear and shield.

⁶He hired also one hundred thousand mighty men of valor out of Israel for one hundred talents of silver.

⁷But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, don't let the army of Israel go with you; for Yahweh is not with Israel, [to wit], with all the children of Ephraim.

⁸But if you will go, do [valiantly], be strong for the battle: God will cast you down before the enemy; for God has power to help, and to cast down.

⁹Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? The man of God answered, Yahweh is able to give you much more than this.

¹⁰Then Amaziah separated them, [to wit], the army that had come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again: why their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in fierce anger.

¹¹Amaziah took courage, and led forth his people, and went to the Valley of Salt, and struck of the children of Seir ten thousand.

¹²[other] ten thousand did the children of Judah carry away alive, and brought them to the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, so that they all were broken in pieces.

¹³But the men of the army whom Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell on the cities of Judah, from Samaria even to Beth-horon, and struck of them three thousand, and took much spoil.

¹⁴Now it happened, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense to them.

¹⁵Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him, Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which have not delivered their own people out of your hand?

¹⁶It happened, as he talked with him, that [the king] said to him, Have we made you of the king's counsel? Stop! Why should you be struck down? Then the prophet stopped, and said, I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this, and have not listened to my counsel.

¹⁷Then Amaziah king of Judah took advice, and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face.

¹⁸Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son as wife: and there passed by a wild animal that was in Lebanon, and trod down the thistle.

¹⁹You say, Behold, you have struck Edom; and your heart lifts you up to boast: abide now at home; why should you meddle to [your] hurt, that you should fall, even you, and Judah with you?

²⁰But Amaziah would not hear; for it was of God, that he might deliver them into the hand [of their enemies], because they had sought after the gods of Edom.

²¹So Joash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah.

²²Judah was put to the worse before Israel; and they fled every man to his tent.

²³Joash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits.

²⁴[He took] all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with Obed-edom, and the treasures of the king's house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria.

²⁵Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel fifteen years.

²⁶Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, behold, aren't they written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel?

²⁷Now from the time that Amaziah did turn away from following Yahweh they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish: but they sent after him to Lachish, and killed him there.

²⁸They brought him on horses, and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah.

26All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah.

²He built Eloth, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers.

³Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jechiliah, of Jerusalem.

⁴He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that his father Amaziah had done.

⁵He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God: and as long as he sought Yahweh, God made him to prosper.

⁶He went forth and warred against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in [the country of] Ashdod, and among the Philistines.

⁷God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians who lived in Gur-baal, and the Meunim.

⁸The Ammonites gave tribute to Uzziah: and his name spread abroad even to the entrance of Egypt; for he grew exceeding strong.

⁹Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, and at the turning [of the wall], and fortified them.

¹⁰He built towers in the wilderness, and hewed out many cisterns, for he had much cattle; in the lowland also, and in the plain: [and he had] farmers and vineyard keepers in the mountains and in the fruitful fields; for he loved farming.

¹¹Moreover Uzziah had an army of fighting men, who went out to war by bands, according to the number of their reckoning made by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king's captains.

¹²The whole number of the heads of fathers' [houses], even the mighty men of valor, was two thousand and six hundred.

¹³Under their hand was an army, three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred, who made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy.

¹⁴Uzziah prepared for them, even for all the host, shields, and spears, and helmets, and coats of mail, and bows, and stones for slinging.

¹⁵He made in Jerusalem engines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and on the battlements, with which to shoot arrows and great stones. His name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, until he was strong.

¹⁶But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against Yahweh his God; for he went into the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense.

¹⁷Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of Yahweh, who were valiant men:

¹⁸and they withstood Uzziah the king, and said to him, It pertains not to you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for you have trespassed; neither shall it be for your honor from Yahweh God.

¹⁹Then Uzziah was angry; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke forth in his forehead before the priests in the house of Yahweh, beside the altar of incense.

²⁰Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked on him, and, behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from there; yes, himself hurried also to go out, because Yahweh had struck him.

²¹Uzziah the king was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of Yahweh: and Jotham his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land.

²²Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write.

²³So Uzziah slept with his fathers; and they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial which belonged to the kings; for they said, He is a leper: and Jotham his son reigned in his place.

27Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok.

²He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that his father Uzziah had done: however he didn't enter into the temple of Yahweh. The people did yet corruptly.

³He built the upper gate of the house of Yahweh, and on the wall of Ophel he built much.

⁴Moreover he built cities in the hill-country of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers.

⁵He fought also with the king of the children of Ammon, and prevailed against them. The children of Ammon gave him the same year one hundred talents of silver, and ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. So much did the children of Ammon render to him, in the second year also, and in the third.

⁶So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before Yahweh his God.

⁷Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

⁸He was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.

⁹Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Ahaz his son reigned in his place.

28Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign; and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: and he didn't do that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, like David his father;

²but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for the Baals.

³Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.

⁴He sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

⁵Why Yahweh his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they struck him, and carried away of his a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter.

⁶For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed in Judah one hundred twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant men; because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

⁷Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king's son, and Azrikam the ruler of the house, and Elkanah who was next to the king.

⁸The children of Israel carried away captive of their brothers two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.

⁹But a prophet of Yahweh was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out to meet the host that came to Samaria, and said to them, Behold, because Yahweh, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hand, and you have slain them in a rage which has reached up to heaven.

¹⁰Now you purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondservants and bondmaids to you: [but] aren't there even with you trespasses of your own against Yahweh your God?

¹¹Now hear me therefore, and send back the captives, that you have taken captive of your brothers; for the fierce wrath of Yahweh is on you.

¹²Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against those who came from the war,

¹³and said to them, You shall not bring in the captives here: for you purpose that which will bring on us a trespass against Yahweh, to add to our sins and to our trespass; for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.

¹⁴So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the assembly.

¹⁵The men who have been mentioned by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all who were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them on donkeys, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm-trees, to their brothers: then they returned to Samaria.

¹⁶At that time did king Ahaz send to the kings of Assyria to help him.

¹⁷For again the Edomites had come and struck Judah, and carried away captives.

¹⁸The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland, and of the South of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, and Aijalon, and Gederoth, and Soco with the towns of it, and Timnah with the towns of it, Gimzo also and the towns of it: and they lived there.

¹⁹For Yahweh brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he had dealt wantonly in Judah, and trespassed sore against Yahweh.

²⁰Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came to him, and distressed him, but didn't strengthen him.

²¹For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of Yahweh, and out of the house of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria: but it didn't help him.

²²In the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against Yahweh, this same king Ahaz.

²³For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which struck him; and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, [therefore] will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.

²⁴Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of Yahweh; and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.

²⁵In every city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and provoked to anger Yahweh, the God of his fathers.

²⁶Now the rest of his acts, and all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

²⁷Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem; for they didn't bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

29Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.

²He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that David his father had done.

³He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of Yahweh, and repaired them.

⁴He brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the broad place on the east,

⁵and said to them, Hear me, you Levites; now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.

⁶For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of Yahweh, and turned their backs.

⁷Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.

⁸Therefore the wrath of Yahweh was on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to be an astonishment, and a hissing, as you see with your eyes.

⁹For, behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.

¹⁰Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us.

¹¹My sons, don't be negligent now; for Yahweh has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and that you should be his ministers, and burn incense.

¹²Then the Levites arose, Mahath, the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah;

¹³and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;

¹⁴and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.

¹⁵They gathered their brothers, and sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by the words of Yahweh, to cleanse the house of Yahweh.

¹⁶The priests went in to the inner part of the house of Yahweh, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of Yahweh into the court of the house of Yahweh. The Levites took it, to carry it out abroad to the brook Kidron.

¹⁷Now they began on the first [day] of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of Yahweh; and they sanctified the house of Yahweh in eight days: and on the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.

¹⁸Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within [the palace], and said, We have cleansed all the house of Yahweh, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels of it, and the table of show bread, with all the vessels of it.

¹⁹Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away when he trespassed, have we prepared and sanctified; and, behold, they are before the altar of Yahweh.

²⁰Then Hezekiah the king arose early, and gathered the princes of the city, and went up to the house of Yahweh.

²¹They brought seven bulls, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven male goats, for a sin-offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. He commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of Yahweh.

²²So they killed the bulls, and the priests received the blood, and sprinkled it on the altar: and they killed the rams, and sprinkled the blood on the altar: they killed also the lambs, and sprinkled the blood on the altar.

²³They brought near the male goats for the sin-offering before the king and the assembly; and they laid their hands on them:

²⁴and the priests killed them, and they made a sin-offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel; for the king commanded [that] the burnt offering and the sin-offering [should be made] for all Israel.

²⁵He set the Levites in the house of Yahweh with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet; for the commandment was of Yahweh by his prophets.

²⁶The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.

²⁷Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song of Yahweh began also, and the trumpets, together with the instruments of David king of Israel.

²⁸All the assembly worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this [continued] until the burnt offering was finished.

²⁹When they had made an end of offering, the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshipped.

³⁰Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises to Yahweh with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. They sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped.

³¹Then Hezekiah answered, Now you have consecrated yourselves to Yahweh; come near and bring sacrifices and thank-offerings into the house of Yahweh. The assembly brought in sacrifices and thank-offerings; and as many as were of a willing heart [brought] burnt offerings.

³²The number of the burnt offerings which the assembly brought was seventy bulls, one hundred rams, and two hundred lambs: all these were for a burnt offering to Yahweh.

³³The consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep.

³⁴But the priests were too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings: why their brothers the Levites did help them, until the work was ended, and until the priests had sanctified themselves; for the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests.

³⁵Also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace-offerings, and with the drink-offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of Yahweh was set in order.

³⁶Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, because of that which God had prepared for the people: for the thing was done suddenly.

30Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

²For the king had taken counsel, and his princes, and all the assembly in Jerusalem, to keep the Passover in the second month.

³For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, neither had the people gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.

⁴The thing was right in the eyes of the king and of all the assembly.

⁵So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover to Yahweh, the God of Israel, at Jerusalem: for they had not kept it in great numbers in such sort as it is written.

⁶So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, You children of Israel, turn again to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant that have escaped of you out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.

⁷Don't be you like your fathers, and like your brothers, who trespassed against Yahweh, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see.

⁸Now don't you be stiff-necked, as your fathers were; but yield yourselves to Yahweh, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve Yahweh your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.

⁹For if you turn again to Yahweh, your brothers and your children shall find compassion before those who led them captive, and shall come again into this land: for Yahweh your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.

¹⁰So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.

¹¹Nevertheless certain men of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.

¹²Also on Judah came the hand of God to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by the word of Yahweh.

¹³There assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly.

¹⁴They arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took they away, and cast them into the brook Kidron.

¹⁵Then they killed the Passover on the fourteenth [day] of the second month: and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought burnt offerings into the house of Yahweh.

¹⁶They stood in their place after their order, according to the law of Moses the man of God: the priests sprinkled the blood [which they received] of the hand of the Levites.

¹⁷For there were many in the assembly who had not sanctified themselves: therefore the Levites had the charge of killing the Passovers for everyone who was not clean, to sanctify them to Yahweh.

¹⁸For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the Passover otherwise than it is written. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, The good Yahweh pardon everyone

¹⁹who sets his heart to seek God, Yahweh, the God of his fathers, though not [cleansed] according to the purification of the sanctuary.

²⁰Yahweh listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.

²¹The children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness; and the Levites and the priests praised Yahweh day by day, [singing] with loud instruments to Yahweh.

²²Hezekiah spoke comfortably to all the Levites who had good understanding [in the service] of Yahweh. So they ate throughout the feast for the seven days, offering sacrifices of peace-offerings, and making confession to Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

²³The whole assembly took counsel to keep other seven days; and they kept [other] seven days with gladness.

²⁴For Hezekiah king of Judah did give to the assembly for offerings one thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep; and the princes gave to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep: and a great number of priests sanctified themselves.

²⁵All the assembly of Judah, with the priests and the Levites, and all the assembly who came out of Israel, and the sojourners who came out of the land of Israel, and who lived in Judah, rejoiced.

²⁶So there was great joy in Jerusalem; for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem.

²⁷Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people: and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.

31Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, and broke in pieces the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim, and broke down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.

²Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, both the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace-offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of Yahweh.

³[He appointed] also the king's portion of his substance for the burnt-offerings, [to wit], for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, and for the new moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of Yahweh.

⁴Moreover he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to the law of Yahweh.

⁵As soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel gave in abundance the first-fruits of grain, new wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly.

⁶The children of Israel and Judah, who lived in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of dedicated things which were consecrated to Yahweh their God, and laid them by heaps.

⁷In the third month they began to lay the foundation of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month.

⁸When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed Yahweh, and his people Israel.

⁹Then Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps.

¹⁰Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, Since [the people] began to bring the offerings into the house of Yahweh, we have eaten and had enough, and have left plenty: for Yahweh has blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store.

¹¹Then Hezekiah commanded to prepare chambers in the house of Yahweh; and they prepared them.

¹²They brought in the offerings and the tithes and the dedicated things faithfully: and over them Conaniah the Levite was ruler, and Shimei his brother was second.

¹³Jehiel, and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, were overseers under the hand of Conaniah and Shimei his brother, by the appointment of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.

¹⁴Kore the son of Imnah the Levite, the porter at the east [gate], was over the freewill-offerings of God, to distribute the offerings of Yahweh, and the most holy things.

¹⁵Under him were Eden, and Miniamin, and Jeshua, and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah, in the cities of the priests, in their office of trust, to give to their brothers by courses, as well to the great as to the small:

¹⁶besides those who were reckoned by genealogy of males, from three years old and upward, even everyone who entered into the house of Yahweh, as the duty of every day required, for their service in their offices according to their courses;

¹⁷and those who were reckoned by genealogy of the priests by their fathers' houses, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, in their offices by their courses;

¹⁸and those who were reckoned by genealogy of all their little ones, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, through all the congregation: for in their office of trust they sanctified themselves in holiness.

¹⁹Also for the sons of Aaron the priests, who were in the fields of the suburbs of their cities, in every city, there were men who were mentioned by name, to give portions to all the males among the priests, and to all who were reckoned by genealogy among the Levites.

²⁰Thus did Hezekiah throughout all Judah; and he worked that which was good and right and faithful before Yahweh his God.

²¹In every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

32After these things, and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fortified cities, and thought to win them for himself.

²When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem,

³he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the springs which were outside of the city; and they helped him.

⁴So there was gathered much people together, and they stopped all the springs, and the brook that flowed through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?

⁵He took courage, and built up all the wall that was broken down, and raised [it] up to the towers, and the other wall outside, and strengthened Millo [in] the city of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance.

⁶He set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the broad place at the gate of the city, and spoke comfortably to them, saying,

⁷Be strong and of good courage, don't be afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude who is with him; for there is a greater with us than with him:

⁸with him is an arm of flesh; but with us is Yahweh our God to help us, and to fight our battles. The people rested themselves on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

⁹After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem, (now he was before Lachish, and all his power with him,) to Hezekiah king of Judah, and to all Judah who were at Jerusalem, saying,

¹⁰Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, Whereon do you trust, that you abide the siege in Jerusalem?

¹¹Does not Hezekiah persuade you, to give you over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, Yahweh our God will deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹²Has not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, You shall worship before one altar, and on it shall you burn incense?

¹³Don't you know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands in any wise able to deliver their land out of my hand?

¹⁴Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand?

¹⁵Now therefore don't let Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you after this manner, neither believe you him; for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of my hand?

¹⁶His servants spoke yet more against Yahweh God, and against his servant Hezekiah.

¹⁷He wrote also letters, to rail on Yahweh, the God of Israel, and to speak against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of the lands, which have not delivered their people out of my hand, so shall the God of Hezekiah not deliver his people out of my hand.

¹⁸They cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them, and to trouble them; that they might take the city.

¹⁹They spoke of the God of Jerusalem, as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men's hands.

²⁰Hezekiah the king, and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, prayed because of this, and cried to heaven.

²¹Yahweh sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. When he was come into the house of his god, those who came forth from his own bowels killed him there with the sword.

²²Thus Yahweh saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all [others], and guided them on every side.

²³Many brought gifts to Yahweh to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah; so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from thenceforth.

²⁴In those days Hezekiah was sick even to death: and he prayed to Yahweh; and he spoke to him, and gave him a sign.

²⁵But Hezekiah didn't render again according to the benefit done to him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath on him, and on Judah and Jerusalem.

²⁶Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Yahweh didn't come on them in the days of Hezekiah.

²⁷Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honor: and he provided him treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of goodly vessels;

²⁸store-houses also for the increase of grain and new wine and oil; and stalls for all manner of animals, and flocks in folds.

²⁹Moreover he provided him cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance; for God had given him very much substance.

³⁰This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon, and brought them straight down on the west side of the city of David. Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

³¹However in [the business of] the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.

³²Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

³³Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the ascent of the tombs of the sons of David: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor at his death. Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

33Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.

²He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, after the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.

³For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars for the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshipped all the host of the sky, and served them.

⁴He built altars in the house of Yahweh, whereof Yahweh said, In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.

⁵He built altars for all the host of the sky in the two courts of the house of Yahweh.

⁶He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he practiced sorcery, and used enchantments, and practiced sorcery, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he worked much evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger.

⁷He set the engraved image of the idol, which he had made, in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever:

⁸neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law and the statutes and the ordinances [given] by Moses.

⁹Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did evil more than did the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel.

¹⁰Yahweh spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they gave no heed.

¹¹Therefore Yahweh brought on them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

¹²When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

¹³He prayed to him; and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh he was God.

¹⁴Now after this he built an outer wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate; and he compassed Ophel about [with it], and raised it up to a very great height: and he put valiant captains in all the fortified cities of Judah.

¹⁵He took away the foreign gods, and the idol out of the house of Yahweh, and all the altars that he had built in the mountain of the house of Yahweh, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.

¹⁶He built up the altar of Yahweh, and offered thereon sacrifices of peace-offerings and of thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve Yahweh, the God of Israel.

¹⁷Nevertheless the people sacrificed still in the high places, but only to Yahweh their God.

¹⁸Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, behold, they are written among the acts of the kings of Israel.

¹⁹His prayer also, and how [God] was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set up the Asherim and the engraved images, before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.

²⁰So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and Amon his son reigned in his place.

²¹Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.

²²He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, as did Manasseh his father; and Amon sacrificed to all the engraved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them.

²³He didn't humble himself before Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon trespassed more and more.

²⁴His servants conspired against him, and put him to death in his own house.

²⁵But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

34Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.

²He did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and walked in the ways of David his father, and didn't turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

³For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images.

⁴They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and the sun-images that were on high above them he hewed down; and the Asherim, and the engraved images, and the molten images, he broke in pieces, and made dust of them, and strewed it on the graves [of those] who had sacrificed to them.

⁵He burnt the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.

⁶[So did he] in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even to Naphtali, in their ruins round about.

⁷He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the engraved images into powder, and hewed down all the sun-images throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem.

⁸Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of Yahweh his God.

⁹They came to Hilkiah the high priest, and delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰They delivered it into the hand of the workmen who had the oversight of the house of Yahweh; and the workmen who labored in the house of Yahweh gave it to mend and repair the house;

¹¹even to the carpenters and to the builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to make beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.

¹²The men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and [others of] the Levites, all who were skillful with instruments of music.

¹³Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and set forward all who did the work in every manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.

¹⁴When they brought out the money that was brought into the house of Yahweh, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of Yahweh [given] by Moses.

¹⁵Hilkiah answered Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of Yahweh. Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.

¹⁶Shaphan carried the book to the king, and moreover brought back word to the king, saying, All that was committed to your servants, they are doing.

¹⁷They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of Yahweh, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the hand of the workmen.

¹⁸Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has delivered me a book. Shaphan read therein before the king.

¹⁹It happened, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he tore his clothes.

²⁰The king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,

²¹Go you, inquire of Yahweh for me, and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of Yahweh, to do according to all that is written in this book.

²²So Hilkiah, and they whom the king [had commanded], went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter;) and they spoke to her to that effect.

²³She said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Tell you the man who sent you to me,

²⁴Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and on the inhabitants of it, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah.

²⁵Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore is my wrath poured out on this place, and it shall not be quenched.

²⁶But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, thus shall you tell him, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: As touching the words which you have heard,

²⁷because your heart was tender, and you did humble yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place, and against the inhabitants of it, and have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you, says Yahweh.

²⁸Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the evil that I will bring on this place, and on the inhabitants of it. They brought back word to the king.

²⁹Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

³⁰The king went up to the house of Yahweh, and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, both great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of Yahweh.

³¹The king stood in his place, and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.

³²He caused all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand [to it]. The inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all who were found in Israel to serve, even to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they didn't depart from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

35Josiah kept a Passover to Yahweh in Jerusalem: and they killed the Passover on the fourteenth [day] of the first month.

²He set the priests in their offices, and encouraged them to the service of the house of Yahweh.

³He said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to Yahweh, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; there shall no more be a burden on your shoulders: now serve Yahweh your God, and his people Israel.

⁴Prepare yourselves after your fathers' houses by your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.

⁵Stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers' houses of your brothers the children of the people, and [let there be for each] a portion of a fathers' house of the Levites.

⁶Kill the Passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of Yahweh by Moses.

⁷Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all of them for the Passover-offerings, to all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bulls: these were of the king's substance.

⁸His princes gave for a freewill- offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover-offerings two thousand and six hundred [small cattle], and three hundred oxen.

⁹Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover-offerings five thousand [small cattle], and five hundred oxen.

¹⁰So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their courses, according to the king's commandment.

¹¹They killed the Passover, and the priests sprinkled [the blood which they received] of their hand, and the Levites flayed them.

¹²They removed the burnt offerings, that they might give them according to the divisions of the fathers' houses of the children of the people, to offer to Yahweh, as it is written in the book of Moses. So did they with the oxen.

¹³They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance: and the holy offerings boiled they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people.

¹⁴Afterward they prepared for themselves, and for the priests, because the priests the sons of Aaron [were busied] in offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night: therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron.

¹⁵The singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the porters were at every gate: they didn't need to depart from their service; for their brothers the Levites prepared for them.

¹⁶So all the service of Yahweh was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt-offerings on the altar of Yahweh, according to the commandment of king Josiah.

¹⁷The children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.

¹⁸There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁹In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this Passover kept.

²⁰After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.

²¹But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with you, you king of Judah? [I come] not against you this day, but against the house with which I have war; and God has commanded me to make haste: forbear you from [meddling with] God, who is with me, that he not destroy you.

²²Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and didn't listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.

²³The archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.

²⁴So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

²⁵Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.

²⁶Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of Yahweh,

²⁷and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

36Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's place in Jerusalem.

²Joahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.

³The king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem, and fined the land one hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.

⁴The king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Neco took Joahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.

⁵Jehoiakim was Twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God.

⁶Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.

⁷Nebuchadnezzar also carried of the vessels of the house of Yahweh to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.

⁸Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and his abominations which he did, and that which was found in him, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.

⁹Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh.

¹⁰At the return of the year king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of Yahweh, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

¹¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem:

¹²and he did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh his God; he didn't humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet [speaking] from the mouth of Yahweh.

¹³He also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

¹⁴Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of Yahweh which he had made holy in Jerusalem.

¹⁵Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place:

¹⁶but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

¹⁷Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or gray-headed: he gave them all into his hand.

¹⁸All the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.

¹⁹They burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces of it with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels of it.

²⁰Those who had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:

²¹to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths: [for] as long as it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

²²Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and [put it] also in writing, saying,

²³Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth has Yahweh, the God of heaven, given me; and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, Yahweh his God be with him, and let him go up.

1The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

²that Hanani, one of my brothers, came, he and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

³They said to me, The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates of it are burned with fire.

⁴It happened, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

⁵and said, I beg you, Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness with those who love him and keep his commandments:

⁶Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may listen to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father's house have sinned:

⁷we have dealt very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which you commanded your servant Moses.

⁸Remember, I beg you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples:

⁹but if you return to me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from there, and will bring them to the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there.

¹⁰Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand.

¹¹Lord, I beg you, let now your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants, who delight to fear your name; and please prosper your servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Now I was cup bearer to the king.

2It happened in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, when wine was before him, that I took up the wine, and gave it to the king. Now I had not been [before] sad in his presence.

²The king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid.

³I said to the king, Let the king live forever: why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and the gates of it are consumed with fire?

⁴Then the king said to me, For what do you make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

⁵I said to the king, If it please the king, and if your servant have found favor in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may build it.

⁶The king said to me (the queen also sitting by him,) For how long shall your journey be? and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.

⁷Moreover I said to the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah;

⁸and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the castle which appertains to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. The king granted me, according to the good hand of my God on me.

⁹Then I came to the governors beyond the River, and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me captains of the army and horsemen.

¹⁰When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly, because a man had come to seek the welfare of the children of Israel.

¹¹So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.

¹²I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God put into my heart to do for Jerusalem; neither was there any animal with me, except the animal that I rode on.

¹³I went out by night by the valley gate, even toward the jackal's well, and to the dung gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates of it were consumed with fire.

¹⁴Then I went on to the spring gate and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the animal that was under me to pass.

¹⁵Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall; and I turned back, and entered by the valley gate, and so returned.

¹⁶The rulers didn't know where I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest who did the work.

¹⁷Then said I to them, You see the evil case that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and the gates of it are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.

¹⁸I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, as also of the king's words that he had spoken to me. They said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good [work].

¹⁹But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, What is this thing that you do? will you rebel against the king?

²⁰Then answered I them, and said to them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.

3Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even to the tower of Hammeah they sanctified it, to the tower of Hananel.

²Next to him built the men of Jericho. Next to them built Zaccur the son of Imri.

³The fish gate did the sons of Hassenaah build; they laid the beams of it, and set up the doors of it, the bolts of it, and the bars of it.

⁴Next to them repaired Meremoth the son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz. Next to them repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabel. Next to them repaired Zadok the son of Baana.

⁵Next to them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles didn't put their necks to the work of their lord.

⁶The old gate repaired Joiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah; they laid the beams of it, and set up the doors of it, and the bolts of it, and the bars of it.

⁷Next to them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon, and of Mizpah, [that appertained] to the throne of the governor beyond the River.

⁸Next to him repaired Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, goldsmiths. Next to him repaired Hananiah one of the perfumers, and they fortified Jerusalem even to the broad wall.

⁹Next to them repaired Rephaiah the son of Hur, the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem.

¹⁰Next to them repaired Jedaiah the son of Harumaph, over against his house. Next to him repaired Hattush the son of Hashabneiah.

¹¹Malchijah the son of Harim, and Hasshub the son of Pahath-moab, repaired another portion, and the tower of the furnaces.

¹²Next to him repaired Shallum the son of Hallohesh, the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, he and his daughters.

¹³The valley gate repaired Hanun, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they built it, and set up the doors of it, the bolts of it, and the bars of it, and one thousand cubits of the wall to the dung gate.

¹⁴The dung gate repaired Malchijah the son of Rechab, the ruler of the district of Beth-haccherem; he built it, and set up the doors of it, the bolts of it, and the bars of it.

¹⁵The spring gate repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of the district of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up the doors of it, the bolts of it, and the bars of it, and the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king's garden, even to the stairs that go down from the city of David.

¹⁶After him repaired Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of half the district of Beth-zur, to the place over against the tombs of David, and to the pool that was made, and to the house of the mighty men.

¹⁷After him repaired the Levites, Rehum the son of Bani. Next to him repaired Hashabiah, the ruler of half the district of Keilah, for his district.

¹⁸After him repaired their brothers, Bavvai the son of Henadad, the ruler of half the district of Keilah.

¹⁹Next to him repaired Ezer the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah, another portion, over against the ascent to the armory at the turning [of the wall].

²⁰After him Baruch the son of Zabbai earnestly repaired another portion, from the turning [of the wall] to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest.

²¹After him repaired Meremoth the son of Uriah the son of Hakkoz another portion, from the door of the house of Eliashib even to the end of the house of Eliashib.

²²After him repaired the priests, the men of the Plain.

²³After them repaired Benjamin and Hasshub over against their house. After them repaired Azariah the son of Maaseiah the son of Ananiah beside his own house.

²⁴After him repaired Binnui the son of Henadad another portion, from the house of Azariah to the turning [of the wall], and to the corner.

²⁵Palal the son of Uzai [repaired] over against the turning [of the wall], and the tower that stands out from the upper house of the king, which is by the court of the guard. After him Pedaiah the son of Parosh [repaired].

²⁶(Now the Nethinim lived in Ophel, to the place over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that stands out.)

²⁷After him the Tekoites repaired another portion, over against the great tower that stands out, and to the wall of Ophel.

²⁸Above the horse gate repaired the priests, everyone over against his own house.

²⁹After them repaired Zadok the son of Immer over against his own house. After him repaired Shemaiah the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the east gate.

³⁰After him repaired Hananiah the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, another portion. After him repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah over against his chamber.

³¹After him repaired Malchijah one of the goldsmiths to the house of the Nethinim, and of the merchants, over against the gate of Hammiphkad, and to the ascent of the corner.

³²Between the ascent of the corner and the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants.

4But it happened that when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews.

²He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, What are these feeble Jews doing? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, seeing they are burned?

³Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they are building, if a fox go up, he shall break down their stone wall.

⁴Hear, our God; for we are despised: and turn back their reproach on their own head, and give them up for a spoil in a land of captivity;

⁵and don't cover their iniquity, and don't let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have provoked [you] to anger before the builders.

⁶So we built the wall; and all the wall was joined together to half [the height] of it: for the people had a mind to work.

⁷But it happened that when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabians, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem went forward, [and] that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very angry;

⁸and they conspired all of them together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to cause confusion therein.

⁹But we made our prayer to our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.

¹⁰Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall.

¹¹Our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, until we come into the midst of them, and kill them, and cause the work to cease.

¹²It happened that when the Jews who lived by them came, they said to us ten times from all places, You must return to us.

¹³Therefore set I in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in the open places, I set [there] the people after their families with their swords, their spears, and their bows.

¹⁴I looked, and rose up, and said to the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Don't be you afraid of them: remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

¹⁵It happened, when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and God had brought their counsel to nothing, that we returned all of us to the wall, everyone to his work.

¹⁶It happened from that time forth, that half of my servants worked in the work, and half of them held the spears, the shields, and the bows, and the coats of mail; and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah.

¹⁷They all built the wall and those who bore burdens loaded themselves; everyone with one of his hands worked in the work, and with the other held his weapon;

¹⁸and the builders, everyone had his sword girded by his side, and so built. He who sounded the trumpet was by me.

¹⁹I said to the nobles, and to the rulers and to the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are separated on the wall, one far from another:

²⁰in whatever place you hear the sound of the trumpet, resort you there to us; our God will fight for us.

²¹So we worked in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning until the stars appeared.

²²Likewise at the same time said I to the people, Let everyone with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and may labor in the day.

²³So neither I, nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us put off our clothes, everyone [went with] his weapon [to] the water.

5Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews.

²For there were that said, We, our sons and our daughters, are many: let us get grain, that we may eat and live.

³Some also there were that said, We are mortgaging our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses: let us get grain, because of the dearth.

⁴There were also that said, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute [on] our fields and our vineyards.

⁵Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as their children: and, behold, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage [already]: neither is it in our power to help it; for other men have our fields and our vineyards.

⁶I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words.

⁷Then I consulted with myself, and contended with the nobles and the rulers, and said to them, You exact usury, everyone of his brother. I held a great assembly against them.

⁸I said to them, We after our ability have redeemed our brothers the Jews, that were sold to the nations; and would you even sell your brothers, and should they be sold to us? Then held they their peace, and found never a word.

⁹Also I said, The thing that you do is not good: ought you not to walk in the fear of our God, because of the reproach of the nations our enemies?

¹⁰I likewise, my brothers and my servants, do lend them money and grain. Please let us leave off this usury.

¹¹Please restore to them, even this day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, that you exact of them.

¹²Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them; so will we do, even as you say. Then I called the priests, and took an oath of them, that they would do according to this promise.

¹³Also I shook out my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that doesn't perform this promise; even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. All the assembly said, Amen, and praised Yahweh. The people did according to this promise.

¹⁴Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even to the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, [that is], twelve years, I and my brothers have not eaten the bread of the governor.

¹⁵But the former governors who were before me were chargeable to the people, and took of them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver; yes, even their servants bore rule over the people: but I didn't do so, because of the fear of God.

¹⁶Yes, also I continued in the work of this wall, neither bought we any land: and all my servants were gathered there to the work.

¹⁷Moreover there were at my table, of the Jews and the rulers, one hundred fifty men, besides those who came to us from among the nations that were round about us.

¹⁸Now that which was prepared for one day was one ox and six choice sheep; also fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days store of all sorts of wine: yet for all this I didn't demand the bread of the governor, because the bondage was heavy on this people.

¹⁹Remember to me, my God, for good, all that I have done for this people.

6Now it happened, when it was reported to Sanballat and Tobiah, and to Geshem the Arabian, and to the rest of our enemies, that I had built the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though even to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates;)

²that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together in [one of] the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.

³I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I can't come down: why should the work cease, while I leave it, and come down to you?

⁴They sent to me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.

⁵Then sent Sanballat his servant to me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand,

⁶in which was written, It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says it, that you and the Jews think to rebel; for which cause you are building the wall: and you would be their king, according to these words.

⁷You have also appointed prophets to preach of you at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.

⁸Then I sent to him, saying, There are no such things done as you say, but you feign them out of your own heart.

⁹For they all would have made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it not be done. But now, [God], strengthen you my hands.

¹⁰I went to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabel, who was shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to kill you; yes, in the night will they come to kill you.

¹¹I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there that, being such as I, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.

¹²I discerned, and, behold, God had not sent him; but he pronounced this prophecy against me: and Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

¹³For this cause was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have matter for an evil report, that they might reproach me.

¹⁴Remember, my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and also the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.

¹⁵So the wall was finished in the twenty-fifth [day] of [the month] Elul, in fifty-two days.

¹⁶It happened, when all our enemies heard [of it], that all the nations that were about us feared, and were much cast down in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was worked of our God.

¹⁷Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and [the letters] of Tobiah came to them.

¹⁸For there were many in Judah sworn to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shecaniah the son of Arah; and his son Jehohanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah as wife.

¹⁹Also they spoke of his good deeds before me, and reported my words to him. Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.

7Now it happened, when the wall was built, and I had set up the doors, and the porters and the singers and the Levites were appointed,

²that I gave my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the governor of the castle, charge over Jerusalem; for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many.

³I said to them, Don't let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun be hot; and while they stand [on guard], let them shut the doors, and bar you them: and appoint watches of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, everyone in his watch, and everyone [to be] over against his house.

⁴Now the city was wide and large; but the people were few therein, and the houses were not built.

⁵My God put into my heart to gather together the nobles, and the rulers, and the people, that they might be reckoned by genealogy. I found the book of the genealogy of those who came up at the first, and I found written therein:

⁶These are the children of the province, who went up out of the captivity of those who had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and who returned to Jerusalem and to Judah, everyone to his city;

⁷who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:

⁸The children of Parosh, two thousand one hundred seventy-two.

⁹The children of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy-two.

¹⁰The children of Arah, six hundred fifty-two.

¹¹The children of Pahath-moab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred [and] eighteen.

¹²The children of Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four.

¹³The children of Zattu, eight hundred forty-five.

¹⁴The children of Zaccai, seven hundred sixty.

¹⁵The children of Binnui, six hundred forty-eight.

¹⁶The children of Bebai, six hundred twenty-eight.

¹⁷The children of Azgad, two thousand three hundred twenty-two.

¹⁸The children of Adonikam, six hundred sixty-seven.

¹⁹The children of Bigvai, two thousand sixty-seven.

²⁰The children of Adin, six hundred fifty-five.

²¹The children of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight.

²²The children of Hashum, three hundred Twenty-eight.

²³The children of Bezai, three hundred twenty-four.

²⁴The children of Hariph, one hundred twelve.

²⁵The children of Gibeon, ninety-five.

²⁶The men of Bethlehem and Netophah, one hundred eighty-eight.

²⁷The men of Anathoth, one hundred twenty-eight.

²⁸The men of Beth-azmaveth, forty-two.

²⁹The men of Kiriath-jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred forty-three.

³⁰The men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred twenty-one.

³¹The men of Michmas, one hundred and twenty-two.

³²The men of Bethel and Ai, a hundred twenty-three.

³³The men of the other Nebo, fifty-two.

³⁴The children of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four.

³⁵The children of Harim, three hundred twenty.

³⁶The children of Jericho, three hundred forty-five.

³⁷The children of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred twenty-one.

³⁸The children of Senaah, three thousand nine hundred thirty.

³⁹The priests: The children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred seventy-three.

⁴⁰The children of Immer, one thousand fifty-two.

⁴¹The children of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred forty-seven.

⁴²The children of Harim, one thousand [and] seventeen.

⁴³The Levites: the children of Jeshua, of Kadmiel, of the children of Hodevah, seventy-four.

⁴⁴The singers: the children of Asaph, one hundred forty-eight.

⁴⁵The porters: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, one hundred thirty-eight.

⁴⁶The Nethinim: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth,

⁴⁷the children of Keros, the children of Sia, the children of Padon,

⁴⁸the children of Lebana, the children of Hagaba, the children of Salmai,

⁴⁹the children of Hanan, the children of Giddel, the children of Gahar,

⁵⁰the children of Reaiah, the children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda,

⁵¹the children of Gazzam, the children of Uzza, the children of Paseah.

⁵²The children of Besai, the children of Meunim, the children of Nephushesim,

⁵³the children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the children of Harhur,

⁵⁴the children of Bazlith, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha,

⁵⁵the children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the children of Temah,

⁵⁶the children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha.

⁵⁷The children of Solomon's servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Sophereth, the children of Perida,

⁵⁸the children of Jaala, the children of Darkon, the children of Giddel,

⁵⁹the children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Pochereth-hazzebaim, the children of Amon.

⁶⁰All the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants, were three hundred ninety-two.

⁶¹These were those who went up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer; but they could not show their fathers' houses, nor their seed, whether they were of Israel:

⁶²The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred forty-two.

⁶³Of the priests: the children of Hobaiah, the children of Hakkoz, the children of Barzillai, who took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their name.

⁶⁴These sought their register [among] those who were reckoned by genealogy, but it was not found: therefore were they deemed polluted and put from the priesthood.

⁶⁵The governor said to them, that they should not eat of the most holy things, until there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim.

⁶⁶The whole assembly together was forty-two thousand three hundred sixty,

⁶⁷besides their men-servants and their maid-servants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven: and they had two hundred forty-five singing men and singing women.

⁶⁸Their horses were seven hundred thirty-six; their mules, two hundred forty-five;

⁶⁹[their] camels, four hundred thirty-five; [their] donkeys, six thousand seven hundred twenty.

⁷⁰Some from among the heads of fathers' [houses] gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury one thousand darics of gold, fifty basins, and five hundred thirty priests' garments.

⁷¹Some of the heads of fathers' [houses] gave into the treasury of the work twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand two hundred pounds of silver.

⁷²That which the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand darics of gold, and two thousand pounds of silver, and sixty-seven priests' garments.

⁷³So the priests, and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers, and some of the people, and the Nethinim, and all Israel, lived in their cities. When the seventh month was come, the children of Israel were in their cities.

8All the people gathered themselves together as one man into the broad place that was before the water gate; and they spoke to Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded to Israel.

²Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month.

³He read therein before the broad place that was before the water gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women, and of those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were [attentive] to the book of the law.

⁴Ezra the scribe stood on a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Uriah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchijah, and Hashum, and Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, [and] Meshullam.

⁵Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up:

⁶and Ezra blessed Yahweh, the great God. All the people answered, Amen, Amen, with the lifting up of their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped Yahweh with their faces to the ground.

⁷Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people [stood] in their place.

⁸They read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, so that they understood the reading.

⁹Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to Yahweh your God; don't mourn, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.

¹⁰Then he said to them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord: neither be you grieved; for the joy of Yahweh is your strength.

¹¹So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be you grieved.

¹²All the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.

¹³On the second day were gathered together the heads of fathers' [houses] of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, to Ezra the scribe, even to give attention to the words of the law.

¹⁴They found written in the law, how that Yahweh had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month;

¹⁵and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth to the mountain, and get olive branches, and branches of wild olive, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.

¹⁶So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, everyone on the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the broad place of the water gate, and in the broad place of the gate of Ephraim.

¹⁷All the assembly of those who were come again out of the captivity made booths, and lived in the booths; for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the children of Israel had not done so. There was very great gladness.

¹⁸Also day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. They kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according to the ordinance.

9Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackcloth, and earth on them.

²The seed of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.

³They stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of Yahweh their God a fourth part of the day; and [another] fourth part they confessed, and worshipped Yahweh their God.

⁴Then stood up on the stairs of the Levites, Jeshua, and Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, [and] Chenani, and cried with a loud voice to Yahweh their God.

⁵Then the Levites, Jeshua, and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, [and] Pethahiah, said, Stand up and bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting; and blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

⁶You are Yahweh, even you alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are thereon, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all; and the host of heaven worships you.

⁷You are Yahweh the God, who did choose Abram, and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name of Abraham,

⁸and found his heart faithful before you, and mad a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it to his seed, and have performed your words; for you are righteous.

⁹You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea,

¹⁰and showed signs and wonders on Pharaoh, and on all his servants, and on all the people of his land; for you knew that they dealt proudly against them, and did get you a name, as it is this day.

¹¹You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their pursuers you did cast into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters.

¹²Moreover in a pillar of cloud you led them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way in which they should go.

¹³You came down also on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,

¹⁴and mad known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments, and statutes, and a law, by Moses your servant,

¹⁵and gave them bread from the sky for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and commanded those who they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.

¹⁶But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their neck, and didn't listen to your commandments,

¹⁷and refused to obey, neither were mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and didn't forsake them.

¹⁸Yes, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt, and had committed awful blasphemies;

¹⁹yet you in your manifold mercies didn't forsake them in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud didn't depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go.

²⁰You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and didn't withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.

²¹Yes, forty years did you sustain them in the wilderness, [and] they lacked nothing; their clothes didn't grow old, and their feet didn't swell.

²²Moreover you gave them kingdoms and peoples, which you did allot after their portions: so they possessed the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan.

²³Their children also multiplied you as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land concerning which you did say to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.

²⁴So the children went in and possessed the land, and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings, and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would.

²⁵They took fortified cities, and a fat land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns hewn out, vineyards, and olive groves, and fruit-trees in abundance: so they ate, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in your great goodness.

²⁶Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.

²⁷Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried to you, you heard from heaven; and according to your manifold mercies you gave them saviors who saved them out of the hand of their adversaries.

²⁸But after they had rest, they did evil again before you; therefore left you them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned, and cried to you, you heard from heaven; and many times did you deliver them according to your mercies,

²⁹and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they dealt proudly, and didn't listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, (which if a man do, he shall live in them,) and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their neck, and would not hear.

³⁰Yet many years did you bear with them, and testified against them by your Spirit through your prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gave you them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

³¹Nevertheless in your manifold mercies you did not make a full end of them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God.

³²Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keep covenant and lovingkindness, don't let all the travail seem little before you, that has come on us, on our kings, on our princes, and on our priests, and on our prophets, and on our fathers, and on all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day.

³³However you are just in all that is come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly;

³⁴neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your testimonies with which you did testify against them.

³⁵For they have not served you in their kingdom, and in your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and fat land which you gave before them, neither turned they from their wicked works.

³⁶Behold, we are servants this day, and as for the land that you gave to our fathers to eat the fruit of it and the good of it, behold, we are servants in it.

³⁷It yields much increase to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins: also they have power over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.

³⁸Yet for all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, our Levites, [and] our priests, seal to it.

10Now those who sealed were: Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah,

²Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,

³Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah,

⁴Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,

⁵Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,

⁶Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,

⁷Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,

⁸Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these were the priests.

⁹The Levites: namely, Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel;

¹⁰and their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,

¹¹Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,

¹²Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,

¹³Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.

¹⁴The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,

¹⁵Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,

¹⁶Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,

¹⁷Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,

¹⁸Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

¹⁹Hariph, Anathoth, Nobai,

²⁰Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,

²¹Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,

²²Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,

²³Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,

²⁴Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek,

²⁵Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,

²⁶and Ahiah, Hanan, Anan,

²⁷Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

²⁸The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinim, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone who had knowledge, and understanding;

²⁹They joined with their brothers, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of Yahweh our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes;

³⁰and that we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons;

³¹and if the peoples of the land bring wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy of them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day; and that we would forego the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.

³²Also we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God;

³³for the show bread, and for the continual meal-offering, and for the continual burnt-offering, for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin-offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

³⁴We cast lots, the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood-offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers' houses, at times appointed, year by year, to burn on the altar of Yahweh our God, as it is written in the law;

³⁵and to bring the first-fruits of our ground, and the first-fruits of all fruit of all manner of trees, year by year, to the house of Yahweh;

³⁶also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God;

³⁷and that we should bring the first-fruits of our dough, and our heave-offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, the new wine and the oil, to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground to the Levites; for they, the Levites, take the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.

³⁸The priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers, into the treasure-house.

³⁹For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the heave-offering of the grain, of the new wine, and of the oil, to the chambers, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests who minister, and the porters, and the singers: and we will not forsake the house of our God.

11The princes of the people lived in Jerusalem: the rest of the people also cast lots, to bring one of ten to dwell in Jerusalem the holy city, and nine parts in the [other] cities.

²The people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem.

³Now these are the chiefs of the province who lived in Jerusalem: but in the cities of Judah lived everyone in his possession in their cities, [to wit], Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the Nethinim, and the children of Solomon's servants.

⁴In Jerusalem lived certain of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin. Of the children of Judah: Athaiah the son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah, the son of Shephatiah, the son of Mahalalel, of the children of Perez;

⁵and Maaseiah the son of Baruch, the son of Colhozeh, the son of Hazaiah, the son of Adaiah, the son of Joiarib, the son of Zechariah, the son of the Shilonite.

⁶All the sons of Perez who lived in Jerusalem were four hundred sixty-eight valiant men.

⁷These are the sons of Benjamin: Sallu the son of Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Jeshaiah.

⁸After him Gabbai, Sallai, nine hundred twenty-eight.

⁹Joel the son of Zichri was their overseer; and Judah the son of Hassenuah was second over the city.

¹⁰Of the priests: Jedaiah the son of Joiarib, Jachin,

¹¹Seraiah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God,

¹²and their brothers who did the work of the house, eight hundred twenty-two; and Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malchijah,

¹³and his brothers, chiefs of fathers' [houses], two hundred forty-two; and Amashsai the son of Azarel, the son of Ahzai, the son of Meshillemoth, the son of Immer,

¹⁴and their brothers, mighty men of valor, one hundred twenty-eight; and their overseer was Zabdiel, the son of Haggedolim.

¹⁵Of the Levites: Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Bunni;

¹⁶and Shabbethai and Jozabad, of the chiefs of the Levites, who had the oversight of the outward business of the house of God;

¹⁷and Mattaniah the son of Mica, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, who was the chief to begin the thanksgiving in prayer, and Bakbukiah, the second among his brothers; and Abda the son of Shammua, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun.

¹⁸All the Levites in the holy city were two hundred eighty-four.

¹⁹Moreover the porters, Akkub, Talmon, and their brothers, who kept watch at the gates, were one hundred seventy-two.

²⁰The residue of Israel, of the priests, the Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, everyone in his inheritance.

²¹But the Nethinim lived in Ophel: and Ziha and Gishpa were over the Nethinim.

²²The overseer also of the Levites at Jerusalem was Uzzi the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Mica, of the sons of Asaph, the singers, over the business of the house of God.

²³For there was a commandment from the king concerning them, and a settled provision for the singers, as every day required.

²⁴Pethahiah the son of Meshezabel, of the children of Zerah the son of Judah, was at the king's hand in all matters concerning the people.

²⁵As for the villages, with their fields, some of the children of Judah lived in Kiriath-arba and the towns of it, and in Dibon and the towns of it, and in Jekabzeel and the villages of it,

²⁶and in Jeshua, and in Moladah, and Beth-pelet,

²⁷and in Hazar-shual, and in Beersheba and the towns of it,

²⁸and in Ziklag, and in Meconah and in the towns of it,

²⁹and in En-rimmon, and in Zorah, and in Jarmuth,

³⁰Zanoah, Adullam, and their villages, Lachish and the fields of it, Azekah and the towns of it. So they encamped from Beersheba to the valley of Hinnom.

³¹The children of Benjamin also [lived] from Geba [onward], at Michmash and Aija, and at Bethel and the towns of it,

³²at Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah,

³³Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim,

³⁴Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat,

³⁵Lod, and Ono, the valley of craftsmen.

³⁶Of the Levites, certain courses in Judah [were joined] to Benjamin.

12Now these are the priests and the Levites who went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

²Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,

³Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,

⁴Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah,

⁵Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,

⁶Shemaiah, and Joiarib, Jedaiah.

⁷Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the chiefs of the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua.

⁸Moreover the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, [and] Mattaniah, who was over the thanksgiving, he and his brothers.

⁹Also Bakbukiah and Unno, their brothers, were over against them according to their offices.

¹⁰Jeshua became the father of Joiakim, and Joiakim became the father of Eliashib, and Eliashib became the father of Joiada,

¹¹and Joiada became the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan became the father of Jaddua.

¹²In the days of Joiakim were priests, heads of fathers' [houses]: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah;

¹³of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan;

¹⁴of Malluchi, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph;

¹⁵of Harim, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai;

¹⁶of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam;

¹⁷of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, of Moadiah, Piltai;

¹⁸of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan;

¹⁹and of Joiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi;

²⁰of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber;

²¹of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethanel.

²²As for the Levites, in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, and Johanan, and Jaddua, there were recorded the heads of fathers' [houses]; also the priests, in the reign of Darius the Persian.

²³The sons of Levi, heads of fathers' [houses], were written in the book of the chronicles, even until the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib.

²⁴The chiefs of the Levites: Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers over against them, to praise and give thanks, according to the commandment of David the man of God, watch next to watch.

²⁵Mattaniah, and Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub, were porters keeping the watch at the store-houses of the gates.

²⁶These were in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor, and of Ezra the priest the scribe.

²⁷At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem, to keep the dedication with gladness, both with giving thanks, and with singing, with cymbals, psalteries, and with harps.

²⁸The sons of the singers gathered themselves together, both out of the plain round about Jerusalem, and from the villages of the Netophathites;

²⁹also from Beth-gilgal, and out of the fields of Geba and Azmaveth: for the singers had built them villages round about Jerusalem.

³⁰The priests and the Levites purified themselves; and they purified the people, and the gates, and the wall.

³¹Then I brought up the princes of Judah on the wall, and appointed two great companies who gave thanks and went in procession; [whereof one went] on the right hand on the wall toward the dung gate:

³²and after them went Hoshaiah, and half of the princes of Judah,

³³and Azariah, Ezra, and Meshullam,

³⁴Judah, and Benjamin, and Shemaiah, and Jeremiah,

³⁵and certain of the priests' sons with trumpets: Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Micaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph;

³⁶and his brothers, Shemaiah, and Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, and Judah, Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God; and Ezra the scribe was before them.

³⁷By the spring gate, and straight before them, they went up by the stairs of the city of David, at the ascent of the wall, above the house of David, even to the water gate eastward.

³⁸The other company of those who gave thanks went to meet them, and I after them, with the half of the people, on the wall, above the tower of the furnaces, even to the broad wall,

³⁹and above the gate of Ephraim, and by the old gate, and by the fish gate, and the tower of Hananel, and the tower of Hammeah, even to the sheep gate: and they stood still in the gate of the guard.

⁴⁰So stood the two companies of those who gave thanks in the house of God, and I, and the half of the rulers with me;

⁴¹and the priests, Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets;

⁴²and Maaseiah, and Shemaiah, and Eleazar, and Uzzi, and Jehohanan, and Malchijah, and Elam, and Ezer. The singers sang loud, with Jezrahiah their overseer.

⁴³They offered great sacrifices that day, and rejoiced; for God had made them rejoice with great joy; and the women also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.

⁴⁴On that day were men appointed over the chambers for the treasures, for the heave-offerings, for the first-fruits, and for the tithes, to gather into them, according to the fields of the cities, the portions appointed by the law for the priests and Levites: for Judah rejoiced for the priests and for the Levites who waited.

⁴⁵They kept the charge of their God, and the charge of the purification, and [so did] the singers and the porters, according to the commandment of David, and of Solomon his son.

⁴⁶For in the days of David and Asaph of old there was a chief of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.

⁴⁷All Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers and the porters, as every day required: and they set apart [that which was] for the Levites; and the Levites set apart [that which was] for the sons of Aaron.

13On that day they read in the book of Moses in the audience of the people; and therein was found written, that an Ammonite and a Moabite should not enter into the assembly of God forever,

²because they didn't meet the children of Israel with bread and with water, but hired Balaam against them, to curse them: however our God turned the curse into a blessing.

³It came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated from Israel all the mixed multitude.

⁴Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, being allied to Tobiah,

⁵had prepared for him a great chamber, where before they laid the meal-offerings, the frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the grain, the new wine, and the oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, and the singers, and the porters; and the heave-offerings for the priests.

⁶But in all this [time] I was not at Jerusalem; for in the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king: and after certain days asked I leave of the king,

⁷and I came to Jerusalem, and understood the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in preparing him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.

⁸It grieved me sore: therefore I cast forth all the household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber.

⁹Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers: and there brought I again the vessels of the house of God, with the meal-offerings and the frankincense.

¹⁰I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them; so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, were fled everyone to his field.

¹¹Then contended I with the rulers, and said, Why is the house of God forsaken? I gathered them together, and set them in their place.

¹²Then brought all Judah the tithe of the grain and the new wine and the oil to the treasuries.

¹³I made treasurers over the treasuries, Shelemiah the priest, and Zadok the scribe, and of the Levites, Pedaiah: and next to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah; for they were counted faithful, and their business was to distribute to their brothers.

¹⁴Remember me, my God, concerning this, and don't wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the observances of it.

¹⁵In those days saw I in Judah some men treading wine-presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading donkeys [therewith]; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: and I testified [against them] in the day in which they sold victuals.

¹⁶There lived men of Tyre also therein, who brought in fish, and all manner of wares, and sold on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.

¹⁷Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, What evil thing is this that you do, and profane the Sabbath day?

¹⁸Didn't your fathers do thus, and did not our God bring all this evil on us, and on this city? yet you bring more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.

¹⁹It came to pass that, when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath: and some of my servants set I over the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day.

²⁰So the merchants and sellers of all kind of wares lodged outside of Jerusalem once or twice.

²¹Then I testified against them, and said to them, Why lodge you about the wall? if you do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath.

²²I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember to me, my God, this also, and spare me according to the greatness of your lovingkindness.

²³In those days also saw I the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, [and] of Moab:

²⁴and their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.

²⁵I contended with them, and cursed them, and struck certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, [saying], You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves.

²⁶Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, and he was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did foreign women cause to sin.

²⁷Shall we then listen to you to do all this great evil, to trespass against our God in marrying foreign women?

²⁸One of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me.

²⁹Remember them, my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.

³⁰Thus cleansed I them from all foreigners, and appointed charges for the priests and for the Levites, everyone in his work;

³¹and for the wood-offering, at times appointed, and for the first-fruits. Remember me, my God, for good.

1There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil.

²There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.

³His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she-donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east.

⁴His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.

⁵It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts." Thus did Job continually.

⁶Now it happened on the day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh, that Satan also came among them.

⁷Yahweh said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, "From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it."

⁸Yahweh said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil."

⁹Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing?

¹⁰Haven't you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

¹¹But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face."

¹²Yahweh said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don't put forth your hand." So Satan went forth from the presence of Yahweh.

¹³It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house,

¹⁴that there came a messenger to Job, and said, "The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them,

¹⁵and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

¹⁶While he was still speaking, there also came another, and said, "The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

¹⁷While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, "The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you."

¹⁸While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, "Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house,

¹⁹and, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you."

²⁰Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshipped.

²¹He said, "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be the name of Yahweh."

²²In all this, Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.

2Again it happened on the day when the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh, that Satan came also among them to present himself before Yahweh.

²Yahweh said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered Yahweh, and said, "From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it."

³Yahweh said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause."

⁴Satan answered Yahweh, and said, "Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has will he give for his life.

⁵But put forth your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face."

⁶Yahweh said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your hand. Only spare his life."

⁷So Satan went forth from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head.

⁸He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.

⁹Then his wife said to him, "Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die."

¹⁰But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job didn't sin with his lips.

¹¹Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.

¹²When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and didn't recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.

¹³So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

3After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day of his birth.

²Job answered:

³"Let the day perish in which I was born, The night which said, 'There is a man-child conceived.'

⁴Let that day be darkness; Don't let God from above seek for it, Neither let the light shine on it.

⁵Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own. Let a cloud dwell on it. Let all that makes black the day terrify it.

⁶As for that night, let thick darkness seize on it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months.

⁷Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful voice come therein.

⁸Let them curse it who curse the day, Who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

⁹Let the stars of the twilight of it be dark. Let it look for light, but have none, Neither let it see the eyelids of the morning,

¹⁰Because it didn't shut up the doors of my mother's womb, Nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹"Why didn't I die from the womb? Why didn't I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?

¹²Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should suck?

¹³For now should I have lain down and been quiet. I should have slept, then I would have been at rest,

¹⁴With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves;

¹⁵Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with silver:

¹⁶Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants who never saw light.

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling; There the weary are at rest.

¹⁸There the prisoners are at ease together. They don't hear the voice of the taskmaster.

¹⁹The small and the great are there. The servant is free from his master.

²⁰"Why is light given to him who is in misery, Life to the bitter in soul,

²¹Who long for death, but it doesn't come; Dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

²²Who rejoice exceedingly, Are glad, when they can find the grave?

²³Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, Whom God has hedged in?

²⁴For my sighing comes before I eat, My groanings are poured out like water.

²⁵For the thing which I fear comes on me, That which I am afraid of comes to me.

²⁶I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; But trouble comes."

4Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

²"If someone ventures to talk with you, will you be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?

³Behold, you have instructed many, You have strengthened the weak hands.

⁴Your words have supported him who was falling, You have made firm the feeble knees.

⁵But now it is come to you, and you faint; It touches you, and you are troubled.

⁶Isn't your piety your confidence, The integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷"Remember, now, whoever perished, being innocent? Or where were the upright cut off?

⁸According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, And sow trouble, Reap the same.

⁹By the breath of God they perish, By the blast of his anger are they consumed.

¹⁰The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, The teeth of the young lions, are broken.

¹¹The old lion perishes for lack of prey, The whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.

¹²"Now a thing was secretly brought to me, My ear received a whisper of it.

¹³In thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falls on men,

¹⁴Fear came on me, and trembling, Which made all my bones shake.

¹⁵Then a spirit passed before my face; The hair of my flesh stood up.

¹⁶It stood still, but I couldn't discern the appearance of it; A form was before my eyes. Silence, then I heard a voice, saying,

¹⁷'Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

¹⁸Behold, he puts no trust in his servants. He charges his angels with error.

¹⁹How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before the moth!

²⁰Between morning and evening they are destroyed. They perish forever without any regarding it.

²¹Isn't their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.'

5"Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

²For resentment kills the foolish man, And jealousy kills the simple.

³I have seen the foolish taking root, But suddenly I cursed his habitation.

⁴His children are far from safety, They are crushed in the gate. Neither is there any to deliver them,

⁵Whose harvest the hungry eats up, Takes it even out of the thorns; The snare gapes for their substance.

⁶For affliction doesn't come forth from the dust, Neither does trouble spring out of the ground;

⁷But man is born to trouble, As the sparks fly upward.

⁸"But as for me, I would seek God, To God would I commit my cause;

⁹Who does great things that can't be fathomed, Marvelous things without number;

¹⁰Who gives rain on the earth, And sends waters on the fields;

¹¹So that he sets up on high those who are low, Those who mourn are exalted to safety.

¹²He frustrates the devices of the crafty, So that their hands can't perform their enterprise.

¹³He takes the wise in their own craftiness; The counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.

¹⁴They meet with darkness in the day-time, And grope at noonday as in the night.

¹⁵But he saves from the sword of their mouth, Even the needy from the hand of the mighty.

¹⁶So the poor has hope, And injustice shuts her mouth.

¹⁷"Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects: Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.

¹⁸For he wounds, and binds up; He injures, and his hands make whole.

¹⁹He will deliver you in six troubles; Yes, in seven there shall no evil touch you.

²⁰In famine he will redeem you from death; In war, from the power of the sword.

²¹You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, Neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes.

²²At destruction and dearth you shall laugh, Neither shall you be afraid of the animals of the earth.

²³For you shall be in league with the stones of the field. The animals of the field shall be at peace with you.

²⁴You shall know that your tent is in peace. You shall visit your fold, and shall miss nothing.

²⁵You shall know also that your seed shall be great, Your offspring as the grass of the earth.

²⁶You shall come to your grave in a full age, Like a shock of grain comes in its season.

²⁷Look this, we have searched it, so it is; Hear it, and know it for your good."

6Then Job answered,

²"Oh that my anguish were weighed, And all my calamity laid in the balances!

³For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, Therefore have my words been rash.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.

⁵Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass? Or does the ox low over his fodder?

⁶Can that which has no flavor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

⁷My soul refuses to touch them; They are as loathsome food to me.

⁸"Oh that I might have my request; That God would grant the thing that I long for!

⁹Even that it would please God to crush me; That he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

¹⁰Be it still my consolation, Yes, let me exult in pain that doesn't spare, That I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?

¹²Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass?

¹³Isn't it that I have no help in me, That wisdom is driven quite from me?

¹⁴"To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; Even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, As the channel of brooks that pass away;

¹⁶Which are black by reason of the ice, in which the snow hides itself:

¹⁷In the dry season, they vanish. When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

¹⁸The caravans that travel beside them turn aside; They go up into the waste, and perish.

¹⁹The caravans of Tema looked, The companies of Sheba waited for them.

²⁰They were put to shame because they had hoped; They came there, and were confounded.

²¹For now you are nothing. You see a terror, and are afraid.

²²Did I say, 'Give to me?' Or, 'Offer a present for me from your substance?'

²³Or, 'Deliver me from the adversary's hand?' Or, 'Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors?'

²⁴"Teach me, and I will hold my peace; Cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

²⁵How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what does it reprove?

²⁶Do you intend to reprove words, Seeing that the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?

²⁷Yes, you would even cast lots for the fatherless, And make merchandise of your friend.

²⁸Now therefore be pleased to look at me, For surely I shall not lie to your face.

²⁹Please return. Let there be no injustice; Yes, return again, my cause is righteous.

³⁰Is there injustice on my tongue? Can't my taste discern mischievous things?

7"Isn't a man forced to labor on earth? Aren't his days like the days of a hired hand?

²As a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, As a hireling who looks for his wages,

³So am I made to possess months of misery, Wearisome nights are appointed to me.

⁴When I lie down, I say, 'When shall I arise, and the night be gone?' I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, And are spent without hope.

⁷Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye shall no more see good.

⁸The eye of him who sees me shall see me no more. Your eyes shall be on me, but I shall not be.

⁹As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, So he who goes down to Sheol shall come up no more.

¹⁰He shall return no more to his house, Neither shall his place know him any more.

¹¹"Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I a sea, or a sea-monster, That you put a guard over me?

¹³When I say, 'My bed shall comfort me, My couch shall ease my complaint;'

¹⁴Then you scar me with dreams, And terrify me through visions:

¹⁵So that my soul chooses strangling, Death rather than my bones.

¹⁶I loathe my life. I don't want to live forever. Leave me alone; for my days are but a breath.

¹⁷What is man, that you should magnify him, That you should set your mind on him,

¹⁸That you should visit him every morning, And test him every moment?

¹⁹How long will you not look away from me, Nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

²⁰If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, So that I am a burden to myself?

²¹Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be."

8Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

²"How long will you speak these things? Shall the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?

³Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?

⁴If your children have sinned against him, He has delivered them into the hand of their disobedience;

⁵If you want to seek God diligently, Make your supplication to the Almighty.

⁶If you were pure and upright, Surely now he would awaken for you, And make the habitation of your righteousness prosperous.

⁷Though your beginning was small, Yet your latter end would greatly increase.

⁸"Please inquire of past generations, Find out about the learning of their fathers.

⁹(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, Because our days on earth are a shadow.)

¹⁰Shall they not teach you, tell you, And utter words out of their heart?

¹¹"Can the papyrus grow up without mire? Can the rushes grow without water?

¹²While it is yet in its greenness, not cut down, It withers before any other reed.

¹³So are the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the godless man shall perish,

¹⁴Whose confidence shall break apart, Whose trust is a spider's web.

¹⁵He shall lean on his house, but it shall not stand. He shall cling to it, but it shall not endure.

¹⁶He is green before the sun, His shoots go forth over his garden.

¹⁷His roots are wrapped around the rock pile, He sees the place of stones.

¹⁸If he is destroyed from his place, Then it shall deny him, saying, 'I have not seen you.'

¹⁹Behold, this is the joy of his way: Out of the earth shall others spring.

²⁰"Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, Neither will he uphold the evil-doers.

²¹He will still fill your mouth with laughter, Your lips with shouting.

²²Those who hate you shall be clothed with shame. The tent of the wicked shall be no more."

9Then Job answered,

²"Truly I know that it is so, But how can man be just with God?

³If he is pleased to contend with him, He can't answer him one time in a thousand.

⁴God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: Who has hardened himself against him, and prospered?

⁵Who removes the mountains, and they don't know it, When he overturns them in his anger

⁶Who shakes the earth out of its place; The pillars of it tremble;

⁷Who commands the sun, and it doesn't rise, And seals up the stars;

⁸Who alone stretches out the heavens, Treads on the waves of the sea;

⁹Who makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, And the chambers of the south;

¹⁰Who does great things past finding out, Yes, marvelous things without number.

¹¹Behold, he goes by me, and I don't see him. He passes on also, but I don't perceive him.

¹²Behold, he snatches away; who can hinder him? Who will ask him, 'What are you doing?'

¹³"God will not withdraw his anger; The helpers of Rahab stoop under him.

¹⁴How much less shall I answer him, Choose my words to argue with him?

¹⁵Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer. I would make supplication to my judge.

¹⁶If I had called, and he had answered me, Yet would I not believe that he listened to my voice.

¹⁷For he breaks me with a tempest, Multiplies my wounds without cause.

¹⁸He will not allow me to take my breath, But fills me with bitterness.

¹⁹If it is a matter of strength, behold, he is mighty! If of justice, 'Who,' says he, 'will summon me?'

²⁰Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse.

²¹I am blameless. I don't regard myself. I despise my life.

²²"It is all the same. Therefore I say, He destroys the blameless and the wicked.

²³If the scourge kills suddenly, He will mock at the trial of the innocent.

²⁴The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of the judges of it. If not he, then who is it?

²⁵"Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good,

²⁶They have passed away as the swift ships, As the eagle that swoops on the prey.

²⁷If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up;'

²⁸I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that you will not hold me innocent.

²⁹I shall be condemned; Why then do I labor in vain?

³⁰If I wash myself with snow, And cleanse my hands with lye,

³¹Yet you will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me.

³²For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, That we should come together in judgment.

³³There is no umpire between us, That might lay his hand on us both.

³⁴Let him take his rod away from me, Let his terror not make me afraid:

³⁵Then I would speak, and not fear him, For I am not so in myself.

10"My soul is weary of my life; I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²I will tell God, 'Do not condemn me, Show me why you contend with me.

³Is it good to you that you should oppress, That you should despise the work of your hands, And smile on the counsel of the wicked?

⁴Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?

⁵Are your days as the days of mortals, Or your years as man's years,

⁶That you inquire after my iniquity, And search after my sin?

⁷Although you know that I am not wicked, There is no one who can deliver out of your hand.

⁸'Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether; Yet you destroy me.

⁹Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?

¹⁰Haven't you poured me out like milk, And curdled me like cheese?

¹¹You have clothed me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews.

¹²You have granted me life and lovingkindness. Your visitation has preserved my spirit.

¹³Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:

¹⁴If I sin, then you mark me. You will not acquit me from my iniquity.

¹⁵If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still shall not lift up my head, Being filled with disgrace, And conscious of my affliction.

¹⁶If my head is held high, you hunt me like a lion. Again you show yourself powerful to me.

¹⁷You renew your witnesses against me, And increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.

¹⁸"'Why, then, have you brought me forth out of the womb? I wish I had given up the spirit, and no eye had seen me.

¹⁹I should have been as though I had not been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

²⁰Aren't my days few? Cease then, Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,

²¹Before I go where I shall not return from, To the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

²²The land dark as midnight, Of the shadow of death, without any order, Where the light is as midnight.'"

11Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered,

²"Shouldn't the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified?

³Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, shall no man make you ashamed?

⁴For you say, 'My doctrine is pure, I am clean in your eyes.'

⁵But oh that God would speak, And open his lips against you,

⁶That he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.

⁷"Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

⁸They are high as heaven. What can you do? Deeper than Sheol: what can you know?

⁹The measure of it is longer than the earth, And broader than the sea.

¹⁰If he passes by, or confines, Or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?

¹¹For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn't consider it.

¹²But vain man can become wise If a man can be born as a wild donkey's colt.

¹³"If you set your heart aright, Stretch out your hands toward him.

¹⁴If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, Don't let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.

¹⁵Surely then shall you lift up your face without spot; Yes, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear:

¹⁶For you shall forget your misery; You shall remember it as waters that are passed away,

¹⁷Life shall be clearer than the noonday; Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning.

¹⁸You shall be secure, because there is hope; Yes, you shall search, and shall take your rest in safety.

¹⁹Also you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; Yes, many shall court your favor.

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, They shall have no way to flee; Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit."

12Then Job answered,

²"No doubt, but you are the people, And wisdom shall die with you.

³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: Yes, who doesn't know such things as these?

⁴I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.

⁵In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune, It is ready for them whose foot slips.

⁶The tents of robbers prosper, Those who provoke God are secure; Who carry their God in their hands.

⁷"But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; The birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.

⁸Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you; The fish of the sea shall declare to you.

⁹Who doesn't know that in all these, The hand of Yahweh has done this,

¹⁰In whose hand is the life of every living thing, The breath of all mankind?

¹¹Doesn't the ear try words, Even as the palate tastes its food?

¹²With aged men is wisdom, In length of days understanding.

¹³"With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.

¹⁴Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again; He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.

¹⁵Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up; Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.

¹⁶With him is strength and wisdom; The deceived and the deceiver are his.

¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.

¹⁸He loosens the bond of kings, He binds their loins with a belt.

¹⁹He leads priests away stripped, And overthrows the mighty.

²⁰He removes the speech of those who are trusted, And takes away the understanding of the elders.

²¹He pours contempt on princes, And loosens the belt of the strong.

²²He uncovers deep things out of darkness, And brings out to light the shadow of death.

²³He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.

²⁴He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, And causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

²⁵They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

13"Behold, my eye has seen all this, My ear has heard and understood it.

²What you know, I know also. I am not inferior to you.

³"Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.

⁴But you are forgers of lies. You are all physicians of no value.

⁵Oh that you would be completely silent! Then you would be wise.

⁶Hear now my reasoning. Listen to the pleadings of my lips.

⁷Will you speak unrighteously for God, And talk deceitfully for him?

⁸Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God?

⁹Is it good that he should search you out? Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?

¹⁰He will surely reprove you If you secretly show partiality.

¹¹Shall not his majesty make you afraid, And his dread fall on you?

¹²Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, Your defenses are defenses of clay.

¹³"Be silent, leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what will.

¹⁴Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, And put my life in my hand?

¹⁵Behold, he will kill me; I have no hope. Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.

¹⁶This also shall be my salvation, That a godless man shall not come before him.

¹⁷Hear diligently my speech. Let my declaration be in your ears.

¹⁸See now, I have set my cause in order. I know that I am righteous.

¹⁹Who is he who will contend with me? For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit.

²⁰"Only don't do two things to me; Then I will not hide myself from your face:

²¹Withdraw your hand far from me; And don't let your terror make me afraid.

²²Then call, and I will answer; Or let me speak, and you answer me.

²³How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin.

²⁴Why hide you your face, And hold me for your enemy?

²⁵Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry stubble?

²⁶For you write bitter things against me, And make me inherit the iniquities of my youth:

²⁷You also put my feet in the stocks, And mark all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet:

²⁸Though I am decaying like a rotten thing, Like a garment that is moth-eaten.

14"Man, who is born of a woman, Is of few days, and full of trouble.

²He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn't continue.

³Do you open your eyes on such a one, And bring me into judgment with you?

⁴Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.

⁵Seeing his days are determined, The number of his months is with you, And you have appointed his bounds that he can't pass;

⁶Look away from him, that he may rest, Until he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.

⁷"For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, That the tender branch of it will not cease.

⁸Though the root of it grows old in the earth, And the stock of it dies in the ground;

⁹Yet through the scent of water it will bud, And put forth boughs like a plant.

¹⁰But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

¹¹As the waters fail from the sea, And the river wastes and dries up,

¹²So man lies down and doesn't rise; Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, Nor be roused out of their sleep.

¹³"Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, That you would keep me secret, until your wrath is past, That you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!

¹⁴If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, Until my release should come.

¹⁵You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire to the work of your hands.

¹⁶But now you number my steps. Don't you watch over my sin?

¹⁷My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.

¹⁸"But the mountain falling comes to nothing; The rock is removed out of its place;

¹⁹The waters wear the stones; The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth: So you destroy the hope of man.

²⁰You forever prevail against him, and he passes; You change his face, and send him away.

²¹His sons come to honor, and he doesn't know it; They are brought low, but he doesn't perceive it of them.

²²But his flesh on him has pain; His soul within him mourns."

15Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

²"Should a wise man answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?

³Should he reason with unprofitable talk, Or with speeches with which he can do no good?

⁴Yes, you do away with fear, And hinder devotion before God.

⁵For your iniquity teaches your mouth, And you choose the language of the crafty.

⁶Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; Yes, your own lips testify against you.

⁷"Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought forth before the hills?

⁸Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

⁹What do you know, that we don't know? What do you understand, which is not in us?

¹⁰With us are both the gray-headed and the very aged men, Much elder than your father.

¹¹Are the consolations of God too small for you, Even the word that is gentle toward you?

¹²Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,

¹³That you turn your spirit against God, And let such words go out of your mouth?

¹⁴What is man, that he should be clean? He who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

¹⁵Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones; Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight:

¹⁶How much less one who is abominable and corrupt, A man who drinks iniquity like water!

¹⁷"I will show you, listen to me; That which I have seen I will declare:

¹⁸(Which wise men have told From their fathers, and have not hidden it;

¹⁹To whom alone the land was given, And no stranger passed among them):

²⁰The wicked man travails with pain all his days, Even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

²¹A sound of terrors is in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer shall come on him.

²²He doesn't believe that he shall return out of darkness, He is waited for by the sword.

²³He wanders abroad for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

²⁴Distress and anguish make him afraid; They prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

²⁵Because he has stretched out his hand against God, And behaves himself proudly against the Almighty;

²⁶He runs at him with a stiff neck, With the thick shields of his bucklers;

²⁷Because he has covered his face with his fatness, And gathered fat on his loins.

²⁸He has lived in desolate cities, In houses which no one inhabited, Which were ready to become heaps.

²⁹He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, Neither shall their possessions be extended on the earth.

³⁰He shall not depart out of darkness; The flame shall dry up his branches, By the breath of God's mouth shall he go away.

³¹Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; For emptiness shall be his reward.

³²It shall be accomplished before his time. His branch shall not be green.

³³He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive-tree.

³⁴For the company of the godless shall be barren, And fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

³⁵They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit."

16Then Job answered,

²"I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are you all!

³Shall vain words have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?

⁴I also could speak as you do. If your soul were in my soul's place, I could join words together against you, And shake my head at you.

⁵But I would strengthen you with my mouth. The solace of my lips would relieve you.

⁶"Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased?

⁷But now, God, you have surely worn me out. You have made desolate all my company.

⁸You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me. My leanness rises up against me, It testifies to my face.

⁹He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me; He has gnashed on me with his teeth: My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.

¹⁰They have gaped on me with their mouth; They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.

¹¹God delivers me to the ungodly, And casts me into the hands of the wicked.

¹²I was at ease, and he broke me apart. Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces. He has also set me up for his target.

¹³His archers surround me. He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground.

¹⁴He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs on me like a giant.

¹⁵I have sewed sackcloth on my skin, And have thrust my horn in the dust.

¹⁶My face is red with weeping. Deep darkness is on my eyelids.

¹⁷Although there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure.

¹⁸"Earth, don't cover my blood, Let my cry have no place to rest.

¹⁹Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven. He who vouches for me is on high.

²⁰My friends scoff at me. My eyes pour out tears to God,

²¹That he would maintain the right of a man with God, Of a son of man with his neighbor!

²²For when a few years are come, I shall go the way from whence I shall not return.

17"My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.

²Surely there are mockers with me, My eye dwells on their provocation.

³"Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself. Who is there who will strike hands with me?

⁴For you have hidden their heart from understanding, Therefore shall you not exalt them.

⁵He who denounces his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.

⁶"But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.

⁷My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.

⁸Upright men shall be astonished at this. The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.

⁹Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.

¹⁰But as for you all, come on now again; I shall not find a wise man among you.

¹¹My days are past, my plans are broken off, As are the thoughts of my heart.

¹²They change the night into day, Saying 'The light is near' in the presence of darkness.

¹³If I look for Sheol as my house, If I have spread my couch in the darkness,

¹⁴If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;' To the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'

¹⁵Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it?

¹⁶Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol, Or descend together into the dust?"

18Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

²"How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak.

³Why are we counted as animals, Which have become unclean in your sight?

⁴You who tear yourself in your anger, Shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?

⁵"Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine.

⁶The light shall be dark in his tent, His lamp above him shall be put out.

⁷The steps of his strength shall be shortened, His own counsel shall cast him down.

⁸For he is cast into a net by his own feet, And he wanders into its mesh.

⁹A snare shall take him by the heel; A trap shall lay hold on him.

¹⁰A noose is hidden for him in the ground, A trap for him in the way.

¹¹Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, And shall chase him at his heels.

¹²His strength shall be famished, Calamity shall be ready at his side.

¹³The members of his body shall be devoured, The firstborn of death shall devour his members.

¹⁴He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusts. He shall be brought to the king of terrors.

¹⁵There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.

¹⁶His roots shall be dried up beneath, Above shall his branch be cut off.

¹⁷His memory shall perish from the earth. He shall have no name in the street.

¹⁸He shall be driven from light into darkness, And chased out of the world.

¹⁹He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people, Nor any remaining where he sojourned.

²⁰Those who come after shall be astonished at his day, As those who went before were frightened.

²¹Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, This is the place of him who doesn't know God."

19Then Job answered,

²"How long will you torment me, And crush me with words?

³You have reproached me ten times. You aren't ashamed that you attack me.

⁴If it is true that I have erred, My error remains with myself.

⁵If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me, And plead against me my reproach;

⁶Know now that God has subverted me, And has surrounded me with his net.

⁷"Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry for help, but there is no justice.

⁸He has walled up my way so that I can't pass, And has set darkness in my paths.

⁹He has stripped me of my glory, And taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree.

¹¹He has also kindled his wrath against me. He counts me among his adversaries.

¹²His troops come on together, Build a siege ramp against me, And encamp around my tent.

¹³"He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.

¹⁴My relatives have gone away. My familiar friends have forgotten me.

¹⁵Those who dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger. I am an alien in their sight.

¹⁶I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer; I beg him with my mouth.

¹⁷My breath is offensive to my wife. I am loathsome to the children of my own mother.

¹⁸Even young children despise me. If I arise, they speak against me.

¹⁹All my familiar friends abhor me. They whom I loved have turned against me.

²⁰My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

²¹"Have pity on me, have pity on me, you my friends; For the hand of God has touched me.

²²Why do you persecute me as God, And are not satisfied with my flesh?

²³"Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

²⁴That with an iron pen and lead They were engraved in the rock forever!

²⁵But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.

²⁶After my skin is destroyed, Then in my flesh shall I see God,

²⁷Whom I, even I, shall see on my side. My eyes shall see, and not as a stranger. "My heart is consumed within me.

²⁸If you say, 'How we will persecute him!' Because the root of the matter is found in me,

²⁹Be afraid of the sword, For wrath brings the punishments of the sword, That you may know there is a judgment."

20Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

²"Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, Even by reason of my haste that is in me.

³I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame; The spirit of my understanding answers me.

⁴Don't you know this from old time, Since man was placed on earth,

⁵That the triumphing of the wicked is short, The joy of the godless but for a moment?

⁶Though his height mount up to the heavens, And his head reach to the clouds,

⁷Yet he shall perish forever like his own dung, Those who have seen him shall say, 'Where is he?'

⁸He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.

⁹The eye which saw him shall see him no more, Neither shall his place any more see him.

¹⁰His children shall seek the favor of the poor. His hands shall give back his wealth.

¹¹His bones are full of his youth, But youth shall lie down with him in the dust.

¹²"Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, Though he hide it under his tongue,

¹³Though he spare it, and will not let it go, But keep it still within his mouth;

¹⁴Yet his food in his bowels is turned. It is cobra venom within him.

¹⁵He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly.

¹⁶He shall suck cobra venom. The viper's tongue shall kill him.

¹⁷He shall not look at the rivers, The flowing streams of honey and butter.

¹⁸That for which he labored he shall restore, and shall not swallow it down; According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.

¹⁹For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.

²⁰"Because he knew no quietness within him, He shall not save anything of that in which he delights.

²¹There was nothing left that he didn't devour, Therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

²²In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress shall overtake him: The hand of everyone who is in misery shall come on him.

²³When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.

²⁴He shall flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow shall strike him through.

²⁵He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.

²⁶All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire shall devour him. It shall consume that which is left in his tent.

²⁷The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, The earth shall rise up against him.

²⁸The increase of his house shall depart; They shall rush away in the day of his wrath.

²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God, The heritage appointed to him by God."

21Then Job answered,

²"Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.

³Allow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on.

⁴As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn't I be impatient?

⁵Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.

⁶When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.

⁷"Why do the wicked live, Become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

⁸Their child is established with them in their sight, Their offspring before their eyes.

⁹Their houses are safe from fear, Neither is the rod of God upon them.

¹⁰Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don't miscarry.

¹¹They send forth their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.

¹²They sing to the tambourine and harp, And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

¹³They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.

¹⁴They tell God, 'Depart from us, For we don't want to know about your ways.

¹⁵What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?'

¹⁶Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand: The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁷"How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes on them? That God distributes sorrows in his anger?

¹⁸That they are as stubble before the wind, As chaff that the storm carries away?

¹⁹You say, 'God lays up his iniquity for his children.' Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.

²⁰Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

²¹For what does he care for his house after him, When the number of his months is cut off?

²²"Shall any teach God knowledge, Seeing he judges those who are high?

²³One dies in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and quiet.

²⁴His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.

²⁵Another dies in bitterness of soul, And never tastes of good.

²⁶They lie down alike in the dust, The worm covers them.

²⁷"Behold, I know your thoughts, The devices with which you would wrong me.

²⁸For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'

²⁹Haven't you asked wayfaring men? Don't you know their evidences,

³⁰That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity? That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

³¹Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done?

³²Yet shall he be borne to the grave, Men shall keep watch over the tomb.

³³The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, As there were innumerable before him.

³⁴So how can you comfort me with nonsense, Seeing that in your answers there remains only falsehood?"

22Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered,

²"Can a man be profitable to God? Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.

³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? Or does it benefit him, that you make your ways perfect?

⁴Is it for your piety that he reproves you, That he enters with you into judgment?

⁵Isn't your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.

⁶For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, And stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷You haven't given water to the weary to drink, And you have withheld bread from the hungry.

⁸But as for the mighty man, he had the earth. The honorable man, he lived in it.

⁹You have sent widows away empty, And the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

¹⁰Therefore snares are round about you. Sudden fear troubles you,

¹¹Or darkness, so that you can not see, And floods of waters cover you.

¹²"Isn't God in the heights of heaven? See the height of the stars, how high they are!

¹³You say, 'What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?

¹⁴Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn't see. He walks on the vault of the sky.'

¹⁵Will you keep the old way Which wicked men have trodden,

¹⁶Who were snatched away before their time, Whose foundation was poured out as a stream,

¹⁷Who said to God, 'Depart from us;' And, 'What can the Almighty do for us?'

¹⁸Yet he filled their houses with good things, But the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

¹⁹The righteous see it, and are glad; The innocent laugh them to scorn,

²⁰Saying, 'Surely those who rose up against us are cut off, The fire has consumed the remnant of them.'

²¹"Acquaint yourself with him, now, and be at peace. Thereby good shall come to you.

²²Please receive the law from his mouth, And lay up his words in your heart.

²³If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up, If you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.

²⁴Lay your treasure in the dust, The gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.

²⁵The Almighty will be your treasure, Precious silver to you.

²⁶For then shall you delight yourself in the Almighty, And shall lift up your face to God.

²⁷You shall make your prayer to him, and he will hear you. You shall pay your vows.

²⁸You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established to you. Light shall shine on your ways.

²⁹When they cast down, you shall say, 'be lifted up.' He will save the humble person.

³⁰He will even deliver him who is not innocent; Yes, he shall be delivered through the cleanness of your hands."

23Then Job answered,

²"Even today is my complaint rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.

³Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!

⁴I would set my cause in order before him, And fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would know the words which he would answer me, And understand what he would tell me.

⁶Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, but he would listen to me.

⁷There the upright might reason with him, So I should be delivered forever from my judge.

⁸"If I go east, he is not there; If west, I can't find him;

⁹He works to the north, but I can't see him; He turns south, but I can't catch a glimpse of him.

¹⁰But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come forth like gold.

¹¹My foot has held fast to his steps. His way have I kept, and not turned aside.

¹²I haven't gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

¹³But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? What his soul desires, even that he does.

¹⁴For he performs that which is appointed for me. Many such things are with him.

¹⁵Therefore I am terrified at his presence. When I consider, I am afraid of him.

¹⁶For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.

¹⁷Because I was not cut off before the darkness, Neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.

24"Why aren't times laid up by the Almighty? Why don't those who know him see his days?

²There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

³They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, And they take the widow's ox for a pledge.

⁴They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.

⁵Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, They go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food; The wilderness yields them bread for their children.

⁶They cut their provender in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.

⁷They lie all night naked without clothing, And have no covering in the cold.

⁸They are wet with the showers of the mountains, And embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.

⁹There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, And take a pledge of the poor,

¹⁰So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.

¹¹They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.

¹²From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, Yet God doesn't regard the folly.

¹³"These are of those who rebel against the light; They don't know the ways of it, Nor abide in the paths of it.

¹⁴The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.

¹⁵The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Saying, 'No eye shall see me.' He disguises his face.

¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don't know the light.

¹⁷For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, For they know the terrors of the thick darkness.

¹⁸"They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth: They don't turn into the way of the vineyards.

¹⁹Drought and heat consume the snow waters; So does Sheol those who have sinned.

²⁰The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be no more remembered. Unrighteousness shall be broken as a tree.

²¹He devours the barren who don't bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.

²²Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.

²³God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.

²⁴They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, And are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

²⁵If it isn't so now, who will prove me a liar, And make my speech worth nothing?"

25Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

²"Dominion and fear are with him; He makes peace in his high places.

³Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not arise?

⁴How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?

⁵Behold, even the moon has no brightness, And the stars are not pure in his sight;

⁶How much less man, who is a worm! The son of man, who is a worm!"

26Then Job answered,

²"How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength!

³How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, And plentifully declared sound knowledge!

⁴To whom have you uttered words? Whose spirit came forth from you?

⁵"Those who are deceased tremble, Those beneath the waters and all that live in them.

⁶Sheol is naked before God, And Abaddon has no covering.

⁷He stretches out the north over empty space, And hangs the earth on nothing.

⁸He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, And the cloud is not burst under them.

⁹He encloses the face of his throne, And spreads his cloud on it.

¹⁰He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, And to the confines of light and darkness.

¹¹The pillars of heaven tremble And are astonished at his rebuke.

¹²He stirs up the sea with his power, And by his understanding he strikes through Rahab.

¹³By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent.

¹⁴Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?"

27Job again took up his parable, and said,

²"As God lives, who has taken away my right, The Almighty, who has made my soul bitter.

³(For the length of my life is still in me, And the spirit of God is in my nostrils);

⁴Surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness, Neither shall my tongue utter deceit.

⁵Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.

⁶I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

⁷"Let my enemy be as the wicked, Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

⁸For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, When God takes away his life?

⁹Will God hear his cry, When trouble comes on him?

¹⁰Will he delight himself in the Almighty, And call on God at all times?

¹¹I will teach you about the hand of God. That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

¹²Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; Why then have you become altogether vain?

¹³"This is the portion of a wicked man with God, The heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.

¹⁴If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.

¹⁵Those who remain of him shall be buried in death. His widows shall make no lamentation.

¹⁶Though he heap up silver as the dust, And prepare clothing as the clay;

¹⁷He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, And the innocent shall divide the silver.

¹⁸He builds his house as the moth, As a booth which the watchman makes.

¹⁹He lies down rich, but he shall not do so again. He opens his eyes, and he is not.

²⁰Terrors overtake him like waters; A tempest steals him away in the night.

²¹The east wind carries him away, and he departs; It sweeps him out of his place.

²²For it hurls at him, and does not spare, As he flees away from his hand.

²³Men shall clap their hands at him, And shall hiss him out of his place.

28"Surely there is a mine for silver, And a place for gold which they refine.

²Iron is taken out of the earth, And copper is smelted out of the ore.

³Man sets an end to darkness, And searches out, to the furthest bound, The stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.

⁴He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.

⁵As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.

⁶Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold.

⁷That path no bird of prey knows, Neither has the falcon's eye seen it.

⁸The proud animals have not trodden it, Nor has the fierce lion passed by there.

⁹He puts forth his hand on the flinty rock, And he overturns the mountains by the roots.

¹⁰He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing.

¹¹He binds the streams that they don't trickle; The thing that is hidden he brings forth to light.

¹²"But where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?

¹³Man doesn't know its price; Neither is it found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep says, 'It isn't in me.' The sea says, 'It isn't with me.'

¹⁵It can't be gotten for gold, Neither shall silver be weighed for its price.

¹⁶It can't be valued with the gold of Ophir, With the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

¹⁷Gold and glass can't equal it, Neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

¹⁸No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal: Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.

¹⁹The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.

²⁰Whence then comes wisdom? Where is the place of understanding?

²¹Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, And kept close from the birds of the sky.

²²Destruction and Death say, 'We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.'

²³"God understands its way, And he knows its place.

²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth, And sees under the whole sky.

²⁵He establishes the force of the wind; Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.

²⁶When he made a decree for the rain, And a way for the lightning of the thunder;

²⁷Then did he see it, and declare it. He established it, yes, and searched it out.

²⁸To man he said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.'"

29Job again took up his parable, and said,

²"Oh that I were as in the months of old, As in the days when God watched over me;

³When his lamp shone on my head, And by his light I walked through darkness;

⁴As I was in the ripeness of my days, When the friendship of God was in my tent;

⁵When the Almighty was yet with me, And my children were around me;

⁶When my steps were washed with butter, And the rock poured out streams of oil for me!

⁷When I went forth to the city gate, When I prepared my seat in the street,

⁸The young men saw me and hid themselves, The aged rose up and stood;

⁹The princes refrained from talking, And laid their hand on their mouth;

¹⁰The voice of the nobles was hushed, And their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; And when the eye saw me, it commended me:

¹²Because I delivered the poor who cried, And the fatherless also, who had none to help him.

¹³The blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, And I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind, And feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the needy. The cause of him who I didn't know, I searched out.

¹⁷I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, And plucked the prey out of his teeth.

¹⁸Then I said, 'I shall die in my own house, I shall number my days as the sand.

¹⁹My root is spread out to the waters, The dew lies all night on my branch;

²⁰My glory is fresh in me, My bow is renewed in my hand.'

²¹"Men listened to me, waited, And kept silence for my counsel.

²²After my words they didn't speak again; My speech fell on them.

²³They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.

²⁴I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn't reject the light of my face.

²⁵I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, As one who comforts the mourners.

30"But now those who are younger than I, have me in derision, Whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.

²Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, Men in whom ripe age has perished?

³They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

⁴They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.

⁵They are driven forth from the midst of men; They cry after them as after a thief;

⁶So that they dwell in frightful valleys, And in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

⁷Among the bushes they bray; And under the nettles they are gathered together.

⁸They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land.

⁹"Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

¹⁰They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, And don't hesitate to spit in my face.

¹¹For he has loosed his cord, and afflicted me; And they have thrown off restraint before me.

¹²On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.

¹³They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, Without anyone's help.

¹⁴As through a wide breach they come, In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.

¹⁵Terrors are turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

¹⁶"Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me.

¹⁷In the night season my bones are pierced in me, And the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

¹⁸By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

¹⁹He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.

²¹You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.

²²You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.

²³For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house appointed for all living.

²⁴"However doesn't one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

²⁵Didn't I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?

²⁶When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness.

²⁷My heart is troubled, and doesn't rest. Days of affliction have come on me.

²⁸I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

²⁹I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches.

³⁰My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

³¹Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of those who weep.

31"I made a covenant with my eyes, How then should I look lustfully at a young woman?

²For what is the portion from God above, And the heritage from the Almighty on high?

³Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, And disaster to the workers of iniquity?

⁴Doesn't he see my ways, And number all my steps?

⁵"If I have walked with falsehood, And my foot has hurried to deceit

⁶(Let me be weighed in an even balance, That God may know my integrity);

⁷If my step has turned out of the way, If my heart walked after my eyes, If any defilement has stuck to my hands,

⁸Then let me sow, and let another eat; Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.

⁹"If my heart has been enticed to a woman, And I have laid wait at my neighbor's door;

¹⁰Then let my wife grind for another, And let others sleep with her.

¹¹For that would be a heinous crime; Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges:

¹²For it is a fire that consumes to destruction, And would root out all my increase.

¹³"If I have despised the cause of my man-servant Or of my maid-servant, When they contended with me;

¹⁴What then shall I do when God rises up? When he visits, what shall I answer him?

¹⁵Didn't he who made me in the womb make him? Didn't one fashion us in the womb?

¹⁶"If I have withheld the poor from their desire, Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

¹⁷Or have eaten my morsel alone, And the fatherless has not eaten of it

¹⁸(No, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, Her have I guided from my mother's womb);

¹⁹If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering;

²⁰If his heart hasn't blessed me, If he hasn't been warmed with my sheep's fleece;

²¹If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, Because I saw my help in the gate:

²²Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade, And my arm be broken from the bone.

²³For calamity from God is a terror to me, By reason of his majesty I can do nothing.

²⁴"If I have made gold my hope, And have said to the fine gold, 'You are my confidence;'

²⁵If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, And because my hand had gotten much;

²⁶If I have seen the sun when it shined, Or the moon moving in splendor,

²⁷And my heart has been secretly enticed, My hand threw a kiss from my mouth:

²⁸This also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges; For I should have denied the God who is above.

²⁹"If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, Or lifted up myself when evil found him;

³⁰(Yes, I have not allowed my mouth to sin By asking his life with a curse);

³¹If the men of my tent have not said, 'Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?'

³²(The sojourner has not lodged in the street; But I have opened my doors to the traveler);

³³If like Adam I have covered my transgressions, By hiding my iniquity in my heart,

³⁴Because I feared the great multitude, And the contempt of families terrified me, So that I kept silence, and didn't go out of the door--

³⁵Oh that I had one to hear me! (Behold, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me); Let the accuser write my indictment!

³⁶Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; And I would bind it to me as a crown.

³⁷I would declare to him the number of my steps. As a prince would I go near to him.

³⁸If my land cries out against me, And the furrows of it weep together;

³⁹If I have eaten the fruits of it without money, Or have caused the owners of it to lose their life:

⁴⁰Let briars grow instead of wheat, And stinkweed instead of barley." The words of Job are ended.

32So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.

²Then the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His wrath was kindled, because he justified himself rather than God.

³Also his wrath was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.

⁴Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job, because they were elder than he.

⁵When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was kindled.

⁶Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, "I am young, and you are very old; Therefore I held back, and didn't dare show you my opinion.

⁷I said, 'Days should speak, And multitude of years should teach wisdom.'

⁸But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.

⁹It is not the great who are wise, Nor the aged who understand justice.

¹⁰Therefore I said, 'Listen to me; I also will show my opinion.'

¹¹"Behold, I waited for your words, And I listened for your reasoning, While you searched out what to say.

¹²Yes, I gave you my full attention, But there was no one who convinced Job, Or who answered his words, among you.

¹³Beware lest you say, 'We have found wisdom, God may refute him, not man:'

¹⁴For he has not directed his words against me; Neither will I answer him with your speeches.

¹⁵"They are amazed. They answer no more. They don't have a word to say.

¹⁶Shall I wait, because they don't speak, Because they stand still, and answer no more?

¹⁷I also will answer my part, And I also will show my opinion.

¹⁸For I am full of words. The spirit within me constrains me.

¹⁹Behold, my breast is as wine which has no vent; Like new wineskins it is ready to burst.

²⁰I will speak, that I may be refreshed. I will open my lips and answer.

²¹Please don't let me respect any man's person, Neither will I give flattering titles to any man.

²²For I don't know how to give flattering titles; Or else my Maker would soon take me away.

33"However, Job, Please hear my speech, And listen to all my words.

²See now, I have opened my mouth. My tongue has spoken in my mouth.

³My words shall utter the uprightness of my heart; That which my lips know they shall speak sincerely.

⁴The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

⁵If you can, answer me; Set your words in order before me, and stand forth.

⁶Behold, I am toward God even as you are: I am also formed out of the clay.

⁷Behold, my terror shall not make you afraid, Neither shall my pressure be heavy on you.

⁸"Surely you have spoken in my hearing, I have heard the voice of your words, saying,

⁹'I am clean, without disobedience. I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me:

¹⁰Behold, he finds occasions against me, He counts me for his enemy:

¹¹He puts my feet in the stocks, He marks all my paths.'

¹²"Behold, I will answer you. In this you are not just; For God is greater than man.

¹³Why do you strive against him, Because he doesn't give account of any of his matters?

¹⁴For God speaks once, Yes twice, though man pays no attention.

¹⁵In a dream, in a vision of the night, When deep sleep falls on men, In slumbering on the bed;

¹⁶Then he opens the ears of men, And seals their instruction,

¹⁷That he may withdraw man from his purpose, And hide pride from man.

¹⁸He keeps back his soul from the pit, And his life from perishing by the sword.

¹⁹He is chastened also with pain on his bed, With continual strife in his bones;

²⁰So that his life abhors bread, And his soul dainty food.

²¹His flesh is so consumed away, that it can't be seen; His bones that were not seen stick out.

²²Yes, his soul draws near to the pit, And his life to the destroyers.

²³"If there is beside him an angel, An interpreter, one among a thousand, To show to man what is right for him;

²⁴Then God is gracious to him, and says, 'Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.'

²⁵His flesh shall be fresher than a child's; He returns to the days of his youth.

²⁶He prays to God, and he is favorable to him, So that he sees his face with joy: He restores to man his righteousness.

²⁷He sings before men, and says, 'I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, And it didn't profit me.

²⁸He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit, My life shall see the light.'

²⁹"Behold, God works all these things, Twice, yes three times, with a man,

³⁰To bring back his soul from the pit, That he may be enlightened with the light of the living.

³¹Mark well, Job, and listen to me: Hold your peace, and I will speak.

³²If you have anything to say, answer me: Speak, for I desire to justify you.

³³If not, listen to me: Hold your peace, and I will teach you wisdom."

34Moreover Elihu answered,

²"Hear my words, you wise men; Give ear to me, you who have knowledge.

³For the ear tries words, As the palate tastes food.

⁴Let us choose for us that which is right. Let us know among ourselves what is good.

⁵For Job has said, 'I am righteous, God has taken away my right:

⁶Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar; My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.'

⁷What man is like Job, Who drinks up scoffing like water,

⁸Who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, And walks with wicked men?

⁹For he has said, 'It profits a man nothing That he should delight himself with God.'

¹⁰"Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, From the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.

¹¹For the work of a man will he render to him, And cause every man to find according to his ways.

¹²Yes surely, God will not do wickedly, Neither will the Almighty pervert justice.

¹³Who gave him a charge over the earth? Or who has appointed him over the whole world?

¹⁴If he set his heart on himself, If he gathered to himself his spirit and his breath;

¹⁵All flesh would perish together, And man would turn again to dust.

¹⁶"If now you have understanding, hear this. Listen to the voice of my words.

¹⁷Shall even one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty?--

¹⁸Who says to a king, 'Vile!' Or to nobles, 'Wicked!'

¹⁹Who doesn't respect the persons of princes, Nor regards the rich more than the poor; For they all are the work of his hands.

²⁰In a moment they die, even at midnight; The people are shaken and pass away, The mighty are taken away without hand.

²¹"For his eyes are on the ways of a man, He sees all his goings.

²²There is no darkness, nor thick gloom, Where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.

²³For he doesn't need to consider a man further, That he should go before God in judgment.

²⁴He breaks in pieces mighty men in ways past finding out, And sets others in their place.

²⁵Therefore he takes knowledge of their works. He overturns them in the night, so that they are destroyed.

²⁶He strikes them as wicked men In the open sight of others;

²⁷Because they turned aside from following him, And wouldn't have regard in any of his ways:

²⁸So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him, He heard the cry of the afflicted.

²⁹When he gives quietness, who then can condemn? When he hides his face, who then can see him? Alike whether to a nation, or to a man:

³⁰That the godless man may not reign, That there be no one to ensnare the people.

³¹"For has any said to God, 'I am guilty, but I will not offend any more.

³²Teach me that which I don't see. If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more'?

³³Shall his recompense be as you desire, that you refuse it? For you must choose, and not I. Therefore speak what you know.

³⁴Men of understanding will tell me, Yes, every wise man who hears me:

³⁵'Job speaks without knowledge, His words are without wisdom.'

³⁶I wish that Job were tried to the end, Because of his answering like wicked men.

³⁷For he adds rebellion to his sin. He claps his hands among us, And multiplies his words against God."

35Moreover Elihu answered,

²"Do you think this to be your right, Or do you say, 'My righteousness is more than God's,'

³That you ask, 'What advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?'

⁴I will answer you, And your companions with you.

⁵Look to the heavens, and see. See the skies, which are higher than you.

⁶If you have sinned, what effect do you have against him? If your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him?

⁷If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand?

⁸Your wickedness may hurt a man as you are; And your righteousness may profit a son of man.

⁹"By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out; They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.

¹⁰But none says, 'Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night,

¹¹Who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, And makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?'

¹²There they cry, but none gives answer, Because of the pride of evil men.

¹³Surely God will not hear an empty cry, Neither will the Almighty regard it.

¹⁴How much less when you say you don't see him. The cause is before him, and you wait for him!

¹⁵But now, because he has not visited in his anger, Neither does he greatly regard arrogance.

¹⁶Therefore Job opens his mouth with empty talk, And he multiplies words without knowledge."

36Elihu also continued, and said,

²"Bear with me a little, and I will show you; For I still have something to say on God's behalf.

³I will get my knowledge from afar, And will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

⁴For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵"Behold, God is mighty, and doesn't despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding.

⁶He doesn't preserve the life of the wicked, But gives to the afflicted their right.

⁷He doesn't withdraw his eyes from the righteous, But with kings on the throne, He sets them forever, and they are exalted.

⁸If they are bound in fetters, And are taken in the cords of afflictions,

⁹Then he shows them their work, And their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.

¹⁰He also opens their ears to instruction, And commands that they return from iniquity.

¹¹If they listen and serve him, They shall spend their days in prosperity, And their years in pleasures.

¹²But if they don't listen, they shall perish by the sword; They shall die without knowledge.

¹³"But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don't cry for help when he binds them.

¹⁴They die in youth. Their life perishes among the unclean.

¹⁵He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, And opens their ear in oppression.

¹⁶Yes, he would have allured you out of distress, Into a broad place, where there is no restriction. That which is set on your table would be full of fatness.

¹⁷"But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you.

¹⁸Don't let riches entice you to wrath, Neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.

¹⁹Would your wealth sustain you in distress, Or all the might of your strength?

²⁰Don't desire the night, When people are cut off in their place.

²¹Take heed, don't regard iniquity; For this you have chosen rather than affliction.

²²Behold, God is exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?

²³Who has prescribed his way for him? Or who can say, 'You have committed unrighteousness?'

²⁴"Remember that you magnify his work, Whereof men have sung.

²⁵All men have looked thereon. Man sees it afar off.

²⁶Behold, God is great, and we don't know him. The number of his years is unsearchable.

²⁷For he draws up the drops of water, Which distill in rain from his vapor,

²⁸Which the skies pour down And drop on man abundantly.

²⁹Yes, can any understand the spreading of the clouds, And the thunderings of his pavilion?

³⁰Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.

³¹For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance.

³²He covers his hands with the lightning, And commands it to strike the mark.

³³The noise of it tells about him, And the cattle also concerning the storm that comes up.

37"Yes, at this my heart trembles, And is moved out of its place.

²Hear, oh, hear the noise of his voice, The sound that goes out of his mouth.

³He sends it forth under the whole sky, And his lightning to the ends of the earth.

⁴After it a voice roars. He thunders with the voice of his majesty; He doesn't hold back anything when his voice is heard.

⁵God thunders marvelously with his voice. He does great things, which we can't comprehend.

⁶For he says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth;' Likewise to the shower of rain, And to the showers of his mighty rain.

⁷He seals up the hand of every man, That all men whom he has made may know it.

⁸Then the animals go into coverts, And remain in their dens.

⁹Out of its chamber comes the storm, And cold out of the north.

¹⁰By the breath of God, ice is given, And the breadth of the waters is frozen.

¹¹Yes, he loads the thick cloud with moisture. He spreads abroad the cloud of his lightning.

¹²It is turned round about by his guidance, That they may do whatever he commands them On the surface of the habitable world,

¹³Whether it is for correction, or for his land, Or for lovingkindness, that he causes it to come.

¹⁴"Listen to this, Job: Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God.

¹⁵Do you know how God controls them, And causes the lightning of his cloud to shine?

¹⁶Do you know the workings of the clouds, The wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge?

¹⁷You whose clothing is warm, When the earth is still by reason of the south wind?

¹⁸Can you, with him, spread out the sky, Which is strong as a cast metal mirror?

¹⁹Teach us what we shall tell him; For we can't make our case by reason of darkness.

²⁰Shall it be told him that I would speak? Or should a man wish that he were swallowed up?

²¹Now men don't see the light which is bright in the skies, But the wind passes, and clears them.

²²Out of the north comes golden splendor; With God is awesome majesty.

²³We can't reach the Almighty, He is exalted in power; In justice and great righteousness he will not oppress.

²⁴Therefore men revere him. He doesn't regard any who are wise of heart."

38Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,

²"Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge?

³Brace yourself like a man, For I will question you, then you answer me!

⁴"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.

⁵Who determined the measures of it, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it?

⁶Whereupon were the foundations of it fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,

⁷When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸"Or who shut up the sea with doors, When it broke forth from the womb,

⁹When I made clouds the garment of it, Thick darkness a swaddling-band for it,

¹⁰Marked out for it my bound, Set bars and doors,

¹¹And said, 'Here you may come, but no further; Here shall your proud waves be stayed?'

¹²"Have you commanded the morning in your days, And caused the dawn to know its place;

¹³That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, And shake the wicked out of it?

¹⁴It is changed as clay under the seal, And stands forth as a garment.

¹⁵From the wicked, their light is withheld, The high arm is broken.

¹⁶"Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep?

¹⁷Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

¹⁸Have you comprehended the earth in its breadth? Declare, if you know it all.

¹⁹"What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is the place of it,

²⁰That you should take it to the bound of it, That you should discern the paths to the house of it?

²¹Surely you know, for you were born then, And the number of your days is great!

²²Have you entered the treasuries of the snow, Or have you seen the treasures of the hail,

²³Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, Against the day of battle and war?

²⁴By what way is the lightning distributed, Or the east wind scattered on the earth?

²⁵Who has cut a channel for the flood water, Or the path for the thunderstorm;

²⁶To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; On the wilderness, in which there is no man;

²⁷To satisfy the waste and desolate ground, To cause the tender grass to spring forth?

²⁸Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?

²⁹Out of whose womb came the ice? The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?

³⁰The waters become hard like stone, When the surface of the deep is frozen.

³¹"Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loosen the cords of Orion?

³²Can you lead forth the constellations in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?

³³Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish the dominion of it over the earth?

³⁴"Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That abundance of waters may cover you?

³⁵Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, 'Here we are?'

³⁶Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?

³⁷Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,

³⁸When the dust runs into a mass, And the clods of earth stick together?

³⁹"Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

⁴⁰When they crouch in their dens, And lie in wait in the thicket?

⁴¹Who provides for the raven his prey, When his young ones cry to God, And wander for lack of food?

39"Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?

²Can you number the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?

³They bow themselves, they bring forth their young, They end their labor pains.

⁴Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go forth, and don't return again.

⁵"Who has set the wild donkey free? Or who has loosened the bonds of the swift donkey,

⁶Whose home I have made the wilderness, And the salt land his dwelling-place?

⁷He scorns the tumult of the city, Neither hears he the shouting of the driver.

⁸The range of the mountains is his pasture, He searches after every green thing.

⁹"Will the wild ox be content to serve you? Or will he stay by your feeding trough?

¹⁰Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness? Or will he till the valleys after you?

¹¹Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labor?

¹²Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, And gather the grain of your threshing floor?

¹³"The wings of the ostrich wave proudly; But are they the pinions and plumage of love?

¹⁴For she leaves her eggs on the earth, Warms them in the dust,

¹⁵And forgets that the foot may crush them, Or that the wild animal may trample them.

¹⁶She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labor is in vain, she is without fear,

¹⁷Because God has deprived her of wisdom, Neither has he imparted to her understanding.

¹⁸When she lifts up herself on high, She scorns the horse and his rider.

¹⁹"Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane?

²⁰Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome.

²¹He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength: He goes out to meet the armed men.

²²He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed; Neither does he turn back from the sword.

²³The quiver rattles against him, The flashing spear and the javelin.

²⁴He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, Neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet.

²⁵As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, 'Aha!' He smells the battle afar off, The thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

²⁶"Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, And stretches her wings toward the south?

²⁷Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, And makes his nest on high?

²⁸On the cliff he dwells, and makes his home, On the point of the cliff, and the stronghold.

²⁹From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off.

³⁰His young ones also suck up blood. Where the slain are, there he is."

40Moreover Yahweh answered Job,

²"Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it."

³Then Job answered Yahweh,

⁴"Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.

⁵I have spoken once, and I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further."

⁶Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,

⁷"Now brace yourself like a man. I will question you, and you will answer me.

⁸Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?

⁹Or have you an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him?

¹⁰"Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity. Array yourself with honor and majesty.

¹¹Pour forth the fury of your anger. Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low.

¹²Look on everyone who is proud, and humble him. Crush the wicked in their place.

¹³Hide them in the dust together. Bind their faces in the hidden place.

¹⁴Then I will also admit to you That your own right hand can save you.

¹⁵"See now, behemoth, which I made as well as you. He eats grass as an ox.

¹⁶Look now, his strength is in his loins, His force is in the muscles of his belly.

¹⁷He moves his tail like a cedar: The sinews of his thighs are knit together.

¹⁸His bones are like tubes of brass. His limbs are like bars of iron.

¹⁹He is the chief of the ways of God. He who made him gives him his sword.

²⁰Surely the mountains bring him forth food, Where all the animals of the field do play.

²¹He lies under the lotus-trees, In the covert of the reed, and the marsh.

²²The lotuses cover him with their shade. The willows of the brook surround him.

²³Behold, if a river overflows, he doesn't tremble. He is confident, though the Jordan swells even to his mouth.

²⁴Shall any take him when he is on the watch, Or pierce through his nose with a snare?

41"Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook? Or press down his tongue with a cord?

²Can you put a rope into his nose? Or pierce his jaw through with a hook?

³Will he make many petitions to you? Or will he speak soft words to you?

⁴Will he make a covenant with you, That you should take him for a servant forever?

⁵Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you bind him for your girls?

⁶Will traders barter for him? Will they part him among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, Or his head with fish-spears?

⁸Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle, and do so no more.

⁹Behold, the hope of him is in vain. Will not one be cast down even at the sight of him?

¹⁰None is so fierce that he dare stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me?

¹¹Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.

¹²"I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, Nor his mighty strength, nor his goodly frame.

¹³Who can strip off his outer garment? Who shall come within his jaws?

¹⁴Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror.

¹⁵Strong scales are his pride, Shut up together with a close seal.

¹⁶One is so near to another, That no air can come between them.

¹⁷They are joined one to another; They stick together, so that they can't be pulled apart.

¹⁸His sneezing flashes forth light, His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

¹⁹Out of his mouth go burning torches, Sparks of fire leap forth.

²⁰Out of his nostrils a smoke goes, As of a boiling pot over a fire of reeds.

²¹His breath kindles coals. A flame goes forth from his mouth.

²²In his neck there is strength. Terror dances before him.

²³The flakes of his flesh are joined together. They are firm on him. They can't be moved.

²⁴His heart is as firm as a stone, Yes, firm as the lower millstone.

²⁵When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. They retreat before his thrashing.

²⁶If one lay at him with the sword, it can't avail; Nor the spear, the dart, nor the pointed shaft.

²⁷He counts iron as straw; And brass as rotten wood.

²⁸The arrow can't make him flee. Sling stones are like chaff to him.

²⁹Clubs are counted as stubble. He laughs at the rushing of the javelin.

³⁰His undersides are like sharp potsherds, Leaving a trail in the mud like a threshing sledge.

³¹He makes the deep to boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.

³²He makes a path to shine after him. One would think the deep had white hair.

³³On earth there is not his equal, That is made without fear.

³⁴He sees everything that is high: He is king over all the sons of pride."

42Then Job answered Yahweh,

²"I know that you can do all things, And that no purpose of yours can be restrained.

³You asked, 'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I didn't know.

⁴You said, 'Listen, now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.'

⁵I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees you.

⁶Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes."

⁷It was so, that after Yahweh had spoken these words to Job, Yahweh said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.

⁸Now therefore, take to yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him, that I not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has."

⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did what Yahweh commanded them, and Yahweh accepted Job.

¹⁰Yahweh turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends. Yahweh gave Job twice as much as he had before.

¹¹Then came there to him all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.

¹²So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys.

¹³He had also seven sons and three daughters.

¹⁴He called the name of the first, Jemimah; and the name of the second, Keziah; and the name of the third, Keren-happuch.

¹⁵In all the land were no women found so beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

¹⁶After this Job lived one hundred forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, to four generations.

¹⁷So Job died, being old and full of days.

PSALM 1

¹Blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the way of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers;

²But his delight is in the law of Yahweh; On his law he meditates day and night.

³He shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper.

⁴The wicked are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

⁵Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

⁶For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked shall perish. Psalm 2

PSALM 2

¹Why do the nations rage, And the peoples plot a vain thing?

²The kings of the earth take a stand, And the rulers take counsel together, Against Yahweh, and against his anointed, saying,

³"Let us break their bonds apart, And cast away their cords from us."

⁴He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision.

⁵Then he will speak to them in his anger, And terrify them in his wrath:

⁶"Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion."

⁷I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, "You are my son. Today I have become your father.

⁸Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, The uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.

⁹You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."

¹⁰Now therefore be wise, you kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

¹¹Serve Yahweh with fear, And rejoice with trembling.

¹²Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, For his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him. Psalm 3 A Psalm by David, when he fled from Absalom, his son.

PSALM 3

¹Yahweh, how my adversaries have increased! Many are those who rise up against me.

²Many there are who say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.

³But you, Yahweh, are a shield around me, My glory, and the one who lifts up my head.

⁴I cry to Yahweh with my voice, And he answers me out of his holy hill. Selah.

⁵I laid myself down and slept. I awakened; for Yahweh sustains me.

⁶I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people Who have set themselves against me on every side.

⁷Arise, Yahweh! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.

⁸Salvation belongs to Yahweh. Your blessing be on your people. Selah. Psalm 4 For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 4

¹Answer me when I call, God of my righteousness. Give me relief from my distress. Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.

²You sons of men, how long shall my glory be turned into dishonor? Will you love vanity, and seek after falsehood? Selah.

³But know that Yahweh has set apart for himself him who is godly: Yahweh will hear when I call to him.

⁴Stand in awe, and don't sin. Search your own heart on your bed, and be still. Selah.

⁵Offer the sacrifices of righteousness. Put your trust in Yahweh.

⁶Many say, "Who will show us any good?" Yahweh, let the light of your face shine on us.

⁷You have put gladness in my heart, More than when their grain and their new wine are increased.

⁸In peace I will both lay myself down and sleep, For you, Yahweh alone, make me live in safety. Psalm 5 For the Chief Musician, with the flutes. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 5

¹Give ear to my words, Yahweh. Consider my meditation.

²Listen to the voice of my cry, my King, and my God; For to you do I pray.

³Yahweh, in the morning shall you hear my voice. In the morning I will lay my requests before you, and will watch expectantly.

⁴For you are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness. Evil can't live with you.

⁵The arrogant shall not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity.

⁶You will destroy those who speak lies. Yahweh abhors the blood-thirsty and deceitful man.

⁷But as for me, in the abundance of your lovingkindness I will come into your house: I will bow toward your holy temple in reverence of you.

⁸Lead me, Yahweh, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face.

⁹For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Their inward part is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue.

¹⁰Hold them guilty, God. Let them fall by their own counsels; Thrust them out in the multitude of their transgressions, For they have rebelled against you.

¹¹But let all those who take refuge in you rejoice, Let them always shout for joy, because you defend them. Let them also who love your name be joyful in you.

¹²For you will bless the righteous. Yahweh, you will surround him with favor as with a shield. Psalm 6 For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, upon the eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 6

¹Yahweh, don't rebuke me in your anger, Neither discipline me in your wrath.

²Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

³My soul is also in great anguish. But you, Yahweh -- how long?

⁴Return, Yahweh. Deliver my soul, And save me for your lovingkindness' sake.

⁵For in death there is no memory of you. In Sheol, who shall give you thanks?

⁶I am weary with my groaning; Every night I flood my bed; I drench my couch with my tears.

⁷My eye wastes away because of grief; It grows old because of all my adversaries.

⁸Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, For Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping.

⁹Yahweh has heard my supplication. Yahweh will receive my prayer.

¹⁰May all my enemies be ashamed and dismayed. They shall turn back, they shall be disgraced suddenly. Psalm 7 A meditation by David, which he sang to Yahweh, concerning the words of Cush, the Benjamite.

PSALM 7

¹Yahweh, my God, I take refuge in you. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,

²Lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, Rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

³Yahweh, my God, if I have done this, If there is iniquity in my hands,

⁴If I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (Yes, I have delivered him who without cause was my adversary),

⁵Let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; Yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, And lay my glory in the dust. Selah.

⁶Arise, Yahweh, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment.

⁷Let the congregation of the peoples surround you. Rule over them on high.

⁸Yahweh administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, Yahweh, according to my righteousness, And to my integrity that is in me.

⁹Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, But establish the righteous; Their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God.

¹⁰My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart.

¹¹God is a righteous judge, Yes, a God who has indignation every day.

¹²If a man doesn't relent, he will sharpen his sword; He has bent and strung his bow.

¹³He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows.

¹⁴Behold, he travails with iniquity; Yes, he has conceived mischief and brought forth falsehood.

¹⁵He has dug a hole, And has fallen into the pit which he made.

¹⁶The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.

¹⁷I will give thanks to Yahweh according to his righteousness, And will sing praise to the name of Yahweh Most High. Psalm 8 For the Chief Musician; on an instrument of Gath. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 8

¹Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, Who has set your glory above the heavens!

²From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, Because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.

³When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, The moon and the stars, which you have ordained;

⁴What is man, that you think of him? The son of man, that you care for him?

⁵For you have made him a little lower than the angels, And crowned him with glory and honor.

⁶You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet:

⁷All sheep and oxen, Yes, and the animals of the field,

⁸The birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, And whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

⁹Yahweh, our Lord, How majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalm 9 For the Chief Musician. Set to "The Death of the Son." A Psalm by David.

PSALM 9

¹I will give thanks to Yahweh with my whole heart. I will tell of all your marvelous works.

²I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will sing praise to your name, you Most High.

³When my enemies turn back, They stumble and perish in your presence.

⁴For you have maintained my right and my cause. You sit on the throne judging righteously.

⁵You have rebuked the nations. You have destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name forever and ever.

⁶The enemy is overtaken by endless ruin. The very memory of the cities which you have overthrown has perished.

⁷But Yahweh reigns forever. He has prepared his throne for judgment.

⁸He will judge the world in righteousness. He will administer judgment to the peoples in uprightness.

⁹Yahweh will also be a high tower for the oppressed; A high tower in times of trouble.

¹⁰Those who know your name will put their trust in you, For you, Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you.

¹¹Sing praises to Yahweh, who dwells in Zion, And declare among the people what he has done.

¹²For he who avenges blood remembers them. He doesn't forget the cry of the afflicted.

¹³Have mercy on me, Yahweh. See my affliction by those who hate me, And lift me up from the gates of death;

¹⁴That I may show forth all your praise. In the gates of the daughter of Zion I will rejoice in your salvation.

¹⁵The nations have sunk down in the pit that they made; In the net which they hid, their own foot is taken.

¹⁶Yahweh has made himself known. He has executed judgment. The wicked is snared by the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah.

¹⁷The wicked shall be turned back to Sheol, Even all the nations that forget God.

¹⁸For the needy shall not always be forgotten, Nor the hope of the poor perish forever.

¹⁹Arise, Yahweh! Don't let man prevail. Let the nations be judged in your sight.

²⁰Put them in fear, Yahweh. Let the nations know that they are only men. Selah. Psalm 10

PSALM 10

¹Why do you stand far off, Yahweh? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

²In arrogance, the wicked hunt down the weak; They are caught in the schemes that they devise.

³For the wicked boasts of his heart's cravings, He blesses the greedy, and condemns Yahweh.

⁴The wicked, in the pride of his face, Has no room in his thoughts for God.

⁵His ways are prosperous at all times; He is haughty, and your laws are far from his sight: As for all his adversaries, he sneers at them.

⁶He says in his heart, "I shall not be shaken; For generations I shall have no trouble."

⁷His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.

⁸He lies in wait near the villages. From ambushes, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly set against the helpless.

⁹He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless, when he draws him in his net.

¹⁰The helpless are crushed, they collapse, They fall under his strength.

¹¹He says in his heart, "God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it."

¹²Arise, Yahweh! God, lift up your hand! Don't forget the helpless.

¹³Why does the wicked condemn God, And say in his heart, "God won't call me into account?"

¹⁴But you do see trouble and grief; You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.

¹⁵Break the arm of the wicked. As for the evil man, seek out his wickedness until you find none.

¹⁶Yahweh is King forever and ever! The nations will perish out of his land.

¹⁷Yahweh, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear,

¹⁸To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, That man who is of the earth may terrify no more. Psalm 11 For the Chief Musician. By David.

PSALM 11

¹In Yahweh do I take refuge. How can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain!"

²For, behold, the wicked bend their bows. They set their arrows on the strings, That they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.

³If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?

⁴Yahweh is in his holy temple. Yahweh is on his throne in heaven. His eyes observe. His eyes examine the children of men.

⁵Yahweh examines the righteous, But the wicked and him who loves violence his soul hates.

⁶On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; Fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.

⁷For Yahweh is righteous. He loves righteousness. The upright shall see his face. Psalm 12 For the Chief Musician; upon an eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm of David.

PSALM 12

¹Help, Yahweh; for the godly man ceases. For the faithful fail from among the children of men.

²Everyone lies to his neighbor. With flattering lips, and with a double heart, do they speak.

³May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips, And the tongue that boasts,

⁴Who have said, "With our tongue will we prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?"

⁵"Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says Yahweh; "I will set him in safety from those who malign him."

⁶The words of Yahweh are flawless words, As silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times.

⁷You will keep them, Yahweh, You will preserve them from this generation forever.

⁸The wicked walk on every side, When what is vile is exalted among the sons of men. Psalm 13 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 13

¹How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

²How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart every day? How long shall my enemy triumph over me?

³Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;

⁴Lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed against him;" Lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.

⁵But I trust in your lovingkindness. My heart rejoices in your salvation.

⁶I will sing to Yahweh, Because he has been good to me. Psalm 14 For the Chief Musician. By David.

PSALM 14

¹The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have done abominable works. There is none who does good.

²Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men, To see if there were any who did understand, Who did seek after God.

³They have all gone aside; they have together become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not one.

⁴Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And don't call on Yahweh?

⁵There were they in great fear, For God is in the generation of the righteous.

⁶You put to shame the counsel of the poor, Because Yahweh is his refuge.

⁷Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When Yahweh restores the fortunes of his people, Then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. Psalm 15 A Psalm by David.

PSALM 15

¹Yahweh, who shall dwell in your sanctuary? Who shall live on your holy hill?

²He who walks blamelessly, does what is right, And speaks truth in his heart;

³He who doesn't slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his friend, Nor casts slurs against his fellow man;

⁴In whose eyes a vile man is despised, But who honors those who fear Yahweh; He who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and doesn't change;

⁵He who doesn't lend out his money for usury, Nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken. Psalm 16 A Poem by David.

PSALM 16

¹Preserve me, God, for in you do I take refuge.

²My soul, you have said to Yahweh, "You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing."

³As for the saints who are in the earth, They are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.

⁴Their sorrows shall be multiplied who give gifts to another god. Their drink-offerings of blood I will not offer, Nor take their names on my lips.

⁵Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup. You made my lot secure.

⁶The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance.

⁷I will bless Yahweh, who has given me counsel. Yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons.

⁸I have set Yahweh always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

⁹Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices. My body shall also dwell in safety.

¹⁰For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, Neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.

¹¹You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 17 A Prayer by David.

PSALM 17

¹Hear, Yahweh, my righteous plea; Give ear to my prayer, that doesn't go out of deceitful lips.

²Let my sentence come forth from your presence; Let your eyes look on equity.

³You have proved my heart; you have visited me in the night; You have tried me, and found nothing; I have resolved that my mouth shall not disobey.

⁴As for the works of men, by the word of your lips I have kept myself from the ways of the violent.

⁵My steps have held fast to your paths, My feet have not slipped.

⁶I have called on you, for you will answer me, God: Turn your ear to me. Hear my speech.

⁷Show your marvelous lovingkindness, You who save those who take refuge by your right hand from their enemies.

⁸Keep me as the apple of your eye; Hide me under the shadow of your wings,

⁹From the wicked who oppress me, My deadly enemies, who compass me about.

¹⁰They close up their callous hearts. With their mouth they speak proudly.

¹¹They have now surrounded us in our steps. They set their eyes to cast us down to the earth.

¹²He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, As it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

¹³Arise, Yahweh, Confront him, cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword;

¹⁴From men by your hand, Yahweh, From men of the world, whose portion is in this life, Whose belly you fill with your treasure: They are satisfied with children, Leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

¹⁵As for me, I shall see your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with seeing your form. Psalm 18 For the Chief Musician. By David, the servant of Yahweh, who spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said,

PSALM 18

¹I love you, Yahweh, my strength.

²Yahweh is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; My God, my rock, in whom I will take refuge; My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.

³I will call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.

⁴The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

⁵The cords of Sheol were round about me; The snares of death came on me.

⁶In my distress I called on Yahweh, And cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple, My cry before him came into his ears.

⁷Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken, Because he was angry.

⁸There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, Fire out of his mouth devoured; Coals were kindled by it.

⁹He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.

¹⁰He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he soared on the wings of the wind.

¹¹He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion around him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

¹²At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed, Hailstones and coals of fire.

¹³Yahweh also thundered in the sky, The Most High uttered his voice, Hailstones and coals of fire.

¹⁴He sent out his arrows, and scattered them; Yes, lightnings manifold, and routed them.

¹⁵Then the channels of waters appeared, The foundations of the world were laid bare, At your rebuke, Yahweh, At the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

¹⁶He sent from on high. He took me. He drew me out of many waters.

¹⁷He delivered me from my strong enemy, From those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me.

¹⁸They came on me in the day of my calamity, But Yahweh was my support.

¹⁹He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.

²⁰Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.

²¹For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, And have not wickedly departed from my God.

²²For all his ordinances were before me. I didn't put away his statutes from me.

²³I was also blameless with him. I kept myself from my iniquity.

²⁴Therefore has Yahweh recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.

²⁵With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man, you will show yourself perfect.

²⁶With the pure, you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.

²⁷For you will save the afflicted people, But the haughty eyes you will bring down.

²⁸For you will light my lamp. Yahweh, my God, will light up my darkness.

²⁹For by you, I advance through a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall.

³⁰As for God, his way is perfect. The word of Yahweh is tried. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.

³¹For who is God, except Yahweh? Who is a rock, besides our God,

³²The God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect?

³³He makes my feet like hinds' feet, And sets me on my high places.

³⁴He teaches my hands to war; So that my arms bend a bow of bronze.

³⁵You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your right hand sustains me. Your gentleness has made me great.

³⁶You have enlarged my steps under me, My feet have not slipped.

³⁷I will pursue my enemies, and overtake them. Neither will I turn again until they are consumed.

³⁸I will strike them through, so that they will not be able to rise. They shall fall under my feet.

³⁹For you have girded me with strength to the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.

⁴⁰You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, That I might cut off those who hate me.

⁴¹They cried, but there was none to save; Even to Yahweh, but he didn't answer them.

⁴²Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind. I cast them out as the mire of the streets.

⁴³You have delivered me from the strivings of the people. You have made me the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known shall serve me.

⁴⁴As soon as they hear of me they shall obey me. The foreigners shall submit themselves to me.

⁴⁵The foreigners shall fade away, And shall come trembling out of their close places.

⁴⁶Yahweh lives; and blessed be my rock. Exalted be the God of my salvation,

⁴⁷Even the God who executes vengeance for me, And subdues peoples under me.

⁴⁸He rescues me from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man.

⁴⁹Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations, And will sing praises to your name.

⁵⁰He gives great deliverance to his king, And shows lovingkindness to his anointed, To David and to his seed, forevermore. Psalm 19 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 19

¹The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork.

²Day after day they pour forth speech, And night after night they display knowledge.

³There is no speech nor language, Where their voice is not heard.

⁴Their voice has gone out through all the earth, Their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,

⁵Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, Like a strong man rejoicing to run his course.

⁶His going forth is from the end of the heavens, His circuit to the ends of it; There is nothing hid from the heat of it.

⁷The law of Yahweh is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple.

⁸The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes.

⁹The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever. The ordinances of Yahweh are true, and righteous altogether.

¹⁰More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb.

¹¹Moreover by them is your servant warned. In keeping them there is great reward.

¹²Who can discern his errors? Forgive me from hidden errors.

¹³Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright, I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression.

¹⁴Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in your sight, Yahweh, my rock, and my redeemer. Psalm 20 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 20

¹May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob set you up on high,

²Send you help from the sanctuary, Grant you support from Zion,

³Remember all your offerings, And accept your burnt-sacrifice. Selah.

⁴May He grant you your heart's desire, And fulfill all your counsel.

⁵We will triumph in your salvation. In the name of our God we will set up our banners: Yahweh fulfill all your petitions.

⁶Now I know that Yahweh saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven, With the saving strength of his right hand.

⁷Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, But we trust the name of Yahweh our God.

⁸They are bowed down and fallen, But we rise up, and stand upright.

⁹Save, Yahweh; Let the King answer us when we call! Psalm 21 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 21

¹The king rejoices in your strength, Yahweh! How greatly he rejoices in your salvation!

²You have given him his heart's desire, And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah.

³For you meet him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of fine gold on his head.

⁴He asked life of you, you gave it to him, Even length of days forever and ever.

⁵His glory is great in your salvation. You lay honor and majesty on him.

⁶For you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with joy in your presence.

⁷For the king trusts in Yahweh. Through the lovingkindness of the Most High, he shall not be moved.

⁸Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you.

⁹You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger. Yahweh will swallow them up in his wrath. The fire shall devour them.

¹⁰You will destroy their descendants from the earth, Their posterity from among the children of men.

¹¹For they intended evil against you. They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.

¹²For you will make them turn their back, When you aim drawn bows at their face.

¹³Be exalted, Yahweh, in your strength, So we will sing and praise your power. Psalm 22 For the Chief Musician; set to "The Doe of the Morning." A Psalm by David.

PSALM 22

¹My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?

²My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don't answer; In the night season, and am not silent.

³But you are holy, You who inhabit the praises of Israel.

⁴Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them.

⁵They cried to you, and were delivered. They trusted in you, and were not put to shame.

⁶But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people.

⁷All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,

⁸"He trusts in Yahweh; Let him deliver him; Let him rescue him, since he delights in him."

⁹But you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust at my mother's breasts.

¹⁰I was thrown on you from my mother's womb. You are my God since my mother bore me.

¹¹Don't be far from me, for trouble is near. For there is none to help.

¹²Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.

¹³They open their mouths wide against me, Lions tearing prey and roaring.

¹⁴I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.

¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.

¹⁶For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evil-doers have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet.

¹⁷I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.

¹⁸They divide my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing.

¹⁹But don't be far off, Yahweh. You are my help: hurry to help me.

²⁰Deliver my soul from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog.

²¹Save me from the lion's mouth; Yes, from the horns of the wild oxen you have answered me.

²²I will declare your name to my brothers. In the midst of the assembly, will I praise you.

²³You who fear Yahweh, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify him! Stand in awe of him, all you descendants of Israel!

²⁴For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, Neither has he hid his face from him; But when he cried to him, he heard.

²⁵Of you comes my praise in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him.

²⁶The humble shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise Yahweh who seek after him. Let your hearts live forever.

²⁷All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to Yahweh. All the relatives of the nations shall worship before you.

²⁸For the kingdom is Yahweh's. He is the ruler over the nations.

²⁹All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, Even he who can't keep his soul alive.

³⁰Posterity shall serve him. Future generations shall be told about the Lord.

³¹They shall come and shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born, For he has done it. Psalm 23 A Psalm by David.

PSALM 23

¹Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing.

²He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

³He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

⁴Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed my head with oil. My cup runs over.

⁶Surely goodness and lovingkindness shall follow me all the days of my life, And I shall dwell in Yahweh's house forever. Psalm 24 A Psalm by David.

PSALM 24

¹The earth is Yahweh's, with its fullness; The world, and those who dwell therein.

²For he has founded it on the seas, And established it on the floods.

³Who may ascend to Yahweh's hill? Who may stand in his holy place?

⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart; Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, And has not sworn deceitfully.

⁵He shall receive a blessing from Yahweh, Righteousness from the God of his salvation.

⁶This is the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek your face -- even Jacob. Selah.

⁷Lift up your heads, you gates; Be lifted up, you everlasting doors: The King of glory will come in.

⁸Who is the King of glory? Yahweh strong and mighty, Yahweh mighty in battle.

⁹Lift up your heads, you gates; Yes, lift them up, you everlasting doors: The King of glory will come in.

¹⁰Who is this King of glory? Yahweh of Hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah. Psalm 25 By David.

PSALM 25

¹To you, Yahweh, do I lift up my soul.

²My God, in you have I trusted, Let me not be put to shame. Don't let my enemies triumph over me.

³Yes, no one who waits for you shall be put to shame. They shall be put to shame who deal treacherously without cause.

⁴Show me your ways, Yahweh. Teach me your paths.

⁵Guide me in your truth, and teach me, For you are the God of my salvation, I wait for you all day long.

⁶Yahweh, remember your tender mercies and your lovingkindness, For they are from old times.

⁷Don't remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. Remember me according to your lovingkindness, For your goodness' sake, Yahweh.

⁸Good and upright is Yahweh, Therefore he will instruct sinners in the way.

⁹He will guide the humble in justice. He will teach the humble his way.

¹⁰All the paths of Yahweh are lovingkindness and truth To such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

¹¹For your name's sake, Yahweh, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

¹²What man is he who fears Yahweh? He shall instruct him in the way that he shall choose.

¹³His soul shall dwell at ease. His seed shall inherit the land.

¹⁴The friendship of Yahweh is with those who fear him. He will show them his covenant.

¹⁵My eyes are ever on Yahweh, For he will pluck my feet out of the net.

¹⁶Turn to me, and have mercy on me, For I am desolate and afflicted.

¹⁷The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring me out of my distresses.

¹⁸Consider my affliction and my travail. Forgive all my sins.

¹⁹Consider my enemies, for they are many. They hate me with cruel hatred.

²⁰Oh keep my soul, and deliver me. Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.

²¹Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for you.

²²Redeem Israel, God, Out all of his troubles. Psalm 26 By David.

PSALM 26

¹Judge me, Yahweh, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in Yahweh without wavering.

²Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me. Try my heart and my mind.

³For your lovingkindness is before my eyes. I have walked in your truth.

⁴I have not sat with deceitful men, Neither will I go in with hypocrites.

⁵I hate the assembly of evil-doers, And will not sit with the wicked.

⁶I will wash my hands in innocence, So I will go about your altar, Yahweh;

⁷That I may make the voice of thanksgiving to be heard, And tell of all your wondrous works.

⁸Yahweh, I love the habitation of your house, The place where your glory dwells.

⁹Don't gather my soul with sinners, Nor my life with bloodthirsty men;

¹⁰In whose hands is wickedness, Their right hand is full of bribes.

¹¹But as for me, I will walk in my integrity. Redeem me, and be merciful to me.

¹²My foot stands in an even place. In the congregations will I bless Yahweh. Psalm 27 By David.

PSALM 27

¹Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?

²When evil-doers came at me to eat up my flesh, Even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.

³Though a host should encamp against me, My heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, Even then I will be confident.

⁴One thing have I asked of Yahweh, that will I seek after, That I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, To see the beauty of Yahweh, And to inquire in his temple.

⁵For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion. In the covert of his tent will he hide me. He will lift me up on a rock.

⁶Now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies around me. I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tent. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh.

⁷Hear, Yahweh, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also on me, and answer me.

⁸When you said, "Seek my face," My heart said to you, "I will seek your face, Yahweh."

⁹Don't hide your face from me. Don't put your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Don't abandon me, neither forsake me, God of my salvation.

¹⁰When my father and my mother forsake me, Then Yahweh will take me up.

¹¹Teach me your way, Yahweh. Lead me in a straight path, because of my enemies.

¹²Don't deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, For false witnesses have risen up against me, Such as breathe out cruelty.

¹³I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living.

¹⁴Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh. Psalm 28 By David.

PSALM 28

¹To you, Yahweh, I call. My rock, don't be deaf to me; Lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.

²Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you, When I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.

³Don't draw me away with the wicked, With the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbors, But mischief is in their hearts.

⁴Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them according to the operation of their hands. Bring back on them what they deserve.

⁵Because they don't regard the works of Yahweh, Nor the operation of his hands, He will break them down and not build them up.

⁶Blessed be Yahweh, Because he has heard the voice of my petitions.

⁷Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him.

⁸Yahweh is their strength. He is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.

⁹Save your people, and bless your inheritance. Be their shepherd also, and bear them up forever. Psalm 29 A Psalm by David.

PSALM 29

¹Ascribe to Yahweh, you sons of the mighty, Ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.

²Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name. Worship Yahweh in holy array.

³The voice of Yahweh is on the waters. The God of glory thunders, even Yahweh on many waters.

⁴The voice of Yahweh is powerful. The voice of Yahweh is full of majesty.

⁵The voice of Yahweh breaks the cedars. Yes, Yahweh breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

⁶He makes them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox.

⁷The voice of Yahweh strikes with flashes of lightning.

⁸The voice of Yahweh shakes the wilderness. Yahweh shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

⁹The voice of Yahweh makes the deer calve, And strips the forests bare. In his temple everything says, "Glory!"

¹⁰Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, Yahweh sits as King forever.

¹¹Yahweh will give strength to his people. Yahweh will bless his people with peace. Psalm 30 A Psalm. A Song for the Dedication of the Temple. By David.

PSALM 30

¹I will extol you, Yahweh, for you have raised me up, And have not made my foes to rejoice over me.

²Yahweh my God, I cried to you, and you have healed me.

³Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

⁴Sing praise to Yahweh, you saints of his. Give thanks to his holy name.

⁵For his anger is but for a moment; His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, But joy comes in the morning.

⁶As for me, I said in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved."

⁷You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain to stand strong. But when you hid your face, I was troubled.

⁸I cried to you, Yahweh. To Yahweh I made supplication:

⁹"What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?

¹⁰Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me. Yahweh, be my helper."

¹¹You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,

¹²To the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent. Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to you forever. Psalm 31 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 31

¹In you, Yahweh, do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame: Deliver me in your righteousness.

²Bow down your ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be to me a strong rock, A house of defense to save me.

³For you are my rock and my fortress, Therefore for your name's sake lead me and guide me.

⁴Pluck me out of the net that they have laid secretly for me, For you are my stronghold.

⁵Into your hand I commend my spirit. You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.

⁶I hate those who regard lying vanities, But I trust in Yahweh.

⁷I will be glad and rejoice in your lovingkindness, For you have seen my affliction. You have known my soul in adversities.

⁸You have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large place.

⁹Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief.

¹⁰For my life is spent with sorrow, My years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.

¹¹Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, A fear to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.

¹²I am forgotten from their hearts like a dead man. I am like broken pottery.

¹³For I have heard the slander of many, terror on every side, While they conspire together against me, They plot to take away my life.

¹⁴But I trust in you, Yahweh. I said, You are my God.

¹⁵My times are in your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.

¹⁶Make your face to shine on your servant. Save me in your lovingkindness.

¹⁷Let me not be put to shame, Yahweh, for I have called on you. Let the wicked be put to shame. Let them be silent in Sheol.

¹⁸Let the lying lips be mute, Which speak against the righteous insolently, with pride and contempt.

¹⁹Oh how great is your goodness, Which you have laid up for those who fear you, Which you have worked for those who take refuge in you, Before the sons of men!

²⁰In the covert of your presence will you hide them from the plotting of man. You will keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.

²¹Praise be to Yahweh, For he has showed me his marvelous lovingkindness in a strong city.

²²As for me, I said in my haste, "I am cut off from before your eyes." Nevertheless you heard the voice of my petitions when I cried to you.

²³Oh love Yahweh, all you his saints! Yahweh preserves the faithful, And pays back him who deals proudly in full.

²⁴Be strong, and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in Yahweh. Psalm 32 By David. A contemplative psalm.

PSALM 32

¹Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, Whose sin is covered.

²Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn't impute iniquity, In whose spirit there is no deceit.

³When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

⁴For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.

⁵I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn't hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

⁶For this, let everyone that is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.

⁷You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

⁸I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.

⁹Don't be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, Whose are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.

¹⁰Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, But he who trusts in Yahweh, lovingkindness shall surround him.

¹¹Be glad in Yahweh, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart! Psalm 33

PSALM 33

¹Rejoice in Yahweh, you righteous! Praise is fitting for the upright.

²Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre. Sing praises to him with the harp of ten strings.

³Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully with a shout of joy!

⁴For the word of Yahweh is right. All his work is done in faithfulness.

⁵He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the lovingkindness of Yahweh.

⁶By the word of Yahweh were the heavens made, All the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

⁷He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deeps in storehouses.

⁸Let all the earth fear Yahweh. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

⁹For he spoke, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood firm.

¹⁰Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.

¹¹The counsel of Yahweh stands fast forever, The thoughts of his heart to all generations.

¹²Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, The people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.

¹³Yahweh looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men.

¹⁴From the place of his habitation he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.

¹⁵He who fashions all of their hearts. He considers all of their works.

¹⁶There is no king saved by the multitude of a host. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

¹⁷A horse is a vain thing for safety, Neither does he deliver any by his great power.

¹⁸Behold, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him, On those who hope in his lovingkindness;

¹⁹To deliver their soul from death, To keep them alive in famine.

²⁰Our soul has waited for Yahweh. He is our help and our shield.

²¹For our heart shall rejoice in him, Because we have trusted in his holy name.

²²Let your lovingkindness be on us, Yahweh, Since we have hoped in you. Psalm 34 By David; when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.

PSALM 34

¹I will bless Yahweh at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth.

²My soul shall boast in Yahweh. The humble shall hear of it, and be glad.

³Oh magnify Yahweh with me. Let us exalt his name together.

⁴I sought Yahweh, and he answered me, And delivered me from all my fears.

⁵They looked to him, and were radiant. Their faces shall never be covered with shame.

⁶This poor man cried, and Yahweh heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.

⁷The angel of Yahweh encamps round about those who fear him, And delivers them.

⁸Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

⁹Oh fear Yahweh, you his saints, For there is no lack with those who fear him.

¹⁰The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, But those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.

¹¹Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of Yahweh.

¹²Who is someone who desires life, And loves many days, that he may see good?

¹³Keep your tongue from evil, And your lips from speaking lies.

¹⁴Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it.

¹⁵The eyes of Yahweh are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.

¹⁶The face of Yahweh is against those who do evil, To cut off the memory of them from the earth.

¹⁷The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles.

¹⁸Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves those who have a crushed spirit.

¹⁹Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But Yahweh delivers him out of them all.

²⁰He protects all of his bones. Not one of them is broken.

²¹Evil shall kill the wicked. Those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.

²²Yahweh redeems the soul of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him shall be condemned. Psalm 35 By David.

PSALM 35

¹Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me.

²Take hold of shield and buckler, And stand up for my help.

³Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against those who pursue me. Tell my soul, "I am your salvation."

⁴Let those who seek after my soul be put to shame and brought to dishonor. Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded.

⁵Let them be as chaff before the wind, The angel of Yahweh driving them on.

⁶Let their way be dark and slippery, The angel of Yahweh pursuing them.

⁷For without cause have they hid their net in a pit for me. Without cause have they dug a pit for my soul.

⁸Let destruction come on him unawares. Let his net that he has hidden catch himself. Into that destruction let him fall.

⁹My soul shall be joyful in Yahweh. It shall rejoice in his salvation.

¹⁰All my bones shall say, "Yahweh, who is like you, Who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him, Yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?"

¹¹Unrighteous witnesses rise up. They ask me about things that I don't know about.

¹²They reward me evil for good, To the bereaving of my soul.

¹³But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom.

¹⁴I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.

¹⁵But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn't know it. They tore at me, and didn't cease.

¹⁶Like the profane mockers in feasts, They gnashed their teeth at me.

¹⁷Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction, My precious life from the lions.

¹⁸I will give you thanks in the great assembly. I will praise you among many people.

¹⁹Don't let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; Neither let them wink with the eye who hate me without a cause.

²⁰For they don't speak peace, But they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.

²¹Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me. They said, "Aha! Aha! Our eye has seen it!"

²²You have seen it, Yahweh. Don't keep silent. Lord, don't be far from me.

²³Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!

²⁴Vindicate me, Yahweh my God, according to your righteousness; Don't let them gloat over me.

²⁵Don't let them say in their heart, "Aha! That's the way we want it." Don't let them say, "We have swallowed him up!"

²⁶Let them be put to shame and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me.

²⁷Let them shout for joy and be glad, who favor my righteous cause. Yes, let them say continually, "Yahweh be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant!"

²⁸My tongue shall talk about your righteousness and about your praise all day long. Psalm 36 For the Chief Musician. By David, the servant of Yahweh.

PSALM 36

¹An oracle is within my heart about the disobedience of the wicked: "There is no fear of God before his eyes."

²For he flatters himself in his own eyes, Too much to detect and hate his sin.

³The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has ceased to be wise and to do good.

⁴He plots iniquity on his bed. He sets himself in a way that is not good; He doesn't abhor evil.

⁵Your lovingkindness, Yahweh, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

⁶Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are a great deep. Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.

⁷How precious is your lovingkindness, God! The children of men take refuge under the shadow of your wings.

⁸They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house. You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures.

⁹For with you is the spring of life. In your light shall we see light.

¹⁰Oh continue your lovingkindness to those who know you, Your righteousness to the upright in heart.

¹¹Don't let the foot of pride come against me. Don't let the hand of the wicked drive me away.

¹²There the workers of iniquity are fallen. They are thrust down, and shall not be able to rise. Psalm 37 By David.

PSALM 37

¹Don't fret because of evil-doers, Neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness.

²For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, And wither like the green herb.

³Trust in Yahweh, and do good. Dwell in the land, and enjoy safe pasture.

⁴Also delight yourself in Yahweh, And he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust also in him, and he will do this:

⁶He will make your righteousness go forth as the light, And your justice as the noon day sun.

⁷Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for him. Don't fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who makes wicked plots happen.

⁸Cease from anger, and forsake wrath. Don't fret, it leads only to evildoing.

⁹For evildoers shall be cut off, But those who wait for Yahweh, they shall inherit the land.

¹⁰For yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more. Yes, though you look for his place, he isn't there.

¹¹But the humble shall inherit the land, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

¹²The wicked plots against the just, And gnashes at him with his teeth.

¹³The Lord will laugh at him, For he sees that his day is coming.

¹⁴The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, To cast down the poor and needy, To kill those who are upright in the way.

¹⁵Their sword shall enter into their own heart. Their bows shall be broken.

¹⁶Better is a little that the righteous has, Than the abundance of many wicked.

¹⁷For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, But Yahweh upholds the righteous.

¹⁸Yahweh knows the days of the perfect. Their inheritance shall be forever.

¹⁹They shall not be put to shame in the time of evil. In the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

²⁰But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of Yahweh shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish -- Vanish like smoke.

²¹The wicked borrow, and don't pay back, But the righteous give generously.

²²For such as are blessed by him shall inherit the land. Those who are cursed by him shall be cut off.

²³A man's goings are established by Yahweh. He delights in his way.

²⁴Though he stumble, he shall not fall, For Yahweh holds him up with his hand.

²⁵I have been young, and now am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his children begging for bread.

²⁶All the day long he deals graciously, and lends. His seed is blessed.

²⁷Depart from evil, and do good; Live securely forever.

²⁸For Yahweh loves justice, And doesn't forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, But the children of the wicked shall be cut off.

²⁹The righteous shall inherit the land, And live in it forever.

³⁰The mouth of the righteous talks of wisdom. His tongue speaks justice.

³¹The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide.

³²The wicked watches the righteous, And seeks to kill him.

³³Yahweh will not leave him in his hand, Nor condemn him when he is judged.

³⁴Wait for Yahweh, and keep his way, And he will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.

³⁵I have seen the wicked in great power, Spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.

³⁶But he passed away, and, behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found.

³⁷Mark the perfect man, and see the upright, For there is a future for the man of peace.

³⁸As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off.

³⁹But the salvation of the righteous is from Yahweh. He is their stronghold in the time of trouble.

⁴⁰Yahweh helps them, and rescues them. He rescues them from the wicked, and saves them, Because they have taken refuge in him. Psalm 38 A Psalm by David, for a memorial.

PSALM 38

¹Yahweh, don't rebuke me in your wrath, Neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.

²For your arrows have pierced me, Your hand presses hard on me.

³There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, Neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.

⁴For my iniquities have gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

⁵My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, Because of my foolishness.

⁶I am pained and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all the day long.

⁷For my loins are filled with burning. There is no soundness in my flesh.

⁸I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.

⁹Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you.

¹⁰My heart throbs. My strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it also is gone from me.

¹¹My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand afar off.

¹²They also who seek after my life lay snares. Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, And meditate deceits all day long.

¹³But I, as a deaf man, don't hear. I am as a mute man who doesn't open his mouth.

¹⁴Yes, I am as a man who doesn't hear, In whose mouth are no reproofs.

¹⁵For in you, Yahweh, do I hope. You will answer, Lord my God.

¹⁶For I said, "Don't let them gloat over me, Or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips."

¹⁷For I am ready to fall. My pain is continually before me.

¹⁸For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin.

¹⁹But my enemies are vigorous and many. Those who hate me without reason are numerous.

²⁰They who also render evil for good are adversaries to me, Because I follow what is good.

²¹Don't forsake me, Yahweh. My God, don't be far from me.

²²Hurry to help me, Lord, my salvation. Psalm 39 For the Chief Musician. For Jeduthun. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 39

¹I said, "I will watch my ways, so that I don't sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me."

²I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred.

³My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned: I spoke with my tongue:

⁴"Yahweh, make me to know my end, What is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.

⁵Behold, you have made my days handbreadths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath." Selah.

⁶"Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn't know who shall gather.

⁷Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.

⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don't make me the reproach of the foolish.

⁹I was mute, I didn't open my mouth, Because you did it.

¹⁰Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

¹¹When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath." Selah.

¹²"Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don't be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, A sojourner, as all my fathers were.

¹³Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, Before I go away, and be no more." Psalm 40 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 40

¹I waited patiently for Yahweh. He turned to me, and heard my cry.

²He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.

³He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Yahweh.

⁴Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust, And doesn't respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

⁵Many, Yahweh, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, And your thoughts which are toward us. They can't be set in order to you; If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

⁶Sacrifice and offering you didn't desire. My ears have you opened: Burnt offering and sin offering have you not required.

⁷Then I said, "Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll.

⁸I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart."

⁹I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, Yahweh, you know.

¹⁰I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your lovingkindness and your truth from the great assembly.

¹¹Don't withhold your tender mercies from me, Yahweh. Let your lovingkindness and your truth continually preserve me.

¹²For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.

¹³Be pleased, Yahweh, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, Yahweh.

¹⁴Let them be put to shame and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.

¹⁵Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, "Aha! Aha!"

¹⁶Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation say continually, "Let Yahweh be exalted!"

¹⁷But I am poor and needy; May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don't delay, my God. Psalm 41 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 41

¹Blessed is he who considers the poor: Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil.

²Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive, He shall be blessed on the earth, And he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies.

³Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed, And restore him from his bed of illness.

⁴I said, " Yahweh, have mercy on me. Heal me, for I have sinned against you."

⁵My enemies speak evil against me: "When will he die, and his name perish?"

⁶If he come to see me, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes abroad, he tells it.

⁷All who hate me whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me.

⁸"An evil disease," they say, "has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more."

⁹Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, Who ate bread with me, Has lifted up his heel against me.

¹⁰But you, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up, That I may repay them.

¹¹By this I know that you delight in me, Because my enemy doesn't triumph over me.

¹²As for me, you uphold me in my integrity, And set me in your presence forever.

¹³Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, From everlasting and to everlasting! Amen and amen.

PSALM 42

¹As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul after you, God.

²My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

³My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually ask me, "Where is your God?"

⁴These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me, How I used to go with the crowd, and led them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day.

⁵Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.

⁶My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, The heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.

⁷Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.

⁸Yahweh will command his lovingkindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be with me: A prayer to the God of my life.

⁹I will ask God, my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?"

¹⁰As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, While they continually ask me, "Where is your God?"

¹¹Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, The saving help of my countenance, and my God. Psalm 43

PSALM 43

¹Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.

²For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

³Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, To your tents.

⁴Then I will go to the altar of God, To God, my exceeding joy. I will praise you on the harp, God, my God.

⁵Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, The saving help of my face, and my God. Psalm 44 For the Chief Musician. By the sons of Korah. A contemplative psalm.

PSALM 44

¹We have heard with our ears, God; Our fathers have told us, What work you did in their days, In the days of old.

²You drove out the nations with your hand, But you planted them. You afflicted the peoples, But you spread them abroad.

³For they didn't get the land in possession by their own sword, Neither did their own arm save them; But your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your face, Because you were favorable to them.

⁴You are my King, God. Command victories for Jacob!

⁵Through you, will we push down our adversaries. Through your name, will we tread them under who rise up against us.

⁶For I will not trust in my bow, Neither shall my sword save me.

⁷But you have saved us from our adversaries, And have put them to shame who hate us.

⁸In God have we made our boast all day long, We will give thanks to your name forever. Selah.

⁹But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, And don't go out with our armies.

¹⁰You make us turn back from the adversary. Those who hate us take spoil for themselves.

¹¹You have made us like sheep for food, And have scattered us among the nations.

¹²You sell your people for nothing, And have gained nothing from their sale.

¹³You make us a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and a derision to those who are round about us.

¹⁴You make us a byword among the nations, A shaking of the head among the peoples.

¹⁵All day long is my dishonor before me, And shame covers my face,

¹⁶At the taunt of one who reproaches and reviles, Because of the enemy and the avenger.

¹⁷All this has come on us, Yet have we not forgotten you, Neither have we been false to your covenant.

¹⁸Our heart has not turned back, Neither have our steps declined from your way,

¹⁹That you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, And covered us with the shadow of death.

²⁰If we have forgotten the name of our God, Or spread forth our hands to a strange god;

²¹Won't God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.

²²Yes, for your sake are we killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.

²³Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don't reject us forever.

²⁴Why do you hide your face, And forget our affliction and our oppression?

²⁵For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body cleaves to the earth.

²⁶Rise up to help us. Redeem us for your lovingkindness' sake. Psalm 45 For the Chief Musician. Set to "The Lilies." A contemplation by the sons of Korah. A wedding song.

PSALM 45

¹My heart overflows with a noble theme. I recite my verses for the king. My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer.

²You are the most excellent of the sons of men. Grace has anointed your lips, Therefore God has blessed you forever.

³Gird your sword on your thigh, mighty one, Your splendor and your majesty.

⁴In your majesty ride on victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness. Let your right hand display awesome deeds.

⁵Your arrows are sharp. The nations fall under you, with arrows in the heart of the king's enemies.

⁶Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom.

⁷You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.

⁸All your garments smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia. Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made you glad.

⁹Kings' daughters are among your honorable women. At your right hand the queen stands in gold of Ophir.

¹⁰Listen, daughter, consider, and turn your ear. Forget your own people, and also your father's house.

¹¹So will the king desire your beauty, Honor him, for he is your lord.

¹²The daughter of Tyre comes with a gift. The rich among the people entreat your favor.

¹³The princess inside is all glorious. Her clothing is interwoven with gold.

¹⁴She shall be led to the king in embroidered work. The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you.

¹⁵With gladness and rejoicing shall they be led. They shall enter into the king's palace.

¹⁶Your sons will take the place of your fathers. You shall make them princes in all the earth.

¹⁷I will make your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore the peoples shall give you thanks forever and ever. Psalm 46 For the Chief Musician. By the sons of Korah. A song for Alamoth.

PSALM 46

¹God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.

²Therefore will we not be afraid, though the earth changes, Though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas;

³Though the waters of it roar and are troubled, Though the mountains tremble with the swelling of it. Selah.

⁴There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, The holy place of the tents of the Most High.

⁵God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her at dawn.

⁶The nations raged. The kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice, and the earth melted.

⁷Yahweh of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

⁸Come, see the works of Yahweh, What desolations he has made in the earth.

⁹He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and cuts the spear apart. He burns the chariots in the fire.

¹⁰"Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth."

¹¹Yahweh of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Psalm 47 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.

PSALM 47

¹Oh clap your hands, all you nations. Shout to God with the voice of triumph!

²For Yahweh Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth.

³He subdues nations under us, And peoples under our feet.

⁴He chooses our inheritance for us, The glory of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.

⁵God has gone up with a shout, Yahweh with the sound of a trumpet.

⁶Sing praise to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King, sing praises.

⁷For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding.

⁸God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne.

⁹The princes of the peoples are gathered together, The people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted! Psalm 48 A Song. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.

PSALM 48

¹Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised, In the city of our God, in his holy mountain.

²Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion, on the north sides, The city of the great King.

³God has shown himself in her citadels as a refuge.

⁴For, behold, the kings assembled themselves, They passed by together.

⁵They saw it, then were they amazed. They were dismayed, They hurried away.

⁶Trembling took hold of them there, Pain, as of a woman in travail.

⁷With the east wind, you break the ships of Tarshish.

⁸As we have heard, so have we seen, In the city of Yahweh of Hosts, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. Selah.

⁹We have thought about your lovingkindness, God, In the midst of your temple.

¹⁰As is your name, God, So is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness.

¹¹Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice, Because of your judgments.

¹²Walk about Zion, and go around her. Number the towers of it;

¹³Mark well her bulwarks. Consider her palaces, That you may tell it to the next generation.

¹⁴For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even to death. Psalm 49 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.

PSALM 49

¹Hear this, all you peoples. Listen, all you inhabitants of the world,

²Both low and high, Rich and poor together.

³My mouth will speak words of wisdom. My heart shall utter understanding.

⁴I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will open my riddle on the harp.

⁵Why should I fear in the days of evil, When iniquity at my heels surrounds me?

⁶Those who trust in their wealth, And boast in the multitude of their riches --

⁷None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give God a ransom for him.

⁸For the redemption of their life is costly, No payment is ever enough,

⁹That he should live on forever, That he should not see corruption.

¹⁰For he sees that wise men die; Likewise the fool and the senseless perish, And leave their wealth to others.

¹¹Their inward thought is, that their houses endure forever, And their dwelling places to all generations. They call their lands after their own names.

¹²But man, despite his riches, doesn't endure. He is like the animals that perish.

¹³This is the destiny of those who are foolish, And of those who approve their sayings. Selah.

¹⁴They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall be for Sheol to consume, That there be no habitation for it.

¹⁵But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, For he will receive me. Selah.

¹⁶Don't be afraid when a man is made rich, When the glory of his house is increased.

¹⁷For when he dies he shall carry nothing away. His glory shall not descend after him.

¹⁸Though while he lived he blessed his soul -- And men praise you when you do well for yourself --

¹⁹He shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the light.

²⁰A man who has riches without understanding, Is like the animals that perish. Psalm 50 A Psalm by Asaph.

PSALM 50

¹The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks, And calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.

²Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.

³Our God comes, and does not keep silence. A fire devours before him. It is very tempestuous around him.

⁴He calls to the heavens above, To the earth, that he may judge his people:

⁵"Gather my saints together to me, Those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."

⁶The heavens shall declare his righteousness, For God himself is judge. Selah.

⁷"Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, and I will testify against you. I am God, your God.

⁸I don't rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.

⁹I have no need for a bull from your stall, Nor male goats from your pens.

¹⁰For every animal of the forest is mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills.

¹¹I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.

¹²If I were hungry, I would not tell you, For the world is mine, and all that is in it.

¹³Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High.

¹⁵Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me."

¹⁶But to the wicked God says, "What right do you have to declare my statutes, That you have taken my covenant on your lips,

¹⁷Seeing you hate instruction, And throw my words behind you?

¹⁸When you saw a thief, you consented with him, And have participated with adulterers.

¹⁹"You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue harnesses deceit.

²⁰You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son.

²¹You have done these things, and I kept silence. You thought that the "I AM" was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.

²²"Now consider this, you who forget God, Lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.

²³Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, And prepares his way so that I will show God's salvation to him." Psalm 51 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

PSALM 51

¹Have mercy on me, God, according to your lovingkindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

²Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.

³For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.

⁴Against you, and you only, have I sinned, And done that which is evil in your sight; That you may be proved right when you speak, And justified when you judge.

⁵Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive me.

⁶Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

⁷Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

⁸Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice.

⁹Hide your face from my sins, And blot out all of my iniquities.

¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, God. Renew a right spirit within me.

¹¹Don't throw me away from your presence. Don't take your holy Spirit from me.

¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.

¹³Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners shall be converted to you.

¹⁴Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, God, you God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

¹⁵Lord, open my lips. My mouth shall declare your praise.

¹⁶For you don't delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.

¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, God, you will not despise.

¹⁸Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹Then will you delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, In burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar. Psalm 52 For the Chief Musician. A contemplation by David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, "David has come to Abimelech's house."

PSALM 52

¹Why do you boast of mischief, mighty man? God's lovingkindness endures continually.

²Your tongue plots destruction, Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.

³You love evil more than good, Lying rather than speaking the truth. Selah.

⁴You love all devouring words, You deceitful tongue.

⁵God will likewise destroy you forever. He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, And root you out of the land of the living. Selah.

⁶The righteous also will see it, and fear, And laugh at him, saying,

⁷"Behold, this is the man who didn't make God his strength, But trusted in the abundance of his riches, And strengthened himself in his wickedness."

⁸But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God's house. I trust in God's lovingkindness forever and ever.

⁹I will give you thanks forever, because you have done it. I will hope in your name, for it is good, In the presence of your saints. Psalm 53 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "Mahalath." A contemplation by David.

PSALM 53

¹The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity. There is no one who does good.

²God looks down from heaven on the children of men, To see if there are any who understood, Who seek after God.

³Every one of them has gone back. They have become filthy together. There is no one who does good, no, not one.

⁴Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And don't call on God?

⁵There they were in great fear, where no fear was, For God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, Because God has rejected them.

⁶Oh that the salvation of Israel had already come out of Zion! When God brings back the captivity of his people, Then shall Jacob rejoice. Israel shall be glad. Psalm 54 For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, "Isn't David hiding himself among us?"

PSALM 54

¹Save me, God, by your name. Vindicate me in your might.

²Hear my prayer, God. Listen to the words of my mouth.

³For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven't set God before them. Selah.

⁴Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the one who sustains my soul.

⁵He will repay the evil to my enemies. Destroy them in your truth.

⁶With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, Yahweh, for it is good.

⁷For he has delivered me out of all trouble. My eye has seen triumph over my enemies. Psalm 55 For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David.

PSALM 55

¹Listen to my prayer, God. Don't hide yourself from my supplication.

²Attend to me, and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and moan,

³Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge against me.

⁴My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me.

⁵Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me.

⁶I said, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest.

⁷Behold, then I would wander far off. I would lodge in the wilderness." Selah.

⁸"I would hurry to a shelter from the stormy wind and tempest."

⁹Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, For I have seen violence and strife in the city.

¹⁰Day and night they prowl around on its walls. Malice and abuse are also within her.

¹¹Destructive forces are within her. Threats and lies don't depart from her streets.

¹²For it was not an enemy who insulted me, Then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, Then I would have hid myself from him.

¹³But it was you, a man like me, My companion, and my familiar friend.

¹⁴We took sweet fellowship together. We walked in God's house with the throng.

¹⁵Let death come suddenly on them. Let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is in their dwelling, in the midst of them.

¹⁶As for me, I will call on God. Yahweh will save me.

¹⁷Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice.

¹⁸He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, Although there are many who oppose me.

¹⁹God, who is enthroned forever, Will hear, and answer them. Selah. They never change, Who don't fear God.

²⁰He raises his hands against his friends. He has violated his covenant.

²¹His mouth was smooth as butter, But his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, Yet they were drawn swords.

²²Cast your burden on Yahweh, and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be moved.

²³But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, But I will trust in you. Psalm 56 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "Silent Dove in Distant Lands". A poem by David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.

PSALM 56

¹Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long, he attacks and oppresses me.

²My enemies want to swallow me up all day long, For they are many who fight proudly against me.

³When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.

⁴In God, I praise his word. In God, I put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?

⁵All day long they twist my words. All their thoughts are against me for evil.

⁶They conspire and lurk, Watching my steps, they are eager to take my life.

⁷Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, God.

⁸You number my wanderings. You put my tears into your bottle. Aren't they in your book?

⁹Then shall my enemies turn back in the day that I call. I know this, that God is for me.

¹⁰In God, I will praise his word. In Yahweh, I will praise his word.

¹¹I have put my trust in God. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

¹²Your vows are on me, God. I will give thank offerings to you.

¹³For you have delivered my soul from death, And prevented my feet from falling, That I may walk before God in the light of the living. Psalm 57 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "Do Not Destroy." A poem by David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.

PSALM 57

¹Be merciful to me, God, be merciful to me, For my soul takes refuge in you. Yes, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge, Until disaster has passed.

²I cry out to God Most High, To God who accomplishes my requests for me.

³He will send from heaven, and save me, He rebukes the one who is pursuing me. Selah. God will send out his lovingkindness and his truth.

⁴My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, And their tongue a sharp sword.

⁵Be exalted, God, above the heavens! Let your glory be above all the earth!

⁶They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They dig a pit before me. They fall into the midst of it themselves. Selah.

⁷My heart is steadfast, God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises.

⁸Wake up, my glory! Wake up, psaltery and harp! I will wake up the dawn.

⁹I will give thanks to you, Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations.

¹⁰For your great lovingkindness reaches to the heavens, And your truth to the skies.

¹¹Be exalted, God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. Psalm 58 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "Do Not Destroy." A poem by David.

PSALM 58

¹Do you indeed speak righteousness, silent ones? Do you judge blamelessly, you sons of men?

²No, in your heart you plot injustice. You measure out the violence of your hands in the earth.

³The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

⁴Their poison is like the poison of a snake; Like a deaf cobra that stops its ear,

⁵Which doesn't listen to the voice of charmers, No matter how skillful the charmer may be.

⁶Break their teeth, God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh.

⁷Let them vanish as water that flows away. When they draw the bow, let their arrows be made blunt.

⁸Let them be as a snail which melts and passes away, Like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.

⁹Before your pots can feel the thorns, He will sweep away, the green and the burning alike.

¹⁰The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked;

¹¹So that men shall say, "Most assuredly there is a reward for the righteous. Most assuredly there is a God who judges the earth." Psalm 59 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "Do Not Destroy." A poem by David, when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.

PSALM 59

¹Deliver me from my enemies, my God. Set me on high from those who rise up against me.

²Deliver me from the workers of iniquity. Save me from the bloodthirsty men.

³For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, Not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.

⁴I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me!

⁵You, Yahweh God of hosts, the God of Israel, Rouse yourself to punish the nations. Show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah.

⁶They return at evening, howling like dogs, And prowl around the city.

⁷Behold, they spew with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, "For," they say, "who hears us?"

⁸But you, Yahweh, laugh at them. You scoff at all the nations.

⁹Oh, my Strength, I watch for you, For God is my high tower.

¹⁰My God will go before me with his lovingkindness. God will let me look at my enemies in triumph.

¹¹Don't kill them, or my people may forget. Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield.

¹²For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips, Let them be caught in their pride, For the curses and lies which they utter.

¹³Consume them in wrath. Consume them, and they will be no more. Let them know that God rules in Jacob, To the ends of the earth. Selah.

¹⁴At evening let them return. Let them howl like a dog, and go around the city.

¹⁵They shall wander up and down for food, And wait all night if they aren't satisfied.

¹⁶But I will sing of your strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of your lovingkindness in the morning. For you have been my high tower, A refuge in the day of my distress.

¹⁷To you, my strength, I will sing praises. For God is my high tower, the God of my mercy. Psalm 60 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "The Lily of the Covenant." A teaching poem by David, when he fought with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and Joab returned, and killed twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt.

PSALM 60

¹God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us to you, again.

²You have made the land tremble. You have torn it. Mend its fractures, For it quakes.

³You have shown your people hard things. You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger.

⁴You have given a banner to those who fear you, That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.

⁵So that your beloved may be delivered, Save with your right hand, and answer us.

⁶God has spoken from his sanctuary: "I will triumph. I will divide Shechem, And measure out the valley of Succoth.

⁷Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine. Ephraim also is the defense of my head. Judah is my scepter.

⁸Moab is my wash basin. I will throw my shoe on Edom. I shout in triumph over Philistia."

⁹Who will bring me into the strong city? Who has led me to Edom?

¹⁰Haven't you, God, rejected us? You don't go out, with our armies, God.

¹¹Give us help against the adversary, For the help of man is vain.

¹²Through God we shall do valiantly, For it is he who will tread down our adversaries. Psalm 61 For the Chief Musician. For a stringed instrument. By David.

PSALM 61

¹Hear my cry, God. Listen to my prayer.

²From the end of the earth, I will call to you, when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

³For you have been a refuge for me, A strong tower from the enemy.

⁴I will dwell in your tent forever. I will take refuge in the shelter of your wings. Selah.

⁵For you, God, have heard my vows. You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

⁶You will prolong the king's life; His years shall be for generations.

⁷He shall be enthroned in God's presence forever. Appoint your lovingkindness and truth, that they may preserve him.

⁸So I will sing praise to your name forever, That I may fulfill my vows daily. Psalm 62 For the Chief Musician. To Jeduthan. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 62

¹My soul rests in God alone. My salvation is from him.

²He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress -- I will never be greatly shaken.

³How long will you assault a man, Would all of you throw him down, Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?

⁴They fully intend to throw him down from his lofty place. They delight in lies. They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah.

⁵My soul, wait in silence for God alone, For my expectation is from him.

⁶He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I will not be shaken.

⁷With God is my salvation and my honor. The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.

⁸Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Selah.

⁹Surely men of low degree are just a breath, And men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.

¹⁰Don't trust in oppression. Don't become vain in robbery. If riches increase, Don't set your heart on them.

¹¹God has spoken once, Twice have I heard this, That power belongs to God.

¹²Also to you, Lord, belongs lovingkindness, For you reward every man according to his work. Psalm 63 A Psalm by David, when he was in the desert of Judah.

PSALM 63

¹God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you, My flesh longs for you, In a dry and weary land, where there is no water.

²So I have seen you in the sanctuary, Watching your power and your glory.

³Because your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise you.

⁴So I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name.

⁵My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips,

⁶When I remember you on my bed, And think about you in the night watches.

⁷For you have been my help. I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings.

⁸My soul stays close to you. Your right hand holds me up.

⁹But those who seek my soul, to destroy it, Shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

¹⁰They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be jackal food.

¹¹But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him will praise him, For the mouth of those who speak lies shall be silenced. Psalm 64 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 64

¹Hear my voice, God, in my complaint. Preserve my life from fear of the enemy.

²Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, From the noisy crowd of the ones doing evil;

³Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, And aim their arrows, deadly words,

⁴To shoot innocent men from ambushes. They shoot at him suddenly and fearlessly.

⁵They encourage themselves in evil plans. They talk about laying snares secretly. They say, "Who will see them?"

⁶They plot injustice, saying, "We have made a perfect plan!" Surely man's mind and heart are cunning.

⁷But God will shoot at them. They will be suddenly struck down with an arrow.

⁸Their own tongues shall ruin them. All who see them will shake their heads.

⁹All mankind shall be afraid. They shall declare the work of God, And shall wisely ponder what he has done.

¹⁰The righteous shall be glad in Yahweh, And shall take refuge in him. All the upright in heart shall praise him! Psalm 65 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. A song.

PSALM 65

¹Praise waits for you, God, in Zion. To you shall vows be performed.

²You who hear prayer, To you all men will come.

³Sins overwhelmed me, But you atoned for our transgressions.

⁴Blessed is one whom you choose, and cause to come near, That he may live in your courts. We will be filled with the goodness of your house, Your holy temple.

⁵By awesome deeds of righteousness, you answer us, God of our salvation. You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth, Of those who are far away on the sea;

⁶Who by his power forms the mountains, Having armed yourself with strength;

⁷Who stills the roaring of the seas, The roaring of their waves, And the turmoil of the nations.

⁸They also who dwell in far-away places are afraid at your wonders. You call the morning's dawn and the evening with songs of joy.

⁹You visit the earth, and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it.

¹⁰You drench its furrows. You level its ridges. You soften it with showers. You bless it with a crop.

¹¹You crown the year with your bounty. Your carts overflow with abundance.

¹²The wilderness grasslands overflow. The hills are clothed with gladness.

¹³The pastures are covered with flocks. The valleys also are clothed with grain. They shout for joy! They also sing. Psalm 66 For the Chief Musician. A song. A Psalm.

PSALM 66

¹Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth!

²Sing to the glory of his name! Offer glory and praise!

³Tell God, "How awesome are your deeds! Through the greatness of your power, Your enemies will submit themselves to you.

⁴All the earth will worship you, And will sing to you; They will sing to your name." Selah.

⁵Come, and see God's deeds -- Awesome work on behalf of the children of men.

⁶He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the river on foot. There, we rejoiced in him.

⁷He rules by his might forever. His eyes watch the nations. Don't let the rebellious rise up against him. Selah.

⁸Praise our God, you peoples! Make the sound of his praise heard,

⁹Who preserves our life among the living, And doesn't allow our feet to be moved.

¹⁰For you, God, have tested us. You have refined us, as silver is refined.

¹¹You brought us into prison. You laid a burden on our backs.

¹²You allowed men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, But you brought us to the place of abundance.

¹³I will come into your temple with burnt offerings. I will pay my vows to you,

¹⁴which my lips promised, And my mouth spoke, when I was in distress.

¹⁵I will offer to you burnt offerings of fat animals, With the offering of rams, I will offer bulls with goats. Selah.

¹⁶Come, and hear, all you who fear God. I will declare what he has done for my soul.

¹⁷I cried to him with my mouth. He was extolled with my tongue.

¹⁸If I cherished sin in my heart, The Lord wouldn't have listened.

¹⁹But most assuredly, God has listened. He has heard the voice of my prayer.

²⁰Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, Nor his lovingkindness from me. Psalm 67 For the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song.

PSALM 67

¹May God be merciful to us, bless us, And cause his face to shine on us. Selah.

²That your way may be known on earth, And your salvation among all nations,

³Let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you.

⁴Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, For you will judge the peoples with equity, And govern the nations on earth. Selah.

⁵Let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you.

⁶The earth has yielded its increase. God, even our own God, will bless us.

⁷God will bless us. All the ends of the earth shall fear him. Psalm 68 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. A song.

PSALM 68

¹Let God arise! Let his enemies be scattered! Let them who hate him also flee before him.

²As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

³But let the righteous be glad. Let them rejoice before God. Yes, let them rejoice with gladness.

⁴Sing to God! Sing praises to his name! Extol him who rides on the clouds -- To Yah, his name! Rejoice before him.

⁵A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, Is God in his holy habitation.

⁶God sets the lonely in families. He brings out the prisoners with singing, But the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.

⁷God, when you went forth before your people, When you marched through the wilderness... Selah.

⁸The earth trembled. The sky also poured down rain at the presence of the God of Sinai -- At the presence of God, the God of Israel.

⁹You, God, sent a plentiful rain. You confirmed your inheritance, when it was weary.

¹⁰Your congregation lived therein. You, God, prepared your goodness for the poor.

¹¹The Lord announced the word. The ones who proclaim it are a great company.

¹²"Kings of armies flee! They flee!" She who waits at home divides the spoil,

¹³While you sleep among the campfires, The wings of a dove sheathed with silver, Her feathers with shining gold.

¹⁴When the Almighty scattered kings in her, It snowed on Zalmon.

¹⁵The mountains of Bashan are majestic mountains. The mountains of Bashan are rugged.

¹⁶Why do you look in envy, you rugged mountains, At the mountain where God chooses to reign? Yes, Yahweh will dwell there forever.

¹⁷The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands. The Lord is among them, from Sinai, into the sanctuary.

¹⁸You have ascended on high. You have led away captives. You have received gifts among men, Yes, among the rebellious also, that Yah God might dwell there.

¹⁹Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burdens, Even the God who is our salvation. Selah.

²⁰God is to us a God of deliverance. To Yahweh, the Lord, belongs escape from death.

²¹But God will strike through the head of his enemies, The hairy scalp of such a one as still continues in his guiltiness.

²²The Lord said, "I will bring you again from Bashan, I will bring you again from the depths of the sea;

²³That you may crush them, dipping your foot in blood, That the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from your enemies."

²⁴They have seen your goings, God, Even the goings of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.

²⁵The singers went before, the minstrels followed after, In the midst of the ladies playing with tambourines,

²⁶"Bless God in the congregations, Even the Lord in the assembly of Israel!"

²⁷There is little Benjamin, their ruler, The princes of Judah, their council, The princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.

²⁸Your God has commanded your strength. Strengthen, God, that which you have done for us.

²⁹Because of your temple at Jerusalem, Kings shall bring presents to you.

³⁰Rebuke the wild animal of the reeds, The multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples. Being humbled, may it bring bars of silver. Scatter the nations that delight in war.

³¹Princes shall come out of Egypt. Ethiopia shall hurry to stretch out her hands to God.

³²Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth! Sing praises to the Lord! Selah.

³³To him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which are of old; Behold, he utters his voice, a mighty voice.

³⁴Ascribe strength to God! His excellency is over Israel, His strength is in the skies.

³⁵You are awesome, God, in your sanctuaries. The God of Israel gives strength and power to his people. Praise be to God! Psalm 69 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "Lilies." By David.

PSALM 69

¹Save me, God, For the waters have come up to my neck!

²I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

³I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

⁴Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn't take away.

⁵God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren't hidden from you.

⁶Don't let those who wait for you be put to shame through me, Lord Yahweh of Hosts. Don't let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel.

⁷Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.

⁸I have become a stranger to my brothers, An alien to my mother's children.

⁹For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

¹⁰When I wept and I fasted, That was to my reproach.

¹¹When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.

¹²Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.

¹³But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your lovingkindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.

¹⁴Deliver me out of the mire, and don't let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.

¹⁵Don't let the flood waters overwhelm me, Neither let the deep swallow me up. Don't let the pit shut its mouth on me.

¹⁶Answer me, Yahweh, for your lovingkindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.

¹⁷Don't hide your face from your servant, For I am in distress. Answer me speedily!

¹⁸Draw near to my soul, and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies.

¹⁹You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you.

²⁰Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; For comforters, but I found none.

²¹They also gave me gall for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

²²Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap.

²³Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can't see. Make their loins continually to shake.

²⁴Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them.

²⁵Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents.

²⁶For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.

²⁷Charge them with crime upon crime. Don't let them come into your righteousness.

²⁸Let them be blotted out of the book of life, And not be written with the righteous.

²⁹But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me.

³⁰I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify him with thanksgiving.

³¹It will please Yahweh better than an ox, Or a bull that has horns and hoofs.

³²The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live.

³³For Yahweh hears the needy, And doesn't despise his captive people.

³⁴Let heaven and earth praise him; The seas, and everything that moves therein!

³⁵For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it.

³⁶The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein. Psalm 70 For the Chief Musician. By David. A reminder.

PSALM 70

¹Hurry, God, to deliver me. Come quickly to help me, Yahweh.

²Let them be put to shame and confounded who seek my soul. Let those who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.

³Let them be turned because of their shame Who say, "Aha! Aha!"

⁴Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation continually say, "Let God be exalted!"

⁵But I am poor and needy. Come to me quickly, God. You are my help and my deliverer, Yahweh, don't delay. Psalm 71

PSALM 71

¹In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Never let me be put to shame.

²Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me.

³Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, For you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, From the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.

⁵For you are my hope, Lord Yahweh; My confidence from my youth.

⁶I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother's womb. I will always praise you.

⁷I am a marvel to many, But you are my strong refuge.

⁸My mouth shall be filled with your praise, With your honor all the day.

⁹Don't reject me in my old age. Don't forsake me when my strength fails.

¹⁰For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together,

¹¹Saying, "God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him."

¹²God, don't be far from me. My God, hurry to help me.

¹³Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.

¹⁴But I will always hope, And will add to all of your praise.

¹⁵My mouth will tell about your righteousness, And of your salvation all day, Though I don't know its full measure.

¹⁶I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord Yahweh. I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours alone.

¹⁷God, you have taught me from my youth. Until now, I have declared your wondrous works.

¹⁸Yes, even when I am old and gray-headed, God, don't forsake me, Until I have declared your strength to the next generation, Your might to everyone who is to come.

¹⁹Your righteousness also, God, reaches to the heavens; You who have done great things. God, who is like you?

²⁰You, who have showed us many and bitter troubles, You will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.

²¹Increase my honor, And comfort me again.

²²I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God. I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.

²³My lips shall shout for joy! My soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to you!

²⁴My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long, For they are put to shame, and they are confounded, who want to harm me. Psalm 72 By Solomon.

PSALM 72

¹God, give the king your justice; Your righteousness to the royal son.

²He will judge your people with righteousness, And your poor with justice.

³The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people; The hills bring the fruit of righteousness.

⁴He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, And will break the oppressor in pieces.

⁵They shall fear you while the sun endures; And as long as the moon, throughout all generations.

⁶He will come down like rain on the mown grass, As showers that water the earth.

⁷In his days, the righteous shall flourish, And abundance of peace, until the moon is no more.

⁸He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, From the River to the ends of the earth.

⁹Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him. His enemies shall lick the dust.

¹⁰The kings of Tarshish and of the isles will bring tribute. The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

¹¹Yes, all kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him.

¹²For he will deliver the needy when he cries; The poor, who has no helper.

¹³He will have pity on the poor and needy. He will save the souls of the needy.

¹⁴He will redeem their soul from oppression and violence. Their blood will be precious in his sight.

¹⁵They shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Men shall pray for him continually. They shall bless him all day long.

¹⁶There shall be abundance of grain throughout the land. Its fruit sways like Lebanon. Let it flourish, thriving like the grass of the field.

¹⁷His name endures forever. His name continues as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed by him. All nations will call him blessed.

¹⁸Praise be to Yahweh God, the God of Israel, Who alone does marvelous deeds.

¹⁹Blessed be his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and amen.

²⁰This ends the prayers by David, the son of Jesse.

PSALM 73

¹Surely God is good to Israel, To those who are pure in heart.

²But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped.

³For I was envious of the arrogant, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

⁴For there are no struggles in their death, But their strength is firm.

⁵They are free from burdens of men, Neither are they plagued like other men.

⁶Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment.

⁷Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit.

⁸They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression.

⁹They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth.

¹⁰Therefore their people return to them, And they drink up waters of abundance.

¹¹They say, "How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?"

¹²Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches.

¹³Surely in vain I have cleansed my heart, And washed my hands in innocence,

¹⁴For all day long have I been plagued, And punished every morning.

¹⁵If I had said, "I will speak thus;" Behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

¹⁶When I tried to understand this, It was too painful for me;

¹⁷Until I entered God's sanctuary, And considered their latter end.

¹⁸Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction.

¹⁹How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors.

²⁰As a dream when one wakes up, So, Lord, when you awake, you will despise their fantasies.

²¹For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart.

²²I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you.

²³Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have held my right hand.

²⁴You will guide me with your counsel, And afterward receive me to glory.

²⁵Who do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth who I desire besides you.

²⁶My flesh and my heart fails, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

²⁷For, behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.

²⁸But it is good for me to come close to God. I have made the Lord Yahweh my refuge, That I may tell of all your works. Psalm 74 A contemplation by Asaph.

PSALM 74

¹God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?

²Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, Which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived.

³Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, All the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

⁴Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.

⁵They behaved like men wielding axes, Cutting through a thicket of trees.

⁶Now all its carved work They break down with hatchet and hammers.

⁷They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling-place of your Name.

⁸They said in their heart, "We will crush them completely." They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshipped.

⁹We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, Neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.

¹⁰How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?

¹¹Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it out of your pocket and consume them!

¹²Yet God is my King of old, Working salvation in the midst of the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

¹⁴You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.

¹⁵You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.

¹⁶The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.

¹⁷You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.

¹⁸Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.

¹⁹Don't deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don't forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰Honor your covenant, For haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.

²¹Don't let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.

²²Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.

²³Don't forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually. Psalm 75 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "Do Not Destroy." A Psalm by Asaph. A song.

PSALM 75

¹We give thanks to you, God, We give thanks, for your Name is near. Men tell about your wondrous works.

²When I choose the appointed time, I will judge blamelessly.

³The earth and all its inhabitants quake. I firmly hold its pillars. Selah.

⁴I said to the arrogant, "Don't boast;" To the wicked, "Don't lift up the horn.

⁵Don't lift up your horn on high. Don't speak with a stiff neck."

⁶For neither from the east, nor from the west, Nor yet from the south, comes exaltation.

⁷But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another.

⁸For in the hand of Yahweh there is a cup, Full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs.

⁹But I will declare this forever: I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

¹⁰I will cut off all the horns of the wicked, But the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up. Psalm 76 For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A Psalm by Asaph. A song.

PSALM 76

¹In Judah, God is known. His name is great in Israel.

²His tent is also in Salem; His dwelling-place in Zion.

³There he broke the flaming arrows of the bow, The shield, and the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah.

⁴Glorious are you, and excellent, More than mountains of game.

⁵Valiant men lie plundered, They have slept their last sleep. None of the men of war can lift their hands.

⁶At your rebuke, God of Jacob, Both chariot and horse are cast into a deep sleep.

⁷You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?

⁸You pronounced judgment from heaven. The earth feared, and was silent,

⁹When God arose to judgment, To save all the afflicted ones of the earth. Selah.

¹⁰Surely the wrath of man praises you. The survivors of your wrath are restrained.

¹¹Make vows to Yahweh your God, and fulfill them! Let all of his neighbors bring presents to him who is to be feared.

¹²He will cut off the spirit of princes. He is feared by the kings of the earth. Psalm 77 For the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm by Asaph.

PSALM 77

¹My cry goes to God! Indeed, I cry to God for help, And for him to listen to me.

²In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn't get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.

³I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah.

⁴You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can't speak.

⁵I have considered the days of old, The years of ancient times.

⁶I remember my song in the night. I consider in my own heart; My spirit diligently inquires:

⁷"Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?

⁸Has his lovingkindness vanished forever? Does his promise fail for generations?

⁹Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?" Selah.

¹⁰Then I thought, "I will appeal to this: The years of the right hand of the Most High."

¹¹I will remember Yah's deeds; For I will remember your wonders of old.

¹²I will also meditate on all your work, And consider your doings.

¹³Your way, God, is in the sanctuary. What god is great like God?

¹⁴You are the God who does wonders. You have made your strength known among the peoples.

¹⁵You have redeemed your people with your arm, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

¹⁶The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed.

¹⁷The clouds poured out water. The skies resounded with thunder. Your arrows also flashed around.

¹⁸The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook.

¹⁹Your way was through the sea; Your paths through the great waters. Your footsteps were not known.

²⁰You led your people like a flock, By the hand of Moses and Aaron. Psalm 78 A contemplation by Asaph.

PSALM 78

¹Hear my law, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

³Which we have heard and known, Our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of Yahweh, His strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.

⁵For he established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which he commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children;

⁶That the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; Who should arise and tell their children,

⁷That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments,

⁸And might not be as their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that didn't make their hearts loyal, Whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

⁹The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, Turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰They didn't keep the covenant of God, And refused to walk in his law.

¹¹They forgot his doings, His wondrous works that he had showed them.

¹²Marvelous things did he in the sight of their fathers, In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³He split the sea, and caused them to pass through; He made the waters stand as a heap.

¹⁴In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, All the night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He split rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

¹⁶He brought streams also out of the rock, And caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷Yet they still went on to sin against him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They tempted God in their heart By asking food according to their desire.

¹⁹Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, Streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"

²¹Therefore Yahweh heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, Anger also went up against Israel,

²²Because they didn't believe in God, And didn't trust in his salvation.

²³Yet he commanded the skies above, And opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴He rained down manna on them to eat, And gave them food from the sky.

²⁵Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

²⁶He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

²⁷He rained also flesh on them as the dust; Winged birds as the sand of the seas.

²⁸He let them fall in the midst of their camp, Around their habitations.

²⁹So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

³⁰They didn't turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

³¹When the anger of God went up against them, And killed some of the fattest of them, And struck down the young men of Israel.

³²For all this they still sinned, And didn't believe in his wondrous works.

³³Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, And their years in terror.

³⁴When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock, The Most High God their redeemer.

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouth, And lied to him with their tongue.

³⁷For their heart was not right with him, Neither were they faithful in his covenant.

³⁸But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn't destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, And didn't stir up all his wrath.

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.

⁴⁰How often did they rebel against him in the wilderness, And grieve him in the desert!

⁴¹They turned again and tempted God, And provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They didn't remember his hand, Nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

⁴³How he set his signs in Egypt, His wonders in the field of Zoan,

⁴⁴Turned their rivers into blood, Their streams, so that they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; Frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, Their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail, Their sycamore-fig trees with frost.

⁴⁸He gave over their cattle also to the hail, And their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, Wrath, indignation, and trouble, And a band of angels of evil.

⁵⁰He made a path for his anger. He didn't spare their soul from death, But gave their life over to the pestilence,

⁵¹And struck all the firstborn in Egypt, The chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵²But he led forth his own people like sheep, And guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, But the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, To this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

⁵⁵He also drove out the nations before them, Allotted them for an inheritance by line, And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, And didn't keep his testimonies;

⁵⁷But turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places, And moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

⁵⁹When God heard this, he was angry, And greatly abhorred Israel;

⁶⁰So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, The tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹And delivered his strength into captivity, His glory into the adversary's hand.

⁶²He also gave his people over to the sword, And was angry with his inheritance.

⁶³Fire devoured their young men; Their virgins had no wedding song.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword; Their widows made no lamentation.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, Like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

⁶⁶He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, And didn't choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which he has established forever.

⁷⁰He also chose David his servant, And took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹From following the ewes that have their young he brought him To be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

⁷²So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. Psalm 79 A Psalm by Asaph.

PSALM 79

¹God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.

²They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, The flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.

³Their blood they have shed like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them.

⁴We have become a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and derision to those who are around us.

⁵How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?

⁶Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you; On the kingdoms that don't call on your names;

⁷For they have devoured Jacob, And destroyed his homeland.

⁸Don't hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, For we are in desperate need.

⁹Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name's sake.

¹⁰Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, That vengeance for your servants' blood is being poured out.

¹¹Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death;

¹²Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom Their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.

¹³So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, Will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to all generations. Psalm 80 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "The Lilies of the Covenant." A Psalm by Asaph.

PSALM 80

¹Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock, You who sit above the cherubim, shine forth.

²Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up your might, Come to save us.

³Turn us again, God. Cause your face to shine, And we will be saved.

⁴Yahweh God of hosts, How long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?

⁵You have fed them with the bread of tears, And given them tears to drink in large measure.

⁶You make us a source of contention to our neighbors. Our enemies laugh among themselves.

⁷Turn us again, God of hosts. Cause your face to shine, And we will be saved.

⁸You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it.

⁹You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root, and filled the land.

¹⁰The mountains were covered with its shadow. Its boughs were like God's cedars.

¹¹It sent out its branches to the sea, Its shoots to the River.

¹²Why have you broken down its walls, So that all those who pass by the way pluck it?

¹³The boar out of the wood ravages it. The wild animals of the field feed on it.

¹⁴Turn again, we beg you, God of hosts. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine,

¹⁵The stock which your right hand planted, The branch that you made strong for yourself.

¹⁶It is burned with fire. It is cut down. They perish at your rebuke.

¹⁷Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, On the son of man whom you made strong for yourself.

¹⁸So we will not turn away from you. Revive us, and we will call on your name.

¹⁹Turn us again, Yahweh God of hosts. Cause your face to shine, and we will be saved. Psalm 81 For the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. By Asaph.

PSALM 81

¹Sing aloud to God, our strength! Make a joyful noise to the God of Jacob!

²Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine, The pleasant lyre with the harp.

³Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, At the full moon, on our feast day.

⁴For it is a statute for Israel, An ordinance of the God of Jacob.

⁵He appointed it in Joseph for a testimony, When he went out over the land of Egypt, I heard a language that I didn't know.

⁶"I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the basket.

⁷You called in trouble, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah." Selah.

⁸"Hear, my people, and I will testify to you. Israel, if you would listen to me!

⁹There shall be no strange god in you, Neither shall you worship any foreign god.

¹⁰I am Yahweh, your God, Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

¹¹But my people didn't listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me.

¹²So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, That they might walk in their own counsels.

¹³Oh that my people would listen to me, That Israel would walk in my ways!

¹⁴I would soon subdue their enemies, And turn my hand against their adversaries.

¹⁵The haters of Yahweh would cringe before him, And their punishment would last forever.

¹⁶But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat. I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock." Psalm 82 A Psalm by Asaph.

PSALM 82

¹God presides in the great assembly. He judges among the gods.

²"How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked?" Selah.

³"Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

⁴Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked."

⁵They don't know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

⁶I said, "You are gods, All of you are sons of the Most High.

⁷Nevertheless you shall die like men, And fall like one of the rulers."

⁸Arise, God, judge the earth, For you inherit all of the nations. Psalm 83 A song. A Psalm by Asaph.

PSALM 83

¹God, don't keep silent. Don't keep silent, and don't be still, God.

²For, behold, your enemies are stirred up. Those who hate you have lifted up their heads.

³They conspire with cunning against your people. They plot against your cherished ones.

⁴"Come," they say, "and let us destroy them as a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more."

⁵For they have conspired together with one mind. They form an alliance against you.

⁶The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagrites;

⁷Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;

⁸Assyria also is joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. Selah.

⁹Do to them as you did to Midian, As to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon;

¹⁰Who perished at Endor, Who became as dung for the earth.

¹¹Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb; Yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna;

¹²Who said, "Let us take possession Of God's pasturelands."

¹³My God, make them like tumbleweed; Like chaff before the wind.

¹⁴As the fire that burns the forest, As the flame that sets the mountains on fire,

¹⁵So pursue them with your tempest, Terrify them with your storm.

¹⁶Fill their faces with confusion, That they may seek your name, Yahweh.

¹⁷Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever. Yes, let them be confounded and perish;

¹⁸That they may know that you alone, whose name is Yahweh, Are the Most High over all the earth. Psalm 84 For the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.

PSALM 84

¹How lovely are your dwellings, Yahweh of Hosts!

²My soul longs, and even faints for the courts of Yahweh. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

³Yes, the sparrow has found a home, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, Near your altars, Yahweh of Hosts, My King, and my God.

⁴Blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are always praising you. Selah.

⁵Blessed is the man whose strength is in you; Who have set their hearts on a pilgrimage.

⁶Passing through the valley of Weeping, they make it a place of springs. Yes, the autumn rain covers it with blessings.

⁷They go from strength to strength. Everyone of them appears before God in Zion.

⁸Yahweh, God of hosts, hear my prayer. Listen, God of Jacob. Selah.

⁹Behold, God our shield, Look at the face of your anointed.

¹⁰For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

¹¹For Yahweh God is a sun and a shield. Yahweh will give grace and glory. He withholds no good thing from those who walk blamelessly.

¹²Yahweh of Hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in you. Psalm 85 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.

PSALM 85

¹Yahweh, you have been favorable to your land. You have restored the fortunes of Jacob.

²You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin. Selah.

³You have taken away all your wrath. You have turned from the fierceness of your anger.

⁴Turn us, God of our salvation, And cause your indignation toward us to cease.

⁵Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw out your anger to all generations?

⁶Won't you revive us again, That your people may rejoice in you?

⁷Show us your lovingkindness, Yahweh. Grant us your salvation.

⁸I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, For he will speak peace to his people, his saints; But let them not turn again to folly.

⁹Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, That glory may dwell in our land.

¹⁰Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

¹¹Truth springs out of the earth. Righteousness has looked down from heaven.

¹²Yes, Yahweh will give that which is good. Our land will yield its increase.

¹³Righteousness goes before him, And prepares the way for his steps. Psalm 86 A Prayer by David.

PSALM 86

¹Hear, Yahweh, and answer me, For I am poor and needy.

²Preserve my soul, for I am godly. You, my God, save your servant who trusts in you.

³Be merciful to me, Lord, For I call to you all day long.

⁴Bring joy to the soul of your servant, For to you, Lord, do I lift up my soul.

⁵For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive; Abundant in lovingkindness to all those who call on you.

⁶Hear, Yahweh, my prayer. Listen to the voice of my petitions.

⁷In the day of my trouble I will call on you, For you will answer me.

⁸There is no one like you among the gods, Lord, Nor any deeds like your deeds.

⁹All nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord. They shall glorify your name.

¹⁰For you are great, and do wondrous things. You are God alone.

¹¹Teach me your way, Yahweh. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name.

¹²I will praise you, Lord my God, with my whole heart. I will glorify your name forevermore.

¹³For your lovingkindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.

¹⁴God, the proud have risen up against me. A company of violent men have sought after my soul, And they don't hold regard for you before them.

¹⁵But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, Slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.

¹⁶Turn to me, and have mercy on me! Give your strength to your servant. Save the son of your handmaid.

¹⁷Show me a sign of your goodness, That those who hate me may see it, and be put to shame, Because you, Yahweh, have helped me, and comforted me. Psalm 87 A Psalm by the sons of Korah; a Song.

PSALM 87

¹His foundation is in the holy mountains.

²Yahweh loves the gates of Zion More than all the dwellings of Jacob.

³Glorious things are spoken about you, city of God. Selah.

⁴I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me. Behold, Philistia, Tyre, and also Ethiopia: "This one was born there."

⁵Yes, of Zion it will be said, "This one and that one was born in her;" The Most High himself will establish her.

⁶Yahweh will count, when he writes up the peoples, "This one was born there." Selah.

⁷Those who sing as well as those who dance say, "All my springs are in you." Psalm 88 A Song. A Psalm by the sons of Korah. For the Chief Musician. To the tune of "The Suffering of Affliction." A contemplation by Heman, the Ezrahite.

PSALM 88

¹Yahweh, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you.

²Let my prayer enter into your presence. Turn your ear to my cry.

³For my soul is full of troubles. My life draws near to Sheol.

⁴I am counted among those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no help,

⁵Set apart among the dead, Like the slain who lie in the grave, Whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand.

⁶You have laid me in the lowest pit, In the darkest depths.

⁷Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.

⁸You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can't escape.

⁹My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you.

¹⁰Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the dead rise up and praise you? Selah.

¹¹Is your lovingkindness declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction?

¹²Are your wonders made known in the dark? Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

¹³But to you, Yahweh, I have cried. In the morning, my prayer comes before you.

¹⁴Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?

¹⁵I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.

¹⁶Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off.

¹⁷They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me.

¹⁸You have put lover and friend far from me, And my friends into darkness. Psalm 89 A contemplation by Ethan, the Ezrahite.

PSALM 89

¹I will sing of the lovingkindness of Yahweh forever. With my mouth, I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.

²I indeed declare, "Love stands firm forever. You established the heavens. Your faithfulness is in them."

³"I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David, my servant,

⁴'I will establish your seed forever, And build up your throne to all generations.'" Selah.

⁵The heavens will praise your wonders, Yahweh; Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.

⁶For who in the skies can be compared to Yahweh? Who among the sons of the heavenly beings is like Yahweh,

⁷A very awesome God in the council of the holy ones, To be feared above all those who are around him?

⁸Yahweh, God of hosts, who is a mighty one, like you? Yah, your faithfulness is around you.

⁹You rule the pride of the sea. When its waves rise up, you calm them.

¹⁰You have broken Rahab in pieces, like one of the slain. You have scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

¹¹The heavens are yours, the earth also is yours; The world and its fullness. You have founded them.

¹²The north and the south, you have created them. Tabor and Hermon rejoice in your name.

¹³You have a mighty arm. Your hand is strong, and your right hand is exalted.

¹⁴Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Lovingkindness and truth go before your face.

¹⁵Blessed are the people who learn to acclaim you. They walk in the light of your presence, Yahweh.

¹⁶In your name do they rejoice all day. In your righteousness, they are exalted.

¹⁷For you are the glory of their strength. In your favor, our horn will be exalted.

¹⁸For our shield belongs to Yahweh; Our king to the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁹Then you spoke in vision to your saints, And said, "I have bestowed strength on the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people.

²⁰I have found David, my servant. I have anointed him with my holy oil,

²¹With whom my hand shall be established. My arm will also strengthen him.

²²No enemy will tax him. No wicked man will oppress him.

²³I will beat down his adversaries before him, And strike those who hate him.

²⁴But my faithfulness and my lovingkindness will be with him. In my name, his horn will be exalted.

²⁵I will set his hand also on the sea, And his right hand on the rivers.

²⁶He will call to me, 'You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation!'

²⁷I will also appoint him my firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth.

²⁸I will keep my lovingkindness for him forevermore. My covenant will stand firm with him.

²⁹I will also make his seed endure forever, And his throne as the days of heaven.

³⁰If his children forsake my law, And don't walk in my ordinances;

³¹If they break my statutes, And don't keep my commandments;

³²Then I will punish their sin with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes.

³³But I will not completely take my lovingkindness from him, Nor allow my faithfulness to fail.

³⁴I will not break my covenant, Nor alter what my lips have uttered.

³⁵Once have I sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David.

³⁶His seed will endure forever, His throne like the sun before me.

³⁷It will be established forever like the moon, The faithful witness in the sky." Selah.

³⁸But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed.

³⁹You have renounced the covenant of your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust.

⁴⁰You have broken down all his hedges. You have brought his strongholds to ruin.

⁴¹All who pass by the way rob him. He has become a reproach to his neighbors.

⁴²You have exalted the right hand of his adversaries. You have made all of his enemies rejoice.

⁴³Yes, you turn back the edge of his sword, And haven't supported him in battle.

⁴⁴You have ended his splendor, And thrown his throne down to the ground.

⁴⁵You have shortened the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame. Selah.

⁴⁶How long, Yahweh? Will you hide yourself forever? Will your wrath burn like fire?

⁴⁷Remember how short my time is! For what vanity have you created all the children of men!

⁴⁸What man is he who shall live and not see death, Who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.

⁴⁹Lord, where are your former lovingkindnesses, Which you swore to David in your faithfulness?

⁵⁰Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants, How I bear in my heart the taunts of all the mighty peoples,

⁵¹With which your enemies have mocked, Yahweh, With which they have mocked the footsteps of your anointed one.

⁵²Blessed be Yahweh forevermore. Amen, and Amen.

PSALM 90

¹Lord, you have been our dwelling place In all generations.

²Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever you had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

³You turn man to destruction, saying, "Return, you children of men."

⁴For a thousand years in your sight Are but as yesterday when it is past, As a watch in the night.

⁵You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they sprout like new grass.

⁶In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry.

⁷For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath.

⁸You have set our iniquities before you, Our secret sins in the light of your presence.

⁹For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh.

¹⁰The days of our years are seventy, Or even by reason of strength eighty years; Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, For it passes quickly, and we fly away.

¹¹Who knows the power of your anger, Your wrath according to the fear that is due to you?

¹²So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

¹³Relent, Yahweh! How long? Have compassion on your servants.

¹⁴Satisfy us in the morning with your lovingkindness, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

¹⁵Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, For as many years as we have seen evil.

¹⁶Let your work appear to your servants; Your glory to their children.

¹⁷Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; Establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands. Psalm 91

PSALM 91

¹He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

²I will say of Yahweh, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust."

³For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, From the deadly pestilence.

⁴He will cover you with his pinions, Under his wings you will take refuge. His truth is a shield and a buckler.

⁵You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day;

⁶Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.

⁷A thousand shall fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it will not come near you.

⁸You will only look with your eyes, And see the reward of the wicked.

⁹For you, Yahweh, are my refuge! You have made the Most High your habitation.

¹⁰No evil will happen to you, Neither shall any plague come near your tent.

¹¹For he will give his angels charge over you, To guard you in all your ways.

¹²They will bear you up in their hands, So that you won't dash your foot against a stone.

¹³You will tread on the lion and cobra. You will trample the young lion and the serpent underfoot.

¹⁴Because he has set his love on me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high, because he has known my name.

¹⁵He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him, and honor him.

¹⁶I will satisfy him with long life, And show him my salvation. Psalm 92 A Psalm. A song for the Sabbath day.

PSALM 92

¹It is a good thing to give thanks to Yahweh, To sing praises to your name, Most High;

²To proclaim your lovingkindness in the morning, And your faithfulness every night,

³With the ten-stringed lute, with the harp, And with the melody of the lyre.

⁴For you, Yahweh, have made me glad through your work. I will triumph in the works of your hands.

⁵How great are your works, Yahweh! Your thoughts are very deep.

⁶A senseless man doesn't know, Neither does a fool understand this:

⁷Though the wicked spring up as the grass, And all the evil-doers flourish, They will be destroyed forever.

⁸But you, Yahweh, are on high forevermore.

⁹For, behold, your enemies, Yahweh, For, behold, your enemies shall perish. All the evil-doers will be scattered.

¹⁰But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox. I am anointed with fresh oil.

¹¹My eye has also seen my enemies, My ears have heard of the evil-doers who rise up against me.

¹²The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

¹³They are planted in Yahweh's house. They will flourish in our God's courts.

¹⁴They will still bring forth fruit in old age. They will be full of sap and green,

¹⁵To show that Yahweh is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Psalm 93

PSALM 93

¹Yahweh reigns! He is clothed with majesty! Yahweh is armed with strength. The world also is established. It can't be moved.

²Your throne is established from long ago. You are from everlasting.

³The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.

⁴Above the voices of many waters, The mighty breakers of the sea, Yahweh on high is mighty.

⁵Your statutes stand firm. Holiness adorns your house, Yahweh, forevermore. Psalm 94

PSALM 94

¹Yahweh, you God to whom vengeance belongs, You God to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth.

²Rise up, you judge of the earth. Pay back the proud what they deserve.

³Yahweh, how long will the wicked, How long will the wicked triumph?

⁴They pour out arrogant words. All the evil-doers boast.

⁵They break your people in pieces, Yahweh, And afflict your heritage.

⁶They kill the widow and the alien, And murder the fatherless.

⁷They say, "Yah will not see, Neither will Jacob's God consider."

⁸Consider, you senseless among the people; You fools, when will you be wise?

⁹He who implanted the ear, won't he hear? He who formed the eye, won't he see?

¹⁰He who disciplines the nations, won't he punish? He who teaches man knows.

¹¹Yahweh knows the thoughts of man, That they are futile.

¹²Blessed is the man whom you discipline, Yah, And teach out of your law;

¹³That you may give him rest from the days of adversity, Until the pit is dug for the wicked.

¹⁴For Yahweh won't reject his people, Neither will he forsake his inheritance.

¹⁵For judgment will return to righteousness. All the upright in heart shall follow it.

¹⁶Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Who will stand up for me against the evil-doers?

¹⁷Unless Yahweh had been my help, My soul would have soon lived in silence.

¹⁸When I said, "My foot is slipping!" Your lovingkindness, Yahweh, held me up.

¹⁹In the multitude of my thoughts within me, Your comforts delight my soul.

²⁰Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with you, Which brings about mischief by statute?

²¹They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, And condemn the innocent blood.

²²But Yahweh has been my high tower, My God, the rock of my refuge.

²³He has brought on them their own iniquity, And will cut them off in their own wickedness. Yahweh, our God, will cut them off. Psalm 95

PSALM 95

¹Oh come, let us sing to Yahweh. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!

²Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with psalms!

³For Yahweh is a great God, A great King above all gods.

⁴In his hand are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the mountains are also his.

⁵The sea is his, and he made it. His hands formed the dry land.

⁶Oh come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before Yahweh, our Maker,

⁷For he is our God. We are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, oh that you would hear his voice!

⁸Don't harden your heart, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness,

⁹When your fathers tempted me, Tested me, and saw my work.

¹⁰Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, And said, "It is a people that errs in their heart. They have not known my ways."

¹¹Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They won't enter into my rest." Psalm 96

PSALM 96

¹Sing to Yahweh a new song! Sing to Yahweh, all the earth.

²Sing to Yahweh! Bless his name. Proclaim his salvation from day to day.

³Declare his glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples.

⁴For great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised! He is to be feared above all gods.

⁵For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But Yahweh made the heavens.

⁶Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

⁷Ascribe to Yahweh, you families of nations, Ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.

⁸Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name. Bring an offering, and come into his courts.

⁹Worship Yahweh in holy array. Tremble before him, all the earth.

¹⁰Say among the nations, "Yahweh reigns." The world is also established. It can't be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.

¹¹Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and the fullness of it!

¹²Let the field exult, and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy

¹³Before Yahweh; for he comes, For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, The peoples with his truth. Psalm 97

PSALM 97

¹Yahweh reigns! Let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of islands be glad.

²Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

³A fire goes before him, And burns up his adversaries on every side.

⁴His lightning lights up the world; The earth sees, and trembles.

⁵The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.

⁶The heavens declare his righteousness. All the peoples have seen his glory.

⁷Let all them be put to shame who serve engraved images, Who boast in their idols. Worship him, all you gods!

⁸Zion heard and was glad. The daughters of Judah rejoiced, Because of your judgments, Yahweh.

⁹For you, Yahweh, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods.

¹⁰You who love Yahweh, hate evil. He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.

¹¹Light is sown for the righteous, And gladness for the upright in heart.

¹²Be glad in Yahweh, you righteous people! Give thanks to his holy Name. Psalm 98 A Psalm.

PSALM 98

¹Sing to Yahweh a new song, For he has done marvelous things! His right hand, and his holy arm, have worked salvation for him.

²Yahweh has made known his salvation. He has openly shown his righteousness in the sight of the nations.

³He has remembered his lovingkindness and his faithfulness toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

⁴Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth! Burst out and sing for joy, yes, sing praises!

⁵Sing praises to Yahweh with the harp, With the harp and the voice of melody.

⁶With trumpets and sound of the ram's horn. Make a joyful noise before the King, Yahweh.

⁷Let the sea roar with its fullness; The world, and those who dwell therein.

⁸Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the mountains sing for joy together.

⁹Let them sing before Yahweh, For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with equity. Psalm 99

PSALM 99

¹Yahweh reigns! Let the peoples tremble. He sits enthroned among the cherubim. Let the earth be moved.

²Yahweh is great in Zion. He is high above all the peoples.

³Let them praise your great and awesome name. He is Holy!

⁴The King's strength also loves justice. You do establish equity. You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob.

⁵Exalt Yahweh our God. Worship at his footstool. He is Holy!

⁶Moses and Aaron were among his priests, Samuel among those who call on his name; They called on Yahweh, and he answered them.

⁷He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud. They kept his testimonies, The statute that he gave them.

⁸You answered them, Yahweh our God. You are a God who forgave them, Although you took vengeance for their doings.

⁹Exalt Yahweh, our God. Worship at his holy hill, For Yahweh, our God, is holy! Psalm 100 A Psalm of thanksgiving.

PSALM 100

¹Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all you lands!

²Serve Yahweh with gladness. Come before his presence with singing.

³Know that Yahweh, he is God. It is he who has made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

⁴Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, Into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, and bless his name.

⁵For Yahweh is good. His lovingkindness endures forever, His faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 101 A Psalm by David.

PSALM 101

¹I will sing of lovingkindness and justice. To you, Yahweh, I will sing praises.

²I will be careful to live a blameless life. When will you come to me? I will walk within my house with a blameless heart.

³I will set no vile thing before my eyes. I hate the deeds of faithless men. They will not cling to me.

⁴A perverse heart will be far from me. I will have nothing to do with evil.

⁵I will silence whoever secretly slanders his neighbor. I won't tolerate one who is haughty and conceited.

⁶My eyes will be on the faithful of the land, That they may dwell with me. He who walks in a perfect way, He will serve me.

⁷He who practices deceit won't dwell within my house. He who speaks falsehood won't be established before my eyes.

⁸Morning by morning, I will destroy all the wicked of the land; To cut off all the workers of iniquity from Yahweh's city. Psalm 102 A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before Yahweh.

PSALM 102

¹Hear my prayer, Yahweh! Let my cry come to you.

²Don't hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear to me. Answer me quickly in the day when I call.

³For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a firebrand.

⁴My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, For I forget to eat my bread.

⁵By reason of the voice of my groaning, My bones stick to my skin.

⁶I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.

⁷I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.

⁸My enemies reproach me all day. Those who are mad at me use my name as a curse.

⁹For I have eaten ashes like bread, And mingled my drink with tears,

¹⁰Because of your indignation and your wrath, For you have taken me up, and thrown me away.

¹¹My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.

¹²But you, Yahweh, will abide forever; Your renown endures to all generations.

¹³You will arise and have mercy on Zion; For it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come.

¹⁴For your servants take pleasure in her stones, And have pity on her dust.

¹⁵So the nations will fear the name of Yahweh; All the kings of the earth your glory.

¹⁶For Yahweh has built up Zion. He has appeared in his glory.

¹⁷He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, And has not despised their prayer.

¹⁸This will be written for the generation to come. A people which will be created will praise Yah.

¹⁹For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, Yahweh saw the earth;

²⁰To hear the groans of the prisoner; To free those who are condemned to death;

²¹That men may declare the name of Yahweh in Zion, And his praise in Jerusalem;

²²When the peoples are gathered together, The kingdoms, to serve Yahweh.

²³He weakened my strength along the course. He shortened my days.

²⁴I said, "My God, don't take me away in the midst of my days. Your years are throughout all generations.

²⁵Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands.

²⁶They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed.

²⁷But you are the same. Your years will have no end.

²⁸The children of your servants will continue. Their seed will be established before you." Psalm 103 By David.

PSALM 103

¹Praise Yahweh, my soul! All that is within me, praise his holy name!

²Praise Yahweh, my soul, And don't forget all his benefits;

³Who forgives all your sins; Who heals all your diseases;

⁴Who redeems your life from destruction; Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

⁵Who satisfies your desire with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

⁶Yahweh executes righteous acts, And justice for all who are oppressed.

⁷He made known his ways to Moses, His deeds to the children of Israel.

⁸Yahweh is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness.

⁹He will not always accuse; Neither will he stay angry forever.

¹⁰He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us for our iniquities.

¹¹For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is his lovingkindness toward those who fear him.

¹²As far as the east is from the west, So far has he removed our transgressions from us.

¹³Like a father has compassion on his children, So Yahweh has compassion on those who fear him.

¹⁴For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust.

¹⁵As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

¹⁶For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place remembers it no more.

¹⁷But Yahweh's lovingkindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, His righteousness to children's children;

¹⁸To those who keep his covenant, To those who remember to obey his precepts.

¹⁹Yahweh has established his throne in the heavens. His kingdom rules over all.

²⁰Praise Yahweh, you angels of his, Who are mighty in strength, who fulfill his word, Obeying the voice of his word.

²¹Praise Yahweh, all you hosts of his, You servants of his, who do his pleasure.

²²Praise Yahweh, all you works of his, In all places of his dominion. Praise Yahweh, my soul. Psalm 104

PSALM 104

¹Bless Yahweh, my soul. Yahweh, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty.

²He covers himself with light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.

³He lays the beams of his chambers in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind.

⁴He makes his messengers winds; His servants flames of fire.

⁵He laid the foundations of the earth, That it should not be moved forever.

⁶You covered it with the deep as with a cloak. The waters stood above the mountains.

⁷At your rebuke they fled. At the voice of your thunder they hurried away.

⁸The mountains rose, The valleys sank down, To the place which you had assigned to them.

⁹You have set a boundary that they may not pass over; That they don't turn again to cover the earth.

¹⁰He sends forth springs into the valleys. They run among the mountains.

¹¹They give drink to every animal of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst.

¹²The birds of the sky nest by them. They sing among the branches.

¹³He waters the mountains from his chambers. The earth is filled with the fruit of your works.

¹⁴He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And plants for man to cultivate, That he may bring forth food out of the earth:

¹⁵Wine that makes glad the heart of man, Oil to make his face to shine, And bread that strengthens man's heart.

¹⁶Yahweh's trees are well watered, The cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted;

¹⁷Where the birds make their nests. The stork makes its home in the fir trees.

¹⁸The high mountains are for the wild goats. The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.

¹⁹He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set.

²⁰You make darkness, and it is night, In which all the animals of the forest prowl.

²¹The young lions roar after their prey, And seek their food from God.

²²The sun rises, and they steal away, And lay down in their dens.

²³Man goes forth to his work, To his labor until the evening.

²⁴Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. The earth is full of your riches.

²⁵There is the sea, great and wide, In which are innumerable living things, Both small and great animals.

²⁶There the ships go, And leviathan, whom you formed to play there.

²⁷These all wait for you, That you may give them their food in due season.

²⁸You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are satisfied with good.

²⁹You hide your face: they are troubled; You take away their breath: they die, and return to the dust.

³⁰You send forth your Spirit: they are created. You renew the face of the ground.

³¹Let the glory of Yahweh endure forever. Let Yahweh rejoice in his works.

³²He looks at the earth, and it trembles. He touches the mountains, and they smoke.

³³I will sing to Yahweh as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.

³⁴Let your meditation be sweet to him. I will rejoice in Yahweh.

³⁵Let sinners be consumed out of the earth. Let the wicked be no more. Bless Yahweh, my soul. Praise Yah! Psalm 105

PSALM 105

¹Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name! Make his doings known among the peoples.

²Sing to him, sing praises to him! Tell of all his marvelous works.

³Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice who seek Yahweh.

⁴Seek Yahweh and his strength. Seek his face forever more.

⁵Remember his marvelous works that he has done; His wonders, and the judgments of his mouth,

⁶You seed of Abraham, his servant, You children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

⁷He is Yahweh, our God. His judgments are in all the earth.

⁸He has remembered his covenant forever, The word which he commanded to a thousand generations,

⁹The covenant which he made with Abraham, His oath to Isaac,

¹⁰And confirmed the same to Jacob for a statute; To Israel for an everlasting covenant,

¹¹Saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan, The lot of your inheritance;"

¹²When they were but a few men in number, Yes, very few, and sojourners in it.

¹³They went about from nation to nation, From one kingdom to another people.

¹⁴He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he reproved kings for their sakes,

¹⁵"Don't touch my anointed ones. Do my prophets no harm."

¹⁶He called for a famine on the land. He destroyed the food supplies.

¹⁷He sent a man before them. Joseph was sold for a slave.

¹⁸They bruised his feet with shackles. His neck was locked in irons,

¹⁹Until the time that his word happened, And Yahweh's word proved him true.

²⁰The king sent and freed him; Even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free.

²¹He made him lord of his house, And ruler of all of his possessions;

²²To discipline his princes at his pleasure, And to teach his elders wisdom.

²³Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.

²⁴He increased his people greatly, And made them stronger than their adversaries.

²⁵He turned their heart to hate his people, To conspire against his servants.

²⁶He sent Moses, his servant, And Aaron, whom he had chosen.

²⁷They performed miracles among them, And wonders in the land of Ham.

²⁸He sent darkness, and made it dark. They didn't rebel against his words.

²⁹He turned their waters into blood, And killed their fish.

³⁰Their land swarmed with frogs, Even in the chambers of their kings.

³¹He spoke, and swarms of flies came, And lice in all their borders.

³²He gave them hail for rain, With lightning in their land.

³³He struck their vines and also their fig trees, And shattered the trees of their country.

³⁴He spoke, and the locusts came, And the grasshoppers, without number,

³⁵Ate up every plant in their land; Ate up the fruit of their ground.

³⁶He struck also all the firstborn in their land, The chief of all their strength.

³⁷He brought them forth with silver and gold. There was not one feeble person among his tribes.

³⁸Egypt was glad when they departed, For the fear of them had fallen on them.

³⁹He spread a cloud for a covering, Fire to give light in the night.

⁴⁰They asked, and he brought quails, And satisfied them with the bread of the sky.

⁴¹He opened the rock, and waters gushed out. They ran as a river in the dry places.

⁴²For he remembered his holy word, And Abraham, his servant.

⁴³He brought forth his people with joy, His chosen with singing.

⁴⁴He gave them the lands of the nations. They took the labor of the peoples in possession,

⁴⁵That they might keep his statutes, And observe his laws. Praise Yah! Psalm 106

PSALM 106

¹Praise Yahweh! Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, For his lovingkindness endures forever.

²Who can utter the mighty acts of Yahweh, Or fully declare all his praise?

³Blessed are those who keep justice, He who does righteousness at all times.

⁴Remember me, Yahweh, with the favor that you show to your people. Visit me with your salvation,

⁵That I may see the prosperity of your chosen, That I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, That I may glory with your inheritance.

⁶We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly.

⁷Our fathers didn't understand your wonders in Egypt. They didn't remember the multitude of your lovingkindnesses, But were rebellious at the sea, even at the Red Sea.

⁸Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, That he might make his mighty power known.

⁹He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up; So he led them through the depths, as through a desert.

¹⁰He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

¹¹The waters covered their adversaries. There was not one of them left.

¹²Then they believed his words. They sang his praise.

¹³They soon forgot his works. They didn't wait for his counsel,

¹⁴But gave in to craving in the desert, And tested God in the wasteland.

¹⁵He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul.

¹⁶They envied Moses also in the camp, And Aaron, Yahweh's saint.

¹⁷The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, And covered the company of Abiram.

¹⁸A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked.

¹⁹They made a calf in Horeb, And worshipped a molten image.

²⁰Thus they exchanged their glory For an image of a bull that eats grass.

²¹They forgot God, their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt,

²²Wondrous works in the land of Ham, And awesome things by the Red Sea.

²³Therefore he said that he would destroy them, Had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, To turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn't destroy them.

²⁴Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn't believe his word,

²⁵But murmured in their tents, And didn't listen to the voice of Yahweh.

²⁶Therefore he swore to them That he would overthrow them in the wilderness,

²⁷That he would overthrow their seed among the nations, And scatter them in the lands.

²⁸They joined themselves also to Baal-peor, And ate the sacrifices of the dead.

²⁹Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them.

³⁰Then Phinehas stood up, and executed judgment, So the plague was stopped.

³¹That was credited to him for righteousness, To all generations forevermore.

³²They angered him also at the waters of Meribah, So that Moses was troubled for their sakes;

³³Because they were rebellious against his spirit, He spoke rashly with his lips.

³⁴They didn't destroy the peoples, As Yahweh commanded them,

³⁵But mingled themselves with the nations, Learned their works.

³⁶They served their idols, Which became a snare to them.

³⁷Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

³⁸They shed innocent blood, Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood.

³⁹Thus were they defiled with their works, And prostituted themselves in their deeds.

⁴⁰Therefore the wrath of Yahweh was kindled against his people. He abhorred his inheritance.

⁴¹He gave them into the hand of the nations. Those who hated them ruled over them.

⁴²Their enemies also oppressed them. They were brought into subjection under their hand.

⁴³Many times he delivered them, But they were rebellious in their counsel, And were brought low in their iniquity.

⁴⁴Nevertheless he regarded their distress, When he heard their cry.

⁴⁵He remembered for them his covenant, And repented according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.

⁴⁶He made them also to be pitied By all those who carried them captive.

⁴⁷Save us, Yahweh, our God, Gather us from among the nations, To give thanks to your holy name, To triumph in your praise!

⁴⁸Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting! Let all the people say, "Amen." Praise Yah!

PSALM 107

¹Give thanks to Yahweh, For he is good, For his lovingkindness endures forever.

²Let the redeemed by Yahweh say so, Whom he has redeemed from the hand of the adversary,

³Gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south.

⁴They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city to live in.

⁵Hungry and thirsty, Their soul fainted in them.

⁶Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, And he delivered them out of their distresses,

⁷He led them also by a straight way, That they might go to a city to live in.

⁸Let them praise Yahweh for his lovingkindness, For his wonderful works to the children of men!

⁹For he satisfies the longing soul. He fills the hungry soul with good.

¹⁰Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, Being bound in affliction and iron,

¹¹Because they rebelled against the words of God, And condemned the counsel of the Most High.

¹²Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, and there was none to help.

¹³Then they cried to Yahweh in their trouble, And he saved them out of their distresses.

¹⁴He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, And broke their bonds in sunder.

¹⁵Let them praise Yahweh for his lovingkindness, For his wonderful works to the children of men!

¹⁶For he has broken the gates of brass, And cut through bars of iron.

¹⁷Fools are afflicted because of their disobedience, And because of their iniquities.

¹⁸Their soul abhors all kinds of food. They draw near to the gates of death.

¹⁹Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, He saves them out of their distresses.

²⁰He sends his word, and heals them, And delivers them from their graves.

²¹Let them praise Yahweh for his lovingkindness, For his wonderful works to the children of men!

²²Let them offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving, And declare his works with singing.

²³Those who go down to the sea in ships, Who do business in great waters;

²⁴These see Yahweh's works, And his wonders in the deep.

²⁵For he commands, and raises the stormy wind, Which lifts up its waves.

²⁶They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble.

²⁷They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wits' end.

²⁸Then they cry to Yahweh in their trouble, He brings them out of their distress.

²⁹He makes the storm a calm, So that its waves are still.

³⁰Then are they glad because it is calm, So he brings them to their desired haven.

³¹Let them praise Yahweh for his lovingkindness, For his wonderful works to the children of men!

³²Let them exalt him also in the assembly of the people, And praise him in the seat of the elders.

³³He turns rivers into a desert, Water springs into a thirsty ground,

³⁴And a fruitful land into a salt waste, For the wickedness of those who dwell in it.

³⁵He turns a desert into a pool of water, And a dry land into water springs.

³⁶There he makes the hungry to live, That they may prepare a city to live in,

³⁷Sow fields, plant vineyards, And reap the fruits of increase.

³⁸He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly. He doesn't allow their cattle to decrease.

³⁹Again, they are diminished and bowed down Through oppression, trouble, and sorrow.

⁴⁰He pours contempt on princes, And causes them to wander in a trackless waste.

⁴¹Yet he lifts the needy out of their affliction, And increases their families like a flock.

⁴²The upright will see it, and be glad. All the wicked will shut their mouths.

⁴³Whoever is wise will pay attention to these things. They will consider the lovingkindnesses of Yahweh. Psalm 108 A Song. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 108

¹My heart is steadfast, God. I will sing and I will make music with my soul.

²Wake up, harp and lyre! I will wake up the dawn.

³I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations. I will sing praises to you among the peoples.

⁴For your lovingkindness is great above the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

⁵Be exalted, God, above the heavens, Let your glory be over all the earth.

⁶That your beloved may be delivered, Save with your right hand, and answer us.

⁷God has spoken from his sanctuary: "In triumph, I will divide Shechem, and measure out the valley of Succoth.

⁸Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim also is my helmet. Judah is my scepter.

⁹Moab is my wash pot. I will toss my sandal on Edom. I will shout over Philistia."

¹⁰Who will bring me into the fortified city? Who has led me to Edom?

¹¹Haven't you rejected us, God? You don't go forth, God, with our armies.

¹²Give us help against the enemy, For the help of man is vain.

¹³Through God, we will do valiantly. For it is he who will tread down our enemies. Psalm 109 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 109

¹God of my praise, don't remain silent,

²For they have opened the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit against me. They have spoken to me with a lying tongue.

³They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without a cause.

⁴In return for my love, they are my adversaries; But I am in prayer.

⁵They have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love.

⁶Set a wicked man over him. Let an adversary stand at his right hand.

⁷When he is judged, let him come forth guilty. Let his prayer be turned into sin.

⁸Let his days be few. Let another take his office.

⁹Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow.

¹⁰Let his children be wandering beggars. Let them be sought from their ruins.

¹¹Let the creditor seize all that he has. Let strangers plunder the fruit of his labor.

¹²Let there be none to extend kindness to him, Neither let there be any to have pity on his fatherless children.

¹³Let his posterity be cut off. In the generation following let their name be blotted out.

¹⁴Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by Yahweh. Don't let the sin of his mother be blotted out.

¹⁵Let them be before Yahweh continually, That he may cut off the memory of them from the earth;

¹⁶Because he didn't remember to show kindness, But persecuted the poor and needy man, The broken in heart, to kill them.

¹⁷Yes, he loved cursing, and it came to him. He didn't delight in blessing, and it was far from him.

¹⁸He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment. It came into his inward parts like water, Like oil into his bones.

¹⁹Let it be to him as the clothing with which he covers himself, For the belt that is always around him.

²⁰This is the reward of my adversaries from Yahweh, Of those who speak evil against my soul.

²¹But deal with me, Yahweh the Lord, for your name's sake, Because your lovingkindness is good, deliver me;

²²For I am poor and needy. My heart is wounded within me.

²³I fade away like an evening shadow. I am shaken off as the locust.

²⁴My knees are weak through fasting. My body is thin and lacks fat.

²⁵I have also become a reproach to them. When they see me, they shake their head.

²⁶Help me, Yahweh, my God. Save me according to your lovingkindness;

²⁷That they may know that this is your hand; That you, Yahweh, have done it.

²⁸They may curse, but you bless. When they arise, they will be put to shame, But your servant shall rejoice.

²⁹Let my adversaries be clothed with dishonor. Let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe.

³⁰I will give great thanks to Yahweh with my mouth. Yes, I will praise him among the multitude.

³¹For he will stand at the right hand of the needy, To save him from those who judge his soul. Psalm 110 A Psalm by David.

PSALM 110

¹Yahweh says to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, Until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet."

²Yahweh will send forth the rod of your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of your enemies.

³Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, In holy array. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.

⁴Yahweh has sworn, and will not change his mind: "You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek."

⁵The Lord is at your right hand. He will crush kings in the day of his wrath.

⁶He will judge among the nations. He will heap up dead bodies. He will crush the ruler of the whole earth.

⁷He will drink of the brook in the way; Therefore will he lift up his head. Psalm 111

PSALM 111

¹Praise Yah! I will give thanks to Yahweh with my whole heart, In the council of the upright, and in the congregation.

²The works of Yahweh are great, Pondered by all those who delight in them.

³His work is honor and majesty. His righteousness endures forever.

⁴He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered. Yahweh is gracious and merciful.

⁵He has given food to those who fear him. He always remembers his covenant.

⁶He has shown his people the power of his works, In giving them the heritage of the nations.

⁷The works of his hands are truth and justice. All his precepts are sure.

⁸They are established forever and ever. They are done in truth and uprightness.

⁹He has sent redemption to his people. He has ordained his covenant forever. His name is holy and awesome!

¹⁰The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. All those who do his work have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! Psalm 112

PSALM 112

¹Praise Yah! Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, Who delights greatly in his commandments.

²His seed will be mighty on earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed.

³Wealth and riches are in his house. His righteousness endures forever.

⁴Light dawns in the darkness for the upright, Gracious, merciful, and righteous.

⁵It is well with the man who deals graciously and lends. He will maintain his cause in judgment.

⁶For he will never be shaken. The righteous will be remembered forever.

⁷He will not be afraid of evil news. His heart is steadfast, trusting in Yahweh.

⁸His heart is established. He will not be afraid in the end when he sees his adversaries.

⁹He has dispersed, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted with honor.

¹⁰The wicked will see it, and be grieved. He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish. Psalm 113

PSALM 113

¹Praise Yah! Praise, you servants of Yahweh, Praise the name of Yahweh.

²Blessed be the name of Yahweh, From this time forth and forevermore.

³From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, Yahweh's name is to be praised.

⁴Yahweh is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens.

⁵Who is like Yahweh, our God, Who has his seat on high,

⁶Who stoops down to see in heaven and in the earth?

⁷He raises up the poor out of the dust. Lifts up the needy from the ash heap;

⁸That he may set him with princes, Even with the princes of his people.

⁹He settles the barren woman in her home, As a joyful mother of children. Praise Yah! Psalm 114

PSALM 114

¹When Israel went forth out of Egypt, The house of Jacob from a people of foreign language;

²Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.

³The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.

⁴The mountains skipped like rams, The little hills like lambs.

⁵What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back?

⁶You mountains, that you skipped like rams; You little hills, like lambs?

⁷Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, At the presence of the God of Jacob,

⁸Who turned the rock into a pool of water, The flint into a spring of waters. Psalm 115

PSALM 115

¹Not to us, Yahweh, not to us, But to your name give glory, For your lovingkindness, and for your truth's sake.

²Why should the nations say, "Where is their God, now?"

³But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases.

⁴Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands.

⁵They have mouths, but they don't speak; They have eyes, but they don't see;

⁶They have ears, but they don't hear; They have noses, but they don't smell;

⁷They have hands, but they don't feel; They have feet, but they don't walk; Neither do they speak through their throat.

⁸Those who make them will be like them; Yes, everyone who trusts in them.

⁹Israel, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield.

¹⁰House of Aaron, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield.

¹¹You who fear Yahweh, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield.

¹²Yahweh remembers us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.

¹³He will bless those who fear Yahweh, Both small and great.

¹⁴May Yahweh increase you more and more, You and your children.

¹⁵Blessed are you by Yahweh, Who made heaven and earth.

¹⁶The heavens are the heavens of Yahweh; But the earth has he given to the children of men.

¹⁷The dead don't praise Yah, Neither any who go down into silence;

¹⁸But we will bless Yah, From this time forth and forevermore. Praise Yah! Psalm 116

PSALM 116

¹I love Yahweh, because he listens to my voice, And my cries for mercy.

²Because he has turned his ear to me, Therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

³The cords of death surrounded me, The pains of Sheol got a hold on me. I found trouble and sorrow.

⁴Then called I on the name of Yahweh: "Yahweh, I beg you, deliver my soul."

⁵Gracious is Yahweh, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful.

⁶Yahweh preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me.

⁷Return to your rest, my soul, For Yahweh has dealt bountifully with you.

⁸For you have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, And my feet from falling.

⁹I will walk before Yahweh in the land of the living.

¹⁰I believed, therefore I said, "I was greatly afflicted."

¹¹I said in my haste, "All men are liars."

¹²What will I give to Yahweh for all his benefits toward me?

¹³I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of Yahweh.

¹⁴I will pay my vows to Yahweh, Yes, in the presence of all his people.

¹⁵Precious in the sight of Yahweh is the death of his saints.

¹⁶Yahweh, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your handmaid. You have freed me from my chains.

¹⁷I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, And will call on the name of Yahweh.

¹⁸I will pay my vows to Yahweh, Yes, in the presence of all his people,

¹⁹In the courts of Yahweh's house, In the midst of you, Jerusalem. Praise Yah! Psalm 117

PSALM 117

¹Praise Yahweh, all you nations! Extol him, all you peoples!

²For his lovingkindness is great toward us. Yahweh's faithfulness endures forever. Praise Yah! Psalm 118

PSALM 118

¹Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, For his lovingkindness endures forever.

²Let Israel now say That his lovingkindness endures forever.

³Let the house of Aaron now say That his lovingkindness endures forever.

⁴Now let those who fear Yahweh say That his lovingkindness endures forever.

⁵Out of my distress, I called on Yah. Yah answered me with freedom.

⁶Yahweh is on my side. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?

⁷Yahweh is on my side among those who help me. Therefore I will look in triumph at those who hate me.

⁸It is better to take refuge in Yahweh, Than to put confidence in man.

⁹It is better to take refuge in Yahweh, Than to put confidence in princes.

¹⁰All the nations surrounded me, But in the name of Yahweh, I cut them off.

¹¹They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me. In the name of Yahweh I indeed cut them off.

¹²They surrounded me like bees. They are quenched like the burning thorns. In the name of Yahweh I cut them off.

¹³You pushed me back hard, to make me fall, But Yahweh helped me.

¹⁴Yah is my strength and song. He has become my salvation.

¹⁵The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. "The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly.

¹⁶The right hand of Yahweh is exalted! The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly!"

¹⁷I will not die, but live, And declare Yah's works.

¹⁸Yah has punished me severely, But he has not given me over to death.

¹⁹Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will enter into them. I will give thanks to Yah.

²⁰This is the gate of Yahweh; The righteous will enter into it.

²¹I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me, And have become my salvation.

²²The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.

²³This is Yahweh's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.

²⁴This is the day that Yahweh has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it!

²⁵Save us now, we beg you, Yahweh; Yahweh, we beg you, now send prosperity.

²⁶Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh! We have blessed you out of the house of Yahweh.

²⁷Yahweh is God, and he has given us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar.

²⁸You are my God, and I will give thanks to you. You are my God, I will exalt you.

²⁹Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, For his lovingkindness endures forever. Psalm 119 ALEPH

PSALM 119

¹Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, Who walk according to the law of Yahweh.

²Blessed are those who keep his statutes, Who seek him with their whole heart.

³Yes, they do nothing wrong. They walk in his ways.

⁴You have commanded your precepts, That we should fully obey them.

⁵Oh that my ways were steadfast To obey your statutes!

⁶Then I wouldn't be put to shame, When I consider all of your commandments.

⁷I will give thanks to you with uprightness of heart, When I learn your righteous judgments.

⁸I will observe your statutes. Don't utterly forsake me.

⁹How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.

¹⁰With my whole heart, I have sought you. Don't let me wander from your commandments.

¹¹I have hidden your word in my heart, That I might not sin against you.

¹²Blessed are you, Yahweh. Teach me your statutes.

¹³With my lips, I have declared all the ordinances of your mouth.

¹⁴I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, As much as in all riches.

¹⁵I will meditate on your precepts, And consider your ways.

¹⁶I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word.

¹⁷Do good to your servant. I will live and I will obey your word.

¹⁸Open my eyes, That I may see wondrous things out of your law.

¹⁹I am a stranger on the earth. Don't hide your commandments from me.

²⁰My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times.

²¹You have rebuked the proud who are cursed, Who wander from your commandments.

²²Take reproach and contempt away from me, For I have kept your statutes.

²³Though princes sit and slander me, Your servant will meditate on your statutes.

²⁴Indeed your statutes are my delight, And my counselors.

²⁵My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!

²⁶I declared my ways, and you answered me. Teach me your statutes.

²⁷Let me understand the teaching of your precepts! Then I will meditate on your wondrous works.

²⁸My soul is weary with sorrow. Strengthen me according to your word.

²⁹Keep me from the way of deceit. Grant me your law graciously!

³⁰I have chosen the way of truth. I have set my heart on your law.

³¹I cling to your statutes, Yahweh. Don't let me be put to shame.

³²I run in the path of your commandments, For you have set my heart free.

³³Teach me, Yahweh, the way of your statutes. I will keep them to the end.

³⁴Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Yes, I will obey it with my whole heart.

³⁵Direct me in the path of your commandments, For I delight in them.

³⁶Turn my heart toward your statutes, Not toward selfish gain.

³⁷Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways.

³⁸Fulfill your promise to your servant, That you may be feared.

³⁹Take away my disgrace that I dread, For your ordinances are good.

⁴⁰Behold, I long for your precepts! Revive me in your righteousness.

⁴¹Let your lovingkindness also come to me, Yahweh, Your salvation, according to your word.

⁴²So I will have an answer for him who reproaches me, For I trust in your word.

⁴³Don't snatch the word of truth out of my mouth, For I put my hope in your ordinances.

⁴⁴So I will obey your law continually, Forever and ever.

⁴⁵I will walk in liberty, For I have sought your precepts.

⁴⁶I will also speak of your statutes before kings, And will not be put to shame.

⁴⁷I will delight myself in your commandments, Because I love them.

⁴⁸I reach out my hands for your commandments, which I love. I will meditate on your statutes.

⁴⁹Remember your word to your servant, Because you gave me hope.

⁵⁰This is my comfort in my affliction, For your word has revived me.

⁵¹The arrogant mock me excessively, But I don't swerve from your law.

⁵²I remember your ordinances of old, Yahweh, And have comforted myself.

⁵³Indignation has taken hold on me, Because of the wicked who forsake your law.

⁵⁴Your statutes have been my songs, In the house where I live.

⁵⁵I have remembered your name, Yahweh, in the night, And I obey your law.

⁵⁶This is my way, That I keep your precepts.

⁵⁷Yahweh is my portion. I promised to obey your words.

⁵⁸I sought your favor with my whole heart. Be merciful to me according to your word.

⁵⁹I considered my ways, And turned my steps to your statutes.

⁶⁰I will hurry, and not delay, To obey your commandments.

⁶¹The ropes of the wicked bind me, But I won't forget your law.

⁶²At midnight I will rise to give thanks to you, Because of your righteous ordinances.

⁶³I am a friend of all those who fear you, Of those who observe your precepts.

⁶⁴The earth is full of your lovingkindness, Yahweh. Teach me your statutes.

⁶⁵Do good to your servant, According to your word, Yahweh.

⁶⁶Teach me good judgment and knowledge, For I believe in your commandments.

⁶⁷Before I was afflicted, I went astray; But now I observe your word.

⁶⁸You are good, and do good. Teach me your statutes.

⁶⁹The proud have smeared a lie upon me. With my whole heart, I will keep your precepts.

⁷⁰Their heart is as callous as the fat, But I delight in your law.

⁷¹It is good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn your statutes.

⁷²The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.

⁷³Your hands have made me and formed me. Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.

⁷⁴Those who fear you will see me and be glad, Because I have put my hope in your word.

⁷⁵Yahweh, I know that your judgments are righteous, That in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

⁷⁶Please let your lovingkindness be for my comfort, According to your word to your servant.

⁷⁷Let your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; For your law is my delight.

⁷⁸Let the proud be put to shame, for they have overthrown me wrongfully. I will meditate on your precepts.

⁷⁹Let those who fear you turn to me. They will know your statutes.

⁸⁰Let my heart be blameless toward your decrees, That I may not be put to shame.

⁸¹My soul faints for your salvation. I hope in your word.

⁸²My eyes fail for your word. I say, "When will you comfort me?"

⁸³For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. I don't forget your statutes.

⁸⁴How many are the days of your servant? When will you execute judgment on those who persecute me?

⁸⁵The proud have dug pits for me, Contrary to your law.

⁸⁶All of your commandments are faithful. They persecute me wrongfully. Help me!

⁸⁷They had almost wiped me from the earth, But I didn't forsake your precepts.

⁸⁸Preserve my life according to your lovingkindness, So I will obey the statutes of your mouth.

⁸⁹Yahweh, your word is settled in heaven forever.

⁹⁰Your faithfulness is to all generations. You have established the earth, and it remains.

⁹¹Your laws remain to this day, For all things serve you.

⁹²Unless your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

⁹³I will never forget your precepts, For with them, you have revived me.

⁹⁴I am yours. Save me, For I have sought your precepts.

⁹⁵The wicked have waited for me, to destroy me. I will consider your statutes.

⁹⁶I have seen a limit to all perfection, But your commands are boundless.

⁹⁷How love I your law! It is my meditation all day.

⁹⁸Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For your commandments are always with me.

⁹⁹I have more understanding than all my teachers, For your testimonies are my meditation.

¹⁰⁰I understand more than the aged, Because I have kept your precepts.

¹⁰¹I have kept my feet from every evil way, That I might observe your word.

¹⁰²I have not turned aside from your ordinances, For you have taught me.

¹⁰³How sweet are your promises to my taste, More than honey to my mouth!

¹⁰⁴Through your precepts, I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.

¹⁰⁵Your word is a lamp to my feet, And a light for my path.

¹⁰⁶I have sworn, and have confirmed it, That I will obey your righteous ordinances.

¹⁰⁷I am afflicted very much. Revive me, Yahweh, according to your word.

¹⁰⁸Accept, I beg you, the willing offerings of my mouth. Yahweh, teach me your ordinances.

¹⁰⁹My soul is continually in my hand, Yet I won't forget your law.

¹¹⁰The wicked have laid a snare for me, Yet I haven't gone astray from your precepts.

¹¹¹I have taken your testimonies as a heritage forever, For they are the joy of my heart.

¹¹²I have set my heart to perform your statutes forever, Even to the end.

¹¹³I hate double-minded men, But I love your law.

¹¹⁴You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in your word.

¹¹⁵Depart from me, you evildoers, That I may keep the commandments of my God.

¹¹⁶Uphold me according to your word, that I may live. Let me not be ashamed of my hope.

¹¹⁷Hold me up, and I will be safe, And will have respect for your statutes continually.

¹¹⁸You reject all those who stray from your statutes, For their deceit is in vain.

¹¹⁹You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore I love your testimonies.

¹²⁰My flesh trembles for fear of you. I am afraid of your judgments.

¹²¹I have done what is just and righteous. Don't leave me to my oppressors.

¹²²Ensure your servant's well-being. Don't let the proud oppress me.

¹²³My eyes fail looking for your salvation, For your righteous word.

¹²⁴Deal with your servant according to your lovingkindness. Teach me your statutes.

¹²⁵I am your servant. Give me understanding, That I may know your testimonies.

¹²⁶It is time to act, Yahweh, For they break your law.

¹²⁷Therefore I love your commandments more than gold, Yes, more than pure gold.

¹²⁸Therefore I consider all of your precepts to be right. I hate every false way.

¹²⁹Your testimonies are wonderful, Therefore my soul keeps them.

¹³⁰The entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.

¹³¹I opened my mouth wide and panted, For I longed for your commandments.

¹³²Turn to me, and have mercy on me, As you always do to those who love your name.

¹³³Establish my footsteps in your word. Don't let any iniquity have dominion over me.

¹³⁴Redeem me from the oppression of man, So I will observe your precepts.

¹³⁵Make your face to shine on your servant. Teach me your statutes.

¹³⁶Streams of tears run down my eyes, Because they don't observe your law.

¹³⁷You are righteous, Yahweh. your judgments are upright.

¹³⁸You have commanded your statutes in righteousness. They are fully trustworthy.

¹³⁹My zeal wears me out, Because my enemies ignore your words.

¹⁴⁰Your promises have been thoroughly tested, And your servant loves them.

¹⁴¹I am small and despised. I don't forget your precepts.

¹⁴²Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. Your law is truth.

¹⁴³Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me. Your commandments are my delight.

¹⁴⁴Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding, that I may live.

¹⁴⁵I have called with my whole heart. Answer me, Yahweh! I will keep your statutes.

¹⁴⁶I have called to you. Save me! I will obey your statutes.

¹⁴⁷I rise before dawn and cry for help. I put my hope in your words.

¹⁴⁸My eyes stay open through the night watches, That I might meditate on your word.

¹⁴⁹Hear my voice according to your lovingkindness. Revive me, Yahweh, according to your ordinances.

¹⁵⁰They draw near who follow after wickedness. They are far from your law.

¹⁵¹You are near, Yahweh. All your commandments are truth.

¹⁵²Of old I have known from your testimonies, That you have founded them forever.

¹⁵³Consider my affliction, and deliver me, For I don't forget your law.

¹⁵⁴Plead my cause, and redeem me! Revive me according to your promise.

¹⁵⁵Salvation is far from the wicked, For they don't seek your statutes.

¹⁵⁶Great are your tender mercies, Yahweh. Revive me according to your ordinances.

¹⁵⁷Many are my persecutors and my adversaries. I haven't swerved from your testimonies.

¹⁵⁸I look at the faithless with loathing, Because they don't observe your word.

¹⁵⁹Consider how I love your precepts. Revive me, Yahweh, according to your lovingkindness.

¹⁶⁰All of your words are truth. Every one of your righteous ordinances endures forever.

¹⁶¹Princes have persecuted me without a cause, But my heart stands in awe of your words.

¹⁶²I rejoice at your word, As one who finds great spoil.

¹⁶³I hate and abhor falsehood. I love your law.

¹⁶⁴Seven times a day, I praise you, Because of your righteous ordinances.

¹⁶⁵Those who love your law have great peace. Nothing causes them to stumble.

¹⁶⁶I have hoped for your salvation, Yahweh. I have done your commandments.

¹⁶⁷My soul has observed your testimonies. I love them exceedingly.

¹⁶⁸I have obeyed your precepts and your testimonies, For all my ways are before you.

¹⁶⁹Let my cry come before you, Yahweh. Give me understanding according to your word.

¹⁷⁰Let my supplication come before you. Deliver me according to your word.

¹⁷¹Let my lips utter praise, For you teach me your statutes.

¹⁷²Let my tongue sing of your word, For all your commandments are righteousness.

¹⁷³Let your hand be ready to help me, For I have chosen your precepts.

¹⁷⁴I have longed for your salvation, Yahweh. Your law is my delight.

¹⁷⁵Let my soul live, that I may praise you. Let your ordinances help me.

¹⁷⁶I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I don't forget your commandments. Psalm 120 A Song of Ascents.

PSALM 120

¹In my distress, I cried to Yahweh. He answered me.

²Deliver my soul, Yahweh, from lying lips, From a deceitful tongue.

³What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, You deceitful tongue?

⁴Sharp arrows of the mighty, With coals of juniper.

⁵Woe is me, that I live in Meshech, That I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

⁶My soul has had her dwelling too long With him who hates peace.

⁷I am for peace, But when I speak, they are for war. Psalm 121 A Song of Ascents.

PSALM 121

¹I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from?

²My help comes from Yahweh, Who made heaven and earth.

³He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber.

⁴Behold, he who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵Yahweh is your keeper. Yahweh is your shade on your right hand.

⁶The sun will not harm you by day, Nor the moon by night.

⁷Yahweh will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul.

⁸Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in, From this time forth, and forevermore. Psalm 122 A Song of Ascents. By David.

PSALM 122

¹I was glad when they said to me, "Let's go to Yahweh's house!"

²Our feet are standing Within your gates, Jerusalem;

³Jerusalem, that is built As a city that is compact together;

⁴Where the tribes go up, even Yah's tribes, According to an ordinance for Israel, To give thanks to the name of Yahweh.

⁵For there are set thrones for judgment, The thrones of David's house.

⁶Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They will prosper who love you.

⁷Peace be within your walls, And prosperity within your palaces.

⁸For my brothers' and companions' sakes, I will now say, "Peace be within you."

⁹For the sake of the house of Yahweh our God, I will seek your good. Psalm 123 A Song of Ascents.

PSALM 123

¹To you I do lift up my eyes, You who sit in the heavens.

²Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress; So our eyes look to Yahweh, our God, Until he has mercy on us.

³Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us, For we have endured much contempt.

⁴Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, With the contempt of the proud. Psalm 124 A Song of Ascents. By David.

PSALM 124

¹If it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, Let Israel now say,

²If it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, When men rose up against us;

³Then they would have swallowed us up alive, When their wrath was kindled against us;

⁴Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, The stream would have gone over our soul;

⁵Then the proud waters would have gone over our soul.

⁶Blessed be Yahweh, Who has not given us as a prey to their teeth.

⁷Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the fowler's snare. The snare is broken, and we have escaped.

⁸Our help is in the name of Yahweh, Who made heaven and earth. Psalm 125 A Song of Ascents.

PSALM 125

¹Those who trust in Yahweh are as Mount Zion, Which can't be moved, but remains forever.

²As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So Yahweh surrounds his people from this time forth and forevermore.

³For the scepter of wickedness won't remain over the allotment of the righteous; So that the righteous won't put forth their hands to iniquity.

⁴Do good, Yahweh, to those who are good, To those who are upright in their hearts.

⁵But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, Yahweh will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel. Psalm 126 A Song of Ascents.

PSALM 126

¹When Yahweh brought back those who returned to Zion, We were like those who dream.

²Then our mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. Then said they among the nations, "Yahweh has done great things for them."

³Yahweh has done great things for us, And we are glad.

⁴Restore our fortunes again, Yahweh, Like the streams in the Negev.

⁵Those who sow in tears will reap in joy.

⁶He who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, Will assuredly come again with joy, carrying his sheaves. Psalm 127 A Song of Ascents. By Solomon.

PSALM 127

¹Unless Yahweh builds the house, They labor in vain who build it. Unless Yahweh watches over the city, The watchman guards it in vain.

²It is vain for you to rise up early, To stay up late, Eating the bread of toil; For he gives sleep to his loved ones.

³Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward.

⁴As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, So are the children of youth.

⁵Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won't be put to shame when they speak with their enemies in the gate. Psalm 128 A Song of Ascents.

PSALM 128

¹Blessed is everyone who fears Yahweh, Who walks in his ways.

²For you will eat the labor of your hands. You will be happy, and it will be well with you.

³Your wife will be as a fruitful vine, In the innermost parts of your house; Your children like olive plants, Around your table.

⁴Behold, thus is the man blessed who fears Yahweh.

⁵May Yahweh bless you out of Zion, And may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life.

⁶Yes, may you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel. Psalm 129 A Song of Ascents.

PSALM 129

¹Many times have they afflicted me from my youth up. Let Israel now say,

²Many times have they afflicted me from my youth up, Yet they have not prevailed against me.

³The plowers plowed on my back. They made their furrows long.

⁴Yahweh is righteous. He has cut apart the cords of the wicked.

⁵Let them be put to shame and turned backward, All those who hate Zion.

⁶Let them be as the grass on the housetops, Which withers before it grows up;

⁷With which the reaper doesn't fill his hand, Nor he who binds sheaves, his bosom.

⁸Neither do those who go by say, "The blessing of Yahweh be on you. We bless you in the name of Yahweh." Psalm 130 A Song of Ascents.

PSALM 130

¹Out of the depths I have cried to you, Yahweh.

²Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my petitions.

³If you, Yah, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?

⁴But there is forgiveness with you, Therefore you are feared.

⁵I wait for Yahweh. My soul waits. I hope in his word.

⁶My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning; More than watchmen for the morning.

⁷Israel, hope in Yahweh, For with Yahweh there is lovingkindness. With him is abundant redemption.

⁸He will redeem Israel from all their sins. Psalm 131 A Song of Ascents. By David.

PSALM 131

¹Yahweh, my heart isn't haughty, nor my eyes lofty; Neither do I concern myself with great matters, Or things too wonderful for me.

²Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother, Like a weaned child is my soul within me.

³Israel, hope in Yahweh, From this time forth and forevermore. Psalm 132 A Song of Ascents.

PSALM 132

¹Yahweh, remember David and all his affliction,

²How he swore to Yahweh, And vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:

³"Surely I will not come into the structure of my house, Nor go up into my bed;

⁴I will not give sleep to my eyes, Or slumber to my eyelids;

⁵Until I find out a place for Yahweh, A dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob."

⁶Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah. We found it in the field of Jaar:

⁷"We will go into his dwelling place. We will worship at his footstool.

⁸Arise, Yahweh, into your resting place; You, and the ark of your strength.

⁹Let your priest be clothed with righteousness. Let your saints shout for joy!"

¹⁰For your servant David's sake, Don't turn away the face of your anointed one.

¹¹Yahweh has sworn to David in truth. He will not turn from it: "I will set the fruit of your body on your throne.

¹²If your children will keep my covenant, My testimony that I will teach them, Their children also will sit on your throne forevermore."

¹³For Yahweh has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation.

¹⁴"This is my resting place forever. Here I will live, for I have desired it.

¹⁵I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her poor with bread.

¹⁶Her priests I will also clothe with salvation. Her saints will shout aloud for joy.

¹⁷There I will make the horn of David to bud. I have ordained a lamp for my anointed.

¹⁸I will clothe his enemies with shame, But on himself, his crown will be resplendant." Psalm 133 A Song of Ascents. By David.

PSALM 133

¹See how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in unity!

²It is like the precious oil on the head, That ran down on the beard, Even Aaron's beard; That came down on the edge of his robes;

³Like the dew of Hermon, That comes down on the hills of Zion: For there Yahweh gives the blessing, Even life forevermore. Psalm 134 A Song of Ascents.

PSALM 134

¹Look! Praise Yahweh, all you servants of Yahweh, Who stand by night in Yahweh's house!

²Lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Praise Yahweh!

³May Yahweh bless you from Zion; Even he who made heaven and earth. Psalm 135

PSALM 135

¹Praise Yah! Praise the name of Yahweh! Praise him, you servants of Yahweh,

²You who stand in the house of Yahweh, In the courts of our God's house.

³Praise Yah, for Yahweh is good. Sing praises to his name, for that is pleasant.

⁴For Yah has chosen Jacob for himself; Israel for his own possession.

⁵For I know that Yahweh is great, That our Lord is above all gods.

⁶Whatever Yahweh pleased, that he has done, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps;

⁷Who causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth; Who makes lightnings with the rain; Who brings forth the wind out of his treasuries;

⁸Who struck the firstborn of Egypt, Both of man and animal;

⁹Who sent signs and wonders into the midst of you, Egypt, On Pharaoh, and on all his servants;

¹⁰Who struck many nations, And killed mighty kings,

¹¹Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan, All the kingdoms of Canaan,

¹²And gave their land for a heritage, A heritage to Israel, his people.

¹³Your name, Yahweh, endures forever; Your renown, Yahweh, throughout all generations.

¹⁴For Yahweh will judge his people, And have compassion on his servants.

¹⁵The idols of the nations are silver and gold, The work of men's hands.

¹⁶They have mouths, but they can't speak; They have eyes, but they can't see;

¹⁷They have ears, but they can't hear; Neither is there any breath in their mouths.

¹⁸Those who make them will be like them; Yes, everyone who trusts in them.

¹⁹House of Israel, praise Yahweh! House of Aaron, praise Yahweh!

²⁰House of Levi, praise Yahweh! You who fear Yahweh, praise Yahweh!

²¹Blessed be Yahweh from Zion, Who dwells at Jerusalem. Praise Yah! Psalm 136

PSALM 136

¹Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good; For his lovingkindness endures forever.

²Give thanks to the God of gods; For his lovingkindness endures forever.

³Give thanks to the Lord of lords; For his lovingkindness endures forever:

⁴To him who alone does great wonders; For his lovingkindness endures forever:

⁵To him who by understanding made the heavens; For his lovingkindness endures forever:

⁶To him who spread out the earth above the waters; For his lovingkindness endures forever:

⁷To him who made the great lights; For his lovingkindness endures forever:

⁸The sun to rule by day; For his lovingkindness endures forever;

⁹The moon and stars to rule by night; For his lovingkindness endures forever:

¹⁰To him who struck down the Egyptian firstborn; For his lovingkindness endures forever;

¹¹And brought out Israel from among them; For his lovingkindness endures forever;

¹²With a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm; For his lovingkindness endures forever:

¹³To him who divided the Red Sea apart; For his lovingkindness endures forever;

¹⁴Made Israel to pass through the midst of it; For his lovingkindness endures forever;

¹⁵But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea; For his lovingkindness endures forever:

¹⁶To him who led his people through the wilderness; For his lovingkindness endures forever:

¹⁷To him who struck great kings; For his lovingkindness endures forever;

¹⁸And killed mighty kings; For his lovingkindness endures forever:

¹⁹Sihon king of the Amorites; For his lovingkindness endures forever;

²⁰Og king of Bashan; For his lovingkindness endures forever;

²¹And gave their land as an inheritance; For his lovingkindness endures forever;

²²Even a heritage to Israel his servant; For his lovingkindness endures forever:

²³Who remembered us in our low estate; For his lovingkindness endures forever;

²⁴And has delivered us from our adversaries; For his lovingkindness endures forever:

²⁵Who gives food to every creature; For his lovingkindness endures forever.

²⁶Oh give thanks to the God of heaven; For his lovingkindness endures forever. Psalm 137

PSALM 137

¹By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

²On the willows in the midst of it, We hung up our harps.

³For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy: "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

⁴How can we sing Yahweh's song in a foreign land?

⁵If I forget you, Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget its skill.

⁶Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, If I don't remember you; If I don't prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy.

⁷Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom, The day of Jerusalem; Who said, "Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!"

⁸Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, He will be happy who rewards you, As you have served us.

⁹Happy shall he be, Who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock. Psalm 138 By David.

PSALM 138

¹I will give you thanks with my whole heart. Before the gods, I will sing praises to you.

²I will bow down toward your holy temple, And give thanks to your Name for your lovingkindness and for your truth; For you have exalted your Name and your Word above all.

³In the day that I called, you answered me. You encouraged me with strength in my soul.

⁴All the kings of the earth will give you thanks, Yahweh, For they have heard the words of your mouth.

⁵Yes, they will sing of the ways of Yahweh; For great is Yahweh's glory.

⁶For though Yahweh is high, yet he looks after the lowly; But the proud, he knows from afar.

⁷Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch forth your hand against the wrath of my enemies. Your right hand will save me.

⁸Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me; Your lovingkindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don't forsake the works of your own hands. Psalm 139 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 139

¹Yahweh, you have searched me, And you know me.

²You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar.

³You search out my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.

⁴For there is not a word on my tongue, But, behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether.

⁵You hem me in behind and before. You laid your hand on me.

⁶This knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty. I can't attain it.

⁷Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence?

⁸If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!

⁹If I take the wings of the dawn, And settle in the uttermost parts of the sea;

¹⁰Even there your hand will lead me, And your right hand will hold me.

¹¹If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me; The light around me will be night;"

¹²Even the darkness doesn't hide from you, But the night shines as the day. The darkness is like light to you.

¹³For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb.

¹⁴I will give thanks to you, For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.

¹⁵My frame wasn't hidden from you, When I was made in secret, Woven together in the depths of the earth.

¹⁶Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there were none of them.

¹⁷How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!

¹⁸If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.

¹⁹If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

²⁰For they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain.

²¹Yahweh, don't I hate those who hate you? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you?

²²I hate them with perfect hatred. They have become my enemies.

²³Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.

²⁴See if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way. Psalm 140 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

PSALM 140

¹Deliver me, Yahweh, from the evil man. Preserve me from the violent man;

²Those who devise mischief in their hearts. They continually gather themselves together for war.

³They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Viper's poison is under their lips. Selah.

⁴Yahweh, keep me from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from the violent men: Who have determined to trip my feet.

⁵The proud have hidden a snare for me, They have spread the cords of a net by the path. They have set traps for me. Selah.

⁶I said to Yahweh, "You are my God." Listen to the cry of my petitions, Yahweh.

⁷Yahweh, the Lord, the strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle.

⁸Yahweh, don't grant the desires of the wicked. Don't let their evil plans succeed, or they will become proud. Selah.

⁹As for the head of those who surround me, Let the mischief of their own lips cover them.

¹⁰Let burning coals fall on them. Let them be thrown into the fire, Into miry pits, from where they never rise.

¹¹An evil speaker won't be established in the earth. Evil will hunt the violent man to overthrow him.

¹²I know that Yahweh will maintain the cause of the afflicted, And justice for the needy.

¹³Surely the righteous will give thanks to your name. The upright will dwell in your presence. Psalm 141 A Psalm by David.

PSALM 141

¹Yahweh, I have called on you. Come to me quickly! Listen to my voice when I call to you.

²Let my prayer be set before you like incense; The lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.

³Set a watch, Yahweh, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips.

⁴Don't incline my heart to any evil thing, To practice deeds of wickedness with men who work iniquity. Don't let me eat of their delicacies.

⁵Let the righteous strike me, it is kindness; Let him reprove me, it is like oil on the head; Don't let my head refuse it; Yet my prayer is always against evil deeds.

⁶Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the rock. They will hear my words, for they are well spoken.

⁷"As when one plows and breaks up the earth, Our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol."

⁸For my eyes are on you, Yahweh, the Lord. In you, I take refuge. Don't leave my soul destitute.

⁹Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, From the traps of the workers of iniquity.

¹⁰Let the wicked fall together into their own nets, While I pass by. Psalm 142 A contemplation by David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.

PSALM 142

¹I cry with my voice to Yahweh. With my voice, I ask Yahweh for mercy.

²I pour out my complaint before him. I tell him my troubles.

³When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You knew my path. In the way in which I walk, They have hidden a snare for me.

⁴Look on my right, and see; For there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul.

⁵I cried to you, Yahweh. I said, "You are my refuge, My portion in the land of the living."

⁶Listen to my cry, For I am in desperate need. Deliver me from my persecutors, For they are stronger than me.

⁷Bring my soul out of prison, That I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, For you will be good to me. Psalm 143 A Psalm by David.

PSALM 143

¹Hear my prayer, Yahweh. Listen to my petitions. In your faithfulness and righteousness, relieve me.

²Don't enter into judgment with your servant, For in your sight no man living is righteous.

³For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long dead.

⁴Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate.

⁵I remember the days of old. I meditate on all your doings. I contemplate the work of your hands.

⁶I spread forth my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah.

⁷Hurry to answer me, Yahweh. My spirit fails. Don't hide your face from me, So that I don't become like those who go down into the pit.

⁸Cause me to hear your lovingkindness in the morning, For I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, For I lift up my soul to you.

⁹Deliver me, Yahweh, from my enemies. I flee to you to hide me.

¹⁰Teach me to do your will, For you are my God. Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness.

¹¹Revive me, Yahweh, for your name's sake. In your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble.

¹²In your lovingkindness, cut off my enemies, And destroy all those who afflict my soul, For I am your servant. Psalm 144 By David.

PSALM 144

¹Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, Who teaches my hands to war, And my fingers to battle:

²My lovingkindness, my fortress, My high tower, my deliverer, My shield, and he in whom I take refuge; Who subdues my people under me.

³Yahweh, what is man, that you care for him? Or the son of man, that you think of him?

⁴Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.

⁵Part your heavens, Yahweh, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.

⁶Throw out lightning, and scatter them. Send out your arrows, and rout them.

⁷Stretch out your hand from above, Rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, Out of the hands of foreigners;

⁸Whose mouths speak deceit, Whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

⁹I will sing a new song to you, God. On a ten-stringed lyre, I will sing praises to you.

¹⁰You are he who gives salvation to kings, Who rescues David, his servant, from the deadly sword.

¹¹Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hands of foreigners, Whose mouths speak deceit, Whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

¹²Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, Our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.

¹³Our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision. Our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields.

¹⁴Our oxen will pull heavy loads. There is no breaking in, and no going away, And no outcry in our streets.

¹⁵Happy are the people who are in such a situation. Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh. Psalm 145 A praise psalm by David.

PSALM 145

¹I will exalt you, my God, the King. I will praise your name forever and ever.

²Every day I will praise you. I will extol your name forever and ever.

³Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised! His greatness is unsearchable.

⁴One generation will commend your works to another, And will declare your mighty acts.

⁵Of the glorious majesty of your honor, Of your wondrous works, I will meditate.

⁶Men will speak of the might of your awesome acts. I will declare your greatness.

⁷They will utter the memory of your great goodness, And will sing of your righteousness.

⁸Yahweh is gracious, merciful, Slow to anger, and of great lovingkindness.

⁹Yahweh is good to all. His tender mercies are over all his works.

¹⁰All your works will give thanks to you, Yahweh. Your saints will extol you.

¹¹They will speak of the glory of your kingdom, And talk about your power;

¹²To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, The glory of the majesty of his kingdom.

¹³Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

¹⁴Yahweh upholds all who fall, And raises up all those who are bowed down.

¹⁵The eyes of all wait for you. You give them their food in due season.

¹⁶You open your hand, And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

¹⁷Yahweh is righteous in all his ways, And gracious in all his works.

¹⁸Yahweh is near to all those who call on him, To all who call on him in truth.

¹⁹He will fulfill the desire of those who fear him. He also will hear their cry, and will save them.

²⁰Yahweh preserves all those who love him, But all the wicked he will destroy.

²¹My mouth will speak the praise of Yahweh. Let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. Psalm 146

PSALM 146

¹Praise Yah! Praise Yahweh, my soul.

²While I live, I will praise Yahweh. I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist.

³Don't put your trust in princes, Each a son of man in whom there is no help.

⁴His spirit departs, and he returns to the earth. In that very day, his thoughts perish.

⁵Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in Yahweh, his God:

⁶Who made heaven and earth, The sea, and all that is in them; Who keeps truth forever;

⁷Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. Yahweh frees the prisoners.

⁸Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind. Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down. Yahweh loves the righteous.

⁹Yahweh preserves the sojourners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, But the way of the wicked he turns upside down.

¹⁰Yahweh will reign forever; Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise Yah! Psalm 147

PSALM 147

¹Praise Yah, For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant and fitting to praise him.

²Yahweh builds up Jerusalem. He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.

³He heals the broken in heart, And binds up their wounds.

⁴He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by their names.

⁵Great is our Lord, and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite.

⁶Yahweh upholds the humble. He brings the wicked down to the ground.

⁷Sing to Yahweh with thanksgiving. Sing praises on the harp to our God,

⁸Who covers the sky with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who makes grass grow on the mountains.

⁹He provides food for the cattle, And for the young ravens when they call.

¹⁰He doesn't delight in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.

¹¹Yahweh takes pleasure in those who fear him, In those who hope in his lovingkindness.

¹²Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem! Praise your God, Zion!

¹³For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. He has blessed your children within you.

¹⁴He makes peace in your borders. He fills you with the finest of the wheat.

¹⁵He sends out his commandment on earth. His word runs very swiftly.

¹⁶He gives snow like wool, And scatters frost like ashes.

¹⁷He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can stand before his cold?

¹⁸He sends out his word, and melts them. He causes his wind to blow, and the waters flow.

¹⁹He shows his word to Jacob; His statutes and his ordinances to Israel.

²⁰He has not done this for any nation; They don't know his ordinances. Praise Yah! Psalm 148

PSALM 148

¹Praise Yah! Praise Yahweh from the heavens! Praise him in the heights!

²Praise him, all his angels! Praise him, all his host!

³Praise him, sun and moon! Praise him, all you shining stars!

⁴Praise him, you heavens of heavens, You waters that are above the heavens.

⁵Let them praise the name of Yahweh, For he commanded, and they were created.

⁶He has also established them forever and ever. He has made a decree which will not pass away.

⁷Praise Yahweh from the earth, You great sea creatures, and all depths!

⁸Lightning and hail, snow and clouds; Stormy wind, fulfilling his word;

⁹Mountains and all hills; Fruit trees and all cedars;

¹⁰Wild animals and all cattle; Small creatures and flying birds;

¹¹Kings of the earth and all peoples; Princes and all judges of the earth;

¹²Both young men and maidens; Old men and children:

¹³Let them praise the name of Yahweh, For his name alone is exalted. His glory is above the earth and the heavens.

¹⁴He has lifted up the horn of his people, The praise of all his saints; Even of the children of Israel, a people near to him. Praise Yah! Psalm 149

PSALM 149

¹Praise Yahweh! Sing to Yahweh a new song, His praise in the assembly of the saints.

²Let Israel rejoice in him who made them. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

³Let them praise his name in the dance! Let them sing praises to him with tambourine and harp!

⁴For Yahweh takes pleasure in his people. He crowns the humble with salvation.

⁵Let the saints rejoice in honor. Let them sing for joy on their beds.

⁶May the high praises of God be in their mouths, And a two-edged sword in their hand;

⁷To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples;

⁸To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron;

⁹To execute on them the written judgment. All his saints have this honor. Praise Yah! Psalm 150

PSALM 150

¹Praise Yah! Praise God in his sanctuary! Praise him in his heavens for his acts of power!

²Praise him for his mighty acts! Praise him according to his excellent greatness!

³Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre!

⁴Praise him with tambourine and dancing! Praise him with stringed instruments and flute!

⁵Praise him with loud cymbals! Praise him with resounding cymbals!

⁶Let everything that has breath praise Yah! Praise Yah!

1The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel:

²To know wisdom and instruction; To discern the words of understanding;

³To receive instruction in wise dealing, In righteousness, justice, and equity;

⁴To give prudence to the simple, Knowledge and discretion to the young man:

⁵That the wise man may hear, and increase in learning; That the man of understanding may attain to sound counsel:

⁶To understand a proverb, and parables, The words and riddles of the wise.

⁷The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; But the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.

⁸My son, listen to your father's instruction, And don't forsake your mother's teaching:

⁹For they will be a garland to grace your head, And chains around your neck.

¹⁰My son, if sinners entice you, don't consent.

¹¹If they say, "Come with us, Let's lay in wait for blood; Let's lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;

¹²Let's swallow them up alive like Sheol, And whole, like those who go down into the pit.

¹³We'll find all valuable wealth. We'll fill our houses with spoil.

¹⁴You shall cast your lot among us. We'll all have one purse."

¹⁵My son, don't walk in the way with them. Keep your foot from their path,

¹⁶For their feet run to evil. They hurry to shed blood.

¹⁷For in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird:

¹⁸These lay wait for their own blood. They lurk secretly for their own lives.

¹⁹So are the ways of everyone who is greedy of gain. It takes away the life of its owners.

²⁰Wisdom calls aloud in the street. She utters her voice in the public squares.

²¹She calls at the head of noisy places. At the entrance of the city gates, she utters her words:

²²"How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, And fools hate knowledge?

²³Turn at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make known my words to you.

²⁴Because I have called, and you have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no one has paid attention;

²⁵But you have ignored all my counsel, And wanted none of my reproof;

²⁶I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you;

²⁷When calamity overtakes you like a storm, When your disaster comes on like a whirlwind; When distress and anguish come on you.

²⁸Then will they call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;

²⁹Because they hated knowledge, And didn't choose the fear of Yahweh.

³⁰They wanted none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof.

³¹Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way, And be filled with their own schemes.

³²For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them.

³³But whoever listens to me will dwell securely, And will be at ease, without fear of harm."

2My son, if you will receive my words, And store up my commandments within you;

²So as to turn your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding;

³Yes, if you call out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding;

⁴If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures:

⁵Then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, And find the knowledge of God.

⁶For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

⁷He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity;

⁸That he may guard the paths of justice, And preserve the way of his saints.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path.

¹⁰For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

¹²To deliver you from the way of evil, From the men who speak perverse things;

¹³Who forsake the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness;

¹⁴Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the perverseness of evil;

¹⁵Who are crooked in their ways, And wayward in their paths:

¹⁶To deliver you from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;

¹⁷Who forsakes the friend of her youth, And forgets the covenant of her God:

¹⁸For her house leads down to death, Her paths to the dead.

¹⁹None who go to her return again, Neither do they attain to the paths of life:

²⁰That you may walk in the way of good men, And keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

²²But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.

3My son, don't forget my teaching; But let your heart keep my commandments:

²For length of days, and years of life, And peace, will they add to you.

³Don't let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴So you will find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

⁵Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, And don't lean on your own understanding.

⁶In all your ways acknowledge him, And he will direct your paths.

⁷Don't be wise in your own eyes. Fear Yahweh, and depart from evil.

⁸It will be health to your body, And nourishment to your bones.

⁹Honor Yahweh with your substance, With the first fruits of all your increase:

¹⁰So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine.

¹¹My son, don't despise Yahweh's discipline, Neither be weary of his reproof:

¹²For whom Yahweh loves, he reproves; Even as a father the son in whom he delights.

¹³Happy is the man who finds wisdom, The man who gets understanding.

¹⁴For the gaining of it is better than the gaining of silver, The profit of it better than fine gold.

¹⁵She is more precious than rubies. None of the things you can desire are to be compared to her.

¹⁶Length of days is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor.

¹⁷Her ways are ways of pleasantness. All her paths are peace.

¹⁸She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her. Happy is everyone who retains her.

¹⁹By wisdom Yahweh founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens.

²⁰By his knowledge, the depths were broken up, And the skies drop down the dew.

²¹My son, let them not depart from your eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion:

²²So they will be life to your soul, And grace for your neck.

²³Then you shall walk in your way securely. Your foot won't stumble.

²⁴When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes, you will lie down, and your sleep will be sweet.

²⁵Don't be afraid of sudden fear, Neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it comes:

²⁶For Yahweh will be your confidence, And will keep your foot from being taken.

²⁷Don't withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in the power of your hand to do it.

²⁸Don't say to your neighbor, "Go, and come again, Tomorrow I will give," When you have it by you.

²⁹Don't devise evil against your neighbor, Seeing he dwells securely by you.

³⁰Don't strive with a man without cause, If he has done you no harm.

³¹Don't envy the man of violence. Choose none of his ways.

³²For the perverse is an abomination to Yahweh, But his friendship is with the upright.

³³The curse of Yahweh is in the house of the wicked, But he blesses the habitation of the righteous.

³⁴Surely he mocks the mockers, But he gives grace to the humble.

³⁵The wise will inherit glory, But shame will be the promotion of fools.

4Listen, sons, to a father's instruction. Pay attention and know understanding;

²For I give you sound learning. Don't forsake my law.

³For I was a son to my father, Tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.

⁴He taught me, and said to me: "Let your heart retain my words. Keep my commandments, and live.

⁵Get wisdom. Get understanding. Don't forget, neither swerve from the words of my mouth.

⁶Don't forsake her, and she will preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you.

⁷Wisdom is supreme. Get wisdom. Yes, though it costs all your possessions, get understanding.

⁸Esteem her, and she will exalt you. She will bring you to honor, when you embrace her.

⁹She will give to your head a garland of grace. A crown of splendor will she deliver to you."

¹⁰Listen, my son, and receive my sayings. The years of your life will be many.

¹¹I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in paths of uprightness.

¹²When you go, your steps will not be hampered. When you run, you will not stumble.

¹³Take firm hold of instruction. Don't let her go. Keep her, for she is your life.

¹⁴Don't enter into the path of the wicked. Don't walk in the way of evil men.

¹⁵Avoid it, and don't pass by it. Turn from it, and pass on.

¹⁶For they don't sleep, unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.

¹⁷For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.

¹⁸But the path of the righteous is like the dawning light, That shines more and more until the perfect day.

¹⁹The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don't know what they stumble over.

²⁰My son, attend to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings.

²¹Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart.

²²For they are life to those who find them, And health to their whole body.

²³Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it is the wellspring of life.

²⁴Put away from yourself a perverse mouth. Put corrupt lips far from you.

²⁵Let your eyes look straight ahead. Fix your gaze directly before you.

²⁶Make the path of your feet level. Let all of your ways be established.

²⁷Don't turn to the right hand nor to the left. Remove your foot from evil.

5My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding:

²That you may maintain discretion, That your lips may preserve knowledge.

³For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,

⁴But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, And as sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.

⁶She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn't know it.

⁷Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don't depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸Remove your way far from her. Don't come near the door of her house,

⁹Lest you give your honor to others, And your years to the cruel one;

¹⁰Lest strangers feast on your wealth, And your labors enrich another man's house.

¹¹You will groan at your latter end, When your flesh and your body are consumed,

¹²And say, "How I have hated instruction, And my heart despised reproof;

¹³Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, Nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!

¹⁴I have come to the brink of utter ruin, In the midst of the gathered assembly."

¹⁵Drink water out of your own cistern, Running water out of your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs overflow in the streets, Streams of water in the public squares?

¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone, Not for strangers with you.

¹⁸Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹A loving hind and a pleasant doe -- Let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.

²⁰For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?

²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of Yahweh. He examines all his paths.

²²The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.

²³He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.

6My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, If you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;

²You are trapped by the words of your mouth. You are ensnared with the words of your mouth.

³Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, Seeing you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor.

⁴Give no sleep to your eyes, Nor slumber to your eyelids.

⁵Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, Like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;

⁷Which having no chief, Overseer, or ruler,

⁸Provides her bread in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest.

⁹How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep:

¹¹So your poverty will come as a robber, And your scarcity as an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a man of iniquity, Is he who walks with a perverse mouth;

¹³Who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, Who motions with his fingers;

¹⁴In whose heart is perverseness, Who devises evil continually, Who always sows discord.

¹⁵Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.

¹⁶There are six things which Yahweh hates; Yes, seven which are an abomination to him:

¹⁷Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood;

¹⁸A heart that devises wicked schemes, Feet that are swift in running to mischief,

¹⁹A false witness who utters lies, And he who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰My son, keep your father's commandment, And don't forsake your mother's teaching.

²¹Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp, And the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,

²⁴To keep you from the immoral woman, From the flattery of the wayward wife's tongue.

²⁵Don't lust after her beauty in your heart, Neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.

²⁶For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.

²⁷Can a man scoop fire into his lap, And his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.

³⁰Men don't despise a thief, If he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry:

³¹But if he be found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house.

³²He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.

³³He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won't spare in the day of vengeance.

³⁵He won't regard any ransom, Neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.

7My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.

²Keep my commandments and live; Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.

³Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative,

⁵That they may keep you from the strange woman, From the foreigner who flatters with her words.

⁶For at the window of my house, I looked forth through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

⁸Passing through the street near her corner, He went the way to her house,

⁹In the twilight, in the evening of the day, In the middle of the night and in the darkness.

¹⁰Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, And with crafty intent.

¹¹She is loud and defiant. Her feet don't stay in her house.

¹²Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, And lurking at every corner.

¹³So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:

¹⁴"Sacrifices of peace-offerings are with me. This day I have paid my vows.

¹⁵Therefore I came out to meet you, To diligently seek your face, And I have found you.

¹⁶I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, With striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let's take our fill of loving until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving.

¹⁹For my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon."

²¹With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.

²²He followed her immediately, As an ox goes to the slaughter, As a fool stepping into a noose.

²³Until an arrow strikes through his liver, As a bird hurries to the snare, And doesn't know that it will cost his life.

²⁴Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Don't let your heart turn to her ways. Don't go astray in her paths,

²⁶For she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty host.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, Going down to the chambers of death.

8Doesn't wisdom cry out? Doesn't understanding raise her voice?

²On the top of high places by the way, Where the paths meet, she stands.

³Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, At the entry doors, she cries aloud:

⁴"To you men, I call! I send my voice to the sons of mankind.

⁵You simple, understand prudence. You fools, be of an understanding heart.

⁶Hear, for I will speak excellent things. The opening of my lips is for right things.

⁷For my mouth speaks truth. Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

⁸All the words of my mouth are in righteousness. There is nothing crooked or perverse in them.

⁹They are all plain to him who understands, Right to those who find knowledge.

¹⁰Receive my instruction rather than silver; Knowledge rather than choice gold.

¹¹For wisdom is better than rubies. All the things that may be desired can't be compared to it.

¹²"I, wisdom, have made prudence my dwelling. Find out knowledge and discretion.

¹³The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil. I hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth.

¹⁴Counsel and sound knowledge are mine. I have understanding and power.

¹⁵By me kings reign, And princes decree justice.

¹⁶By me princes rule; Nobles, and all the righteous rulers of the earth.

¹⁷I love those who love me. Those who seek me diligently will find me.

¹⁸With me are riches, honor, Enduring wealth, and prosperity.

¹⁹My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold; My yield than choice silver.

²⁰I walk in the way of righteousness, In the midst of the paths of justice;

²¹That I may give wealth to those who love me. I fill their treasuries.

²²"Yahweh possessed me in the beginning of his work, Before his deeds of old.

²³I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, Before the earth existed.

²⁴When there were no depths, I was brought forth, When there were no springs abounding with water.

²⁵Before the mountains were settled in place, Before the hills, I was brought forth;

²⁶While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, Nor the beginning of the dust of the world.

²⁷When he established the heavens, I was there; When he set a circle on the surface of the deep,

²⁸When he established the clouds above, When the springs of the deep became strong,

²⁹When he gave to the sea its boundary, That the waters should not violate his commandment, When he marked out the foundations of the earth;

³⁰Then I was the craftsman by his side. I was a delight day by day, Always rejoicing before him,

³¹Rejoicing in his whole world. My delight was with the sons of men.

³²"Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, For blessed are those who keep my ways.

³³Hear instruction, and be wise, Don't refuse it.

³⁴Blessed is the man who hears me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my door posts.

³⁵For whoever finds me, finds life, And will obtain favor from Yahweh.

³⁶But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul. All those who hate me love death."

9Wisdom has built her house. She has carved out her seven pillars.

²She has prepared her meat. She has mixed her wine. She has also set her table.

³She has sent out her maidens. She cries from the highest places of the city:

⁴"Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!" As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,

⁵"Come, eat some of my bread, Drink some of the wine which I have mixed!

⁶Leave your simple ways, and live. Walk in the way of understanding."

⁷He who corrects a mocker invites insult. He who reproves a wicked man invites abuse.

⁸Don't reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you. Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.

⁹Instruct a wise man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

¹⁰The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

¹¹For by me your days will be multiplied. The years of your life will be increased.

¹²If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. If you mock, you alone will bear it.

¹³The foolish woman is loud, Undisciplined, and knows nothing.

¹⁴She sits at the door of her house, On a seat in the high places of the city,

¹⁵To call to those who pass by, Who go straight on their ways,

¹⁶"Whoever is simple, let him turn in here." As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,

¹⁷"Stolen water is sweet. Food eaten in secret is pleasant."

¹⁸But he doesn't know that the dead are there, That her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

10The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father; But a foolish son brings grief to his mother.

²Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, But righteousness delivers from death.

³Yahweh will not allow the soul of the righteous to go hungry, But he thrusts away the desire of the wicked.

⁴He becomes poor who works with a lazy hand, But the hand of the diligent brings wealth.

⁵He who gathers in summer is a wise son, But he who sleeps during the harvest is a son who causes shame.

⁶Blessings are on the head of the righteous, But violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

⁷The memory of the righteous is blessed, But the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸The wise in heart accept commandments, But a chattering fool will fall.

⁹He who walks blamelessly walks surely, But he who perverts his ways will be found out.

¹⁰One winking with the eye causes sorrow, But a chattering fool will fall.

¹¹The mouth of the righteous is a spring of life, But violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

¹²Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all wrongs.

¹³Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has discernment, But a rod is for the back of him who is void of understanding.

¹⁴Wise men lay up knowledge, But the mouth of the foolish is near ruin.

¹⁵The rich man's wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty.

¹⁶The labor of the righteous leads to life. The increase of the wicked leads to sin.

¹⁷He is in the way of life who heeds correction, But he who forsakes reproof leads others astray.

¹⁸He who hides hatred has lying lips. He who utters a slander is a fool.

¹⁹In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, But he who restrains his lips does wisely.

²⁰The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, But the foolish die for lack of understanding.

²²The blessing of Yahweh brings wealth, And he adds no trouble to it.

²³It is a fool's pleasure to do wickedness, But wisdom is a man of understanding's pleasure.

²⁴What the wicked fear, will overtake them, But the desire of the righteous will be granted.

²⁵When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more; But the righteous is an everlasting foundation.

²⁶As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, So is the sluggard to those who send him.

²⁷The fear of Yahweh prolongs days, But the years of the wicked shall be shortened.

²⁸The prospect of the righteous is joy, But the hope of the wicked will perish.

²⁹The way of Yahweh is a stronghold to the upright, But it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.

³⁰The righteous will never be removed, But the wicked will not dwell in the land.

³¹The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, But the perverse tongue will be cut off.

³²The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, But the mouth of the wicked is perverse.

11A false balance is an abomination to Yahweh, But accurate weights are his delight.

²When pride comes, then comes shame, But with humility comes wisdom.

³The integrity of the upright shall guide them, But the perverseness of the treacherous shall destroy them.

⁴Riches don't profit in the day of wrath, But righteousness delivers from death.

⁵The righteousness of the blameless will direct his way, But the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

⁶The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them, But the unfaithful will be trapped by evil desires.

⁷When a wicked man dies, hope perishes, And expectation of power comes to nothing.

⁸The righteous is delivered out of trouble, And the wicked takes his place.

⁹With his mouth the godless man destroys his neighbor, But the righteous will be delivered through knowledge.

¹⁰When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices. When the wicked perish, there is shouting.

¹¹By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted, But it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.

¹²One who despises his neighbor is void of wisdom, But a man of understanding holds his peace.

¹³One who brings gossip betrays a confidence, But one who is of a trustworthy spirit is one who keeps a secret.

¹⁴Where there is no wise guidance, the nation falls, But in the multitude of counselors there is victory.

¹⁵He who is collateral for a stranger will suffer for it, But he who refuses pledges of collateral is secure.

¹⁶A gracious woman obtains honor, But violent men obtain riches.

¹⁷The merciful man does good to his own soul, But he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.

¹⁸The wicked earns deceitful wages, But he who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.

¹⁹He who is truly righteous gets life. He who pursues evil gets death.

²⁰Those who are perverse in heart are an abomination to Yahweh, But those whose ways are blameless are his delight.

²¹Most assuredly, the evil man will not be unpunished, But the seed of the righteous will be delivered.

²²Like a gold ring in a pig's snout, Is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.

²³The desire of the righteous is only good. The expectation of the wicked is wrath.

²⁴There is one who scatters, and increases yet more. There is one who withholds more than is appropriate, but gains poverty.

²⁵The liberal soul shall be made fat. He who waters shall be watered also himself.

²⁶He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.

²⁷He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, But he who searches after evil, it shall come to him.

²⁸He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous shall flourish as the green leaf.

²⁹He who troubles his own house shall inherit the wind. The foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart.

³⁰The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. He who is wise wins souls.

³¹Behold, the righteous shall be repaid in the earth; How much more the wicked and the sinner!

12Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, But he who hates reproof is stupid.

²A good man shall obtain favor from Yahweh, But he will condemn a man of wicked devices.

³A man shall not be established by wickedness, But the root of the righteous shall not be moved.

⁴A worthy woman is the crown of her husband, But a disgraceful wife is as rottenness in his bones.

⁵The thoughts of the righteous are just. The advice of the wicked is deceitful.

⁶The words of the wicked are about lying in wait for blood, But the speech of the upright rescues them.

⁷The wicked are overthrown, and are no more, But the house of the righteous shall stand.

⁸A man shall be commended according to his wisdom, But he who has a warped mind shall be despised.

⁹Better is he who is lightly esteemed, and has a servant, Than he who honors himself, and lacks bread.

¹⁰A righteous man regards the life of his animal, But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

¹¹He who tills his land shall have plenty of bread, But he who chases fantasies is void of understanding.

¹²The wicked desires the plunder of evil men, But the root of the righteous flourishes.

¹³An evil man is trapped by sinfulness of lips, But the righteous shall come out of trouble.

¹⁴A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth. The doings of a man's hands shall be rewarded to him.

¹⁵The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But he who is wise listens to counsel.

¹⁶A fool shows his annoyance the same day, But one who overlooks an insult is prudent.

¹⁷He who is truthful testifies honestly, But a false witness lies.

¹⁸There is one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, But the tongue of the wise heals.

¹⁹Truth's lips will be established forever, But a lying tongue is only momentary.

²⁰Deceit is in the heart of those who plot evil, But joy comes to the promoters of peace.

²¹No mischief shall happen to the righteous, But the wicked shall be filled with evil.

²²Lying lips are an abomination to Yahweh, But those who do the truth are his delight.

²³A prudent man keeps his knowledge, But the hearts of fools proclaim foolishness.

²⁴The hands of the diligent ones shall rule, But laziness ends in slave labor.

²⁵Anxiety in a man's heart weighs it down, But a kind word makes it glad.

²⁶The righteous is cautious in friendship, But the way of the wicked leads them astray.

²⁷The slothful man doesn't roast his game, But the possessions of diligent men are prized.

²⁸In the way of righteousness is life; In its path there is no death.

13A wise son listens to his father's instruction, But a scoffer doesn't listen to rebuke.

²By the fruit of his lips, a man enjoys good things; But the unfaithful crave violence.

³He who guards his mouth guards his soul. One who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.

⁴The soul of the sluggard desires, and has nothing, But the desire of the diligent shall be fully satisfied.

⁵A righteous man hates lies, But a wicked man brings shame and disgrace.

⁶Righteousness guards the way of integrity, But wickedness overthrows the sinner.

⁷There are some who pretend to be rich, yet have nothing. There are some who pretend to be poor, yet have great wealth.

⁸The ransom of a man's life is his riches, But the poor hears no threats.

⁹The light of the righteous shines brightly, But the lamp of the wicked is snuffed out.

¹⁰By pride comes only quarrels, But with ones who take advice is wisdom.

¹¹Wealth gained dishonestly dwindles away, But he who gathers by hand makes it grow.

¹²Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when longing is fulfilled, it is a tree of life.

¹³Whoever despises instruction will pay for it, But he who respects a command will be rewarded.

¹⁴The teaching of the wise is a spring of life, To turn from the snares of death.

¹⁵Good understanding wins favor; But the way of the unfaithful is hard.

¹⁶Every prudent man acts from knowledge, But a fool exposes folly.

¹⁷A wicked messenger falls into trouble, But a trustworthy envoy gains healing.

¹⁸Poverty and shame come to him who refuses discipline, But he who heeds correction shall be honored.

¹⁹Longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul, But fools detest turning from evil.

²⁰One who walks with wise men grows wise, But a companion of fools suffers harm.

²¹Misfortune pursues sinners, But prosperity rewards the righteous.

²²A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, But the wealth of the sinner is stored for the righteous.

²³An abundance of food is in poor people's fields, But injustice sweeps it away.

²⁴One who spares the rod hates his son, But one who loves him is careful to discipline him.

²⁵The righteous one eats to the satisfying of his soul, But the belly of the wicked goes hungry.

14Every wise woman builds her house, But the foolish one tears it down with her own hands.

²He who walks in his uprightness fears Yahweh, But he who is perverse in his ways despises him.

³The fool's talk brings a rod to his back, But the lips of the wise protect them.

⁴Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, But much increase is by the strength of the ox.

⁵A truthful witness will not lie, But a false witness pours out lies.

⁶A scoffer seeks wisdom, and doesn't find it, But knowledge comes easily to a discerning person.

⁷Stay away from a foolish man, For you won't find knowledge on his lips.

⁸The wisdom of the prudent is to think about his way, But the folly of fools is deceit.

⁹Fools mock at making atonement for sins, But among the upright there is good will.

¹⁰The heart knows its own bitterness and joy; He will not share these with a stranger.

¹¹The house of the wicked will be overthrown, But the tent of the upright will flourish.

¹²There is a way which seems right to a man, But in the end it leads to death.

¹³Even in laughter the heart may be sorrowful, And mirth may end in heaviness.

¹⁴The unfaithful will be repaid for his own ways; Likewise a good man will be rewarded for his ways.

¹⁵The simple believes everything, But the prudent man carefully considers his ways.

¹⁶A wise man fears, and shuns evil, But the fool is hotheaded and reckless.

¹⁷He who is quick to become angry will commit folly, And a crafty man is hated.

¹⁸The simple inherit folly, But the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

¹⁹The evil bow down before the good, And the wicked, at the gates of the righteous.

²⁰The poor person is shunned even by his own neighbor, But the rich person has many friends.

²¹He who despises his neighbor sins, But blessed is he who has pity on the poor.

²²Don't they go astray who plot evil? But love and faithfulness belong to those who plan good.

²³In all hard work there is profit, But the talk of the lips leads only to poverty.

²⁴The crown of the wise is their riches, But the folly of fools crowns them with folly.

²⁵A truthful witness saves souls, But a false witness is deceitful.

²⁶In the fear of Yahweh is a secure fortress, And he will be a refuge for his children.

²⁷The fear of Yahweh is a fountain of life, Turning people from the snares of death.

²⁸In the multitude of people is the king's glory, But in the lack of people is the destruction of the prince.

²⁹He who is slow to anger has great understanding, But he who has a quick temper displays folly.

³⁰The life of the body is a heart at peace, But envy rots the bones.

³¹He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, But he who is kind to the needy honors him.

³²The wicked is brought down in his calamity, But in death, the righteous has a refuge.

³³Wisdom rests in the heart of one who has understanding, And is even made known in the inward part of fools.

³⁴Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.

³⁵The king's favor is toward a servant who deals wisely, But his wrath is toward one who causes shame.

15A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.

²The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, But the mouth of fools gush out folly.

³Yahweh's eyes are everywhere, Keeping watch on the evil and the good.

⁴A gentle tongue is a tree of life, But deceit in it crushes the spirit.

⁵A fool despises his father's correction, But he who heeds reproof shows prudence.

⁶In the house of the righteous is much treasure, But the income of the wicked brings trouble.

⁷The lips of the wise spread knowledge; Not so with the heart of fools.

⁸The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, But the prayer of the upright is his delight.

⁹The way of the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, But he loves him who follows after righteousness.

¹⁰There is stern discipline for one who forsakes the way: Whoever hates reproof shall die.

¹¹Sheol and Abaddon are before Yahweh -- How much more then the hearts of the children of men!

¹²A scoffer doesn't love to be reproved; He will not go to the wise.

¹³A glad heart makes a cheerful face; But an aching heart breaks the spirit.

¹⁴The heart of one who has understanding seeks knowledge, But the mouths of fools feed on folly.

¹⁵All the days of the afflicted are wretched, But one who has a cheerful heart enjoys a continual feast.

¹⁶Better is little, with the fear of Yahweh, Than great treasure with trouble.

¹⁷Better is a dinner of herbs, where love is, Than a fattened calf with hatred.

¹⁸A wrathful man stirs up contention, But one who is slow to anger appeases strife.

¹⁹The way of the sluggard is like a thorn patch, But the path of the upright is a highway.

²⁰A wise son makes a father glad, But a foolish man despises his mother.

²¹Folly is joy to one who is void of wisdom, But a man of understanding keeps his way straight.

²²Where there is no counsel, plans fail; But in a multitude of counselors they are established.

²³Joy comes to a man with the reply of his mouth. How good is a word at the right time!

²⁴The path of life leads upward for the wise, To keep him from going downward to Sheol.

²⁵Yahweh will uproot the house of the proud, But he will keep the widow's borders intact.

²⁶Yahweh detests the thoughts of the wicked, But the thoughts of the pure are pleasing.

²⁷He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, But he who hates bribes will live.

²⁸The heart of the righteous weighs answers, But the mouth of the wicked gushes out evil.

²⁹Yahweh is far from the wicked, But he hears the prayer of the righteous.

³⁰The light of the eyes rejoices the heart. Good news gives health to the bones.

³¹The ear that listens to the reproof lives, And will be at home among the wise.

³²He who refuses correction despises his own soul, But he who listens to reproof gets understanding.

³³The fear of Yahweh teaches wisdom. Before honor is humility.

16The plans of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from Yahweh.

²All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; But Yahweh weighs the motives.

³Commit your deeds to Yahweh, And your plans shall succeed.

⁴Yahweh has made everything for its own end -- Yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.

⁵Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh: They shall assuredly not be unpunished.

⁶By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for. By the fear of Yahweh men depart from evil.

⁷When a man's ways please Yahweh, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

⁸Better is a little with righteousness, Than great revenues with injustice.

⁹A man's heart plans his course, But Yahweh directs his steps.

¹⁰Inspired judgments are on the lips of the king. His shall not betray his mouth.

¹¹Honest balances and scales are Yahweh's; All the weights in the bag are his work.

¹²It is an abomination for kings to do wrong, For the throne is established by righteousness.

¹³Righteous lips are the delight of kings. They value one who speaks the truth.

¹⁴The king's wrath is a messenger of death, But a wise man will pacify it.

¹⁵In the light of the king's face is life. His favor is like a cloud of the spring rain.

¹⁶How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! Yes, to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

¹⁷The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He who keeps his way preserves his soul.

¹⁸Pride goes before destruction, A haughty spirit before a fall.

¹⁹It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, Than to divide the plunder with the proud.

²⁰He who gives heed to the word finds prosperity. Whoever trusts in Yahweh is blessed.

²¹The wise in heart shall be called prudent. Pleasantness of the lips promotes instruction.

²²Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it, But the punishment of fools is their folly.

²³The heart of the wise instructs his mouth, And adds learning to his lips.

²⁴Pleasant words are a honeycomb, Sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

²⁵There is a way which seems right to a man, But in the end it leads to death.

²⁶The appetite of the laboring man labors for him; For his mouth urges him on.

²⁷A worthless man devises mischief. His speech is like a scorching fire.

²⁸A perverse man stirs up strife. A whisperer separates close friends.

²⁹A man of violence entices his neighbor, And leads him in a way that is not good.

³⁰One who winks his eyes to plot perversities, One who compresses his lips, is bent on evil.

³¹Gray hair is a crown of glory. It is attained by a life of righteousness.

³²One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty; One who rules his spirit, than he who takes a city.

³³The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from Yahweh.

17Better is a dry morsel with quietness, Than a house full of feasting with strife.

²A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who causes shame, And shall have a part in the inheritance among the brothers.

³The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, But Yahweh tests the hearts.

⁴An evil-doer gives heed to wicked lips. A liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

⁵Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker. He who is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished.

⁶Children's children are the crown of old men; The glory of children are their parents.

⁷Arrogant speech isn't fitting for a fool, Much less do lying lips fit a prince.

⁸A bribe is a precious stone in the eyes of him who gives it; Wherever he turns, he prospers.

⁹He who covers an offense promotes love; But he who repeats a matter separates chief friends.

¹⁰A rebuke enters deeper into one who has understanding Than a hundred lashes into a fool.

¹¹An evil man seeks only rebellion; Therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.

¹²Let a bear robbed of her cubs meet a man, Rather than a fool in his folly.

¹³Whoever rewards evil for good, Evil shall not depart from his house.

¹⁴The beginning of strife is like breaching a dam, Therefore stop contention before quarreling breaks out.

¹⁵He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, Both of them alike are an abomination to Yahweh.

¹⁶Why is there money in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, Seeing he has no understanding?

¹⁷A friend loves at all times; And a brother is born for adversity.

¹⁸A man void of understanding strikes hands, And becomes collateral in the presence of his neighbor.

¹⁹He who loves disobedience loves strife. One who builds a high gate seeks destruction.

²⁰One who has a perverse heart doesn't find prosperity, And one who has a deceitful tongue falls into trouble.

²¹He who becomes the father of a fool grieves. The father of a fool has no joy.

²²A cheerful heart makes good medicine, But a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

²³A wicked man receives a bribe in secret, To pervert the ways of justice.

²⁴Wisdom is before the face of one who has understanding, But the eyes of a fool wander to the ends of the earth.

²⁵A foolish son brings grief to his father, And bitterness to her who bore him.

²⁶Also to punish the righteous is not good, Nor to flog officials for their integrity.

²⁷He who spares his words has knowledge. He who is even tempered is a man of understanding.

²⁸Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is counted wise. When he shuts his lips, he is thought to be discerning.

18An unfriendly man pursues selfishness, And defies all sound judgment.

²A fool has no delight in understanding, But only in broadcasting his own opinion.

³When wickedness comes, contempt also comes, And with shame comes disgrace.

⁴The words of a man's mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.

⁵To be partial to the faces of the wicked is not good, Nor to deprive the innocent of justice.

⁶A fool's lips come into strife, And his mouth invites beatings.

⁷A fool's mouth is his destruction, And his lips are a snare to his soul.

⁸The words of a gossip are like dainty morsels: They go down into a person's innermost parts.

⁹One who is slack in his work Is brother to him who is a master of destruction.

¹⁰The name of Yahweh is a strong tower: The righteous run to him, and are safe.

¹¹The rich man's wealth is his strong city, Like an unscalable wall in his own imagination.

¹²Before destruction the heart of man is proud, But before honor is humility.

¹³He who gives answer before he hears, That is folly and shame to him.

¹⁴A man's spirit will sustain him in sickness, But a crushed spirit who can bear?

¹⁵The heart of the discerning gets knowledge. The ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

¹⁶A man's gift makes room for him, And brings him before great men.

¹⁷He who pleads his cause first seems right; Until another comes and questions him.

¹⁸The lot settles disputes, And keeps strong ones apart.

¹⁹A brother offended is more difficult than a fortified city; And disputes are like the bars of a castle.

²⁰A man's stomach is filled with the fruit of his mouth. With the harvest of his lips he is satisfied.

²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue; Those who love it will eat its fruit.

²²Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor of Yahweh.

²³The poor pleads for mercy, But the rich answers harshly.

²⁴A man of many companions may be ruined, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

19Better is the poor who walks in his integrity Than he who is perverse in his lips and is a fool.

²It isn't good to have zeal without knowledge; Nor being hasty with one's feet and missing the way.

³The foolishness of man subverts his way; His heart rages against Yahweh.

⁴Wealth adds many friends, But the poor is separated from his friend.

⁵A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who pours out lies shall not go free.

⁶Many will entreat the favor of a ruler, And everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts.

⁷All the relatives of the poor shun him: How much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with pleas, but they are gone.

⁸He who gets wisdom loves his own soul. He who keeps understanding shall find good.

⁹A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who utters lies shall perish.

¹⁰Delicate living is not appropriate for a fool, Much less for a servant to have rule over princes.

¹¹The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger. It is his glory to overlook an offense.

¹²The king's wrath is like the roaring of a lion, But his favor is like dew on the grass.

¹³A foolish son is the calamity of his father. A wife's quarrels are a continual dripping.

¹⁴House and riches are an inheritance from fathers, But a prudent wife is from Yahweh.

¹⁵Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. The idle soul shall suffer hunger.

¹⁶He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul, But he who is contemptuous in his ways shall die.

¹⁷He who has pity on the poor lends to Yahweh; He will reward him.

¹⁸Discipline your son, for there is hope; Don't be a willing party to his death.

¹⁹A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty, For if you rescue him, you must do it again.

²⁰Listen to counsel and receive instruction, That you may be wise in your latter end.

²¹There are many plans in a man's heart, But Yahweh's counsel will prevail.

²²That which makes a man to be desired is his kindness. A poor man is better than a liar.

²³The fear of Yahweh leads to life, then contentment; He rests and will not be touched by trouble.

²⁴The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; He will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.

²⁵Flog a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; Rebuke one who has understanding, and he will gain knowledge.

²⁶He who robs his father and drives away his mother, Is a son who causes shame and brings reproach.

²⁷Stop, my son, listening to instruction, And you will stray from the words of knowledge.

²⁸A corrupt witness mocks justice, And the mouth of the wicked gulps down iniquity.

²⁹Penalties are prepared for scoffers, And beatings for the backs of fools.

20Wine is a mocker, and beer is a brawler; Whoever is let astray by them is not wise.

²The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion: He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.

³It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife; But every fool will be quarreling.

⁴The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter; Therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.

⁵Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; But a man of understanding will draw it out.

⁶Many men claim to be men of unfailing love, But who can find a faithful man?

⁷A righteous man who walks in his integrity, Blessed are his children after him.

⁸A king who sits on the throne of judgment Scatters away all evil with his eyes.

⁹Who can say, "I have made my heart pure. I am clean and without sin?"

¹⁰Differing weights and differing measures, Both of them alike are an abomination to Yahweh.

¹¹Even a child makes himself known by his doings, Whether his work is pure, and whether it is right.

¹²The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, Yahweh has made even both of them.

¹³Don't love sleep, lest you come to poverty; Open your eyes, and you shall be satisfied with bread.

¹⁴"It's no good, it's no good," says the buyer; But when he is gone his way, then he boasts.

¹⁵There is gold and abundance of rubies; But the lips of knowledge are a rare jewel.

¹⁶Take the garment of one who puts up collateral for a stranger; And hold him in pledge for a wayward woman.

¹⁷Fraudulent food is sweet to a man, But afterwards his mouth is filled with gravel.

¹⁸Plans are established by advice; By wise guidance you wage war!

¹⁹He who goes about as a tale-bearer reveals secrets; Therefore don't keep company with him who opens wide his lips.

²⁰Whoever curses his father or his mother, His lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness.

²¹An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning, Won't be blessed in the end.

²²Don't say, "I will pay back evil." Wait for Yahweh, and he will save you.

²³Yahweh detests differing weights, And dishonest scales are not pleasing.

²⁴A man's steps are from Yahweh; How then can man understand his way?

²⁵It is a snare to a man make a rash dedication, And later reconsider his vows.

²⁶A wise king winnows out the wicked, And drives the threshing wheel over them.

²⁷The spirit of man is Yahweh's lamp, Searching all his innermost parts.

²⁸Love and faithfulness keep the king safe. His throne is sustained by love.

²⁹The glory of young men is their strength. The splendor of old men is their gray hair.

³⁰Wounding blows cleanse away evil, And beatings purge the innermost parts.

21The king's heart is in Yahweh's hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.

²Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But Yahweh weighs the hearts.

³To do righteousness and justice Is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.

⁴A high look, and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked, is sin.

⁵The plans of the diligent surely lead to profit; And everyone who is hasty surely rushes to poverty.

⁶Getting treasures by a lying tongue Is a fleeting vapor for those who seek death.

⁷The violence of the wicked will drive them away, Because they refuse to do what is right.

⁸The way of the guilty is devious, But the conduct of the innocent is upright.

⁹It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, Than to share a house with a contentious woman.

¹⁰The soul of the wicked desires evil; His neighbor finds no mercy in his eyes.

¹¹When the mocker is punished, the simple gains wisdom; When the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.

¹²The Righteous One considers the house of the wicked, And brings the wicked to ruin.

¹³Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, He will also cry out, but shall not be heard.

¹⁴A gift in secret pacifies anger; And a bribe in the cloak, strong wrath.

¹⁵It is joy to the righteous to do justice; But it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.

¹⁶The man who wanders out of the way of understanding Shall rest in the assembly of the dead.

¹⁷He who loves pleasure shall be a poor man: He who loves wine and oil shall not be rich.

¹⁸The wicked is a ransom for the righteous; The treacherous for the upright.

¹⁹It is better to dwell in a desert land, Than with a contentious and fretful woman.

²⁰There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise; But a foolish man swallows it up.

²¹He who follows after righteousness and kindness Finds life, righteousness, and honor.

²²A wise man scales the city of the mighty, And brings down the strength of its confidence.

²³Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue Keeps his soul from troubles.

²⁴The proud and haughty man, "scoffer" is his name; He works in the arrogance of pride.

²⁵The desire of the sluggard kills him, For his hands refuse to labor.

²⁶There are those who covet greedily all the day long; But the righteous gives and doesn't withhold.

²⁷The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination: How much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!

²⁸A false witness will perish, And a man who listens speaks to eternity.

²⁹A wicked man hardens his face; But as for the upright, he establishes his ways.

³⁰There is no wisdom nor understanding Nor counsel against Yahweh.

³¹The horse is prepared for the day of battle; But victory is with Yahweh.

22A good name is more desirable than great riches; Loving favor rather than silver and gold.

²The rich and the poor have this in common: Yahweh is the maker of them all.

³A prudent man sees danger, and hides himself; But the simple pass on, and suffer for it.

⁴The result of humility and the fear of Yahweh Is wealth, honor, and life.

⁵Thorns and snares are in the path of the wicked: Whoever guards his soul stays from them.

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.

⁷The rich rules over the poor. The borrower is servant to the lender.

⁸He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, And the rod of his fury will be destroyed.

⁹He who has a generous eye will be blessed; For he shares his food with the poor.

¹⁰Drive out the mocker, and strife will go out; Yes, quarrels and insults will stop.

¹¹He who loves purity of heart and speaks gracefully Is the king's friend.

¹²The eyes of Yahweh watch over knowledge; But he frustrates the words of the unfaithful.

¹³The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside! I will be killed in the streets!"

¹⁴The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit: He who is under Yahweh's wrath will fall into it.

¹⁵Folly is bound up in the heart of a child: The rod of discipline drives it far from him.

¹⁶Whoever oppresses the poor for his own increase and whoever gives to the rich, Both come to poverty.

¹⁷Turn your ear, and listen to the words of the wise. Apply your heart to my teaching.

¹⁸For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you, If all of them are ready on your lips.

¹⁹That your trust may be in Yahweh, I teach you today, even you.

²⁰Haven't I written to you thirty excellent things Of counsel and knowledge,

²¹To teach you truth, reliable words, To give sound answers to the ones who sent you?

²²Don't exploit the poor, because he is poor; And don't crush the needy in court;

²³For Yahweh will plead their case, And plunder the life of those who plunder them.

²⁴Don't befriend a hot-tempered man, And don't associate with one who harbors anger:

²⁵Lest you learn his ways, And ensnare your soul.

²⁶Don't you be one of those who strike hands, Of those who are collateral for debts.

²⁷If you don't have means to pay, Why should he take away your bed from under you?

²⁸Don't move the ancient boundary stone, Which your fathers have set up.

²⁹Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve kings; He won't serve obscure men.

23When you sit to eat with a ruler, Consider diligently what is before you;

²Put a knife to your throat, If you are a man given to appetite.

³Don't be desirous of his dainties, Seeing they are deceitful food.

⁴Don't weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.

⁵Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.

⁶Don't eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, And don't crave his delicacies:

⁷For as he thinks about the cost, so he is. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, But his heart is not with you.

⁸The morsel which you have eaten you shall vomit up, And lose your good words.

⁹Don't speak in the ears of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Don't move the ancient boundary stone. Don't encroach on the fields of the fatherless:

¹¹For their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.

¹²Apply your heart to instruction, And your ears to the words of knowledge.

¹³Don't withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴Punish him with the rod, And save his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, Then my heart will be glad, even mine:

¹⁶Yes, my heart will rejoice, When your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷Don't let your heart envy sinners; But rather fear Yahweh all the day long.

¹⁸Indeed surely there is a future hope, And your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise, And keep your heart on the right path!

²⁰Don't be among ones drinking too much wine, Or those who gorge themselves on meat:

²¹For the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; And drowsiness clothes them in rags.

²²Listen to your father who gave you life, And don't despise your mother when she is old.

²³Buy the truth, and don't sell it: Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.

²⁴The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.

²⁵Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice!

²⁶My son, give me your heart; And let your eyes keep in my ways.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit; And a wayward wife is a narrow well.

²⁸Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, And increases the unfaithful among men.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

³⁰Those who stay long at the wine; Those who go to seek out mixed wine.

³¹Don't look at the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it goes down smoothly:

³²At the last it bites like a snake, And poisons like a viper.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, And your mind will imagine confusing things.

³⁴Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or as he who lies on top of the rigging:

³⁵"They hit me, and I was not hurt; They beat me, and I don't feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another."

24Don't you be envious against evil men; Neither desire to be with them:

²For their hearts plot violence, And their lips talk about mischief.

³Through wisdom a house is built; By understanding it is established;

⁴By knowledge the rooms are filled With all rare and beautiful treasure.

⁵A wise man has great power; And a knowledgeable man increases strength;

⁶For by wise guidance you wage your war; And victory is in many advisors.

⁷Wisdom is too high for a fool: He doesn't open his mouth in the gate.

⁸One who plots to do evil Will be called a schemer.

⁹The schemes of folly are sin. The mocker is detested by men.

¹⁰If you falter in the time of trouble, Your strength is small.

¹¹Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter!

¹²If you say, "Behold, we didn't know this;" Doesn't he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn't he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?

¹³My son, eat honey, for it is good; The droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste:

¹⁴So you shall know wisdom to be to your soul; If you have found it, then will there be a reward, Your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁵Don't lay in wait, wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous. Don't destroy his resting-place:

¹⁶For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises up again; But the wicked are overthrown by calamity.

¹⁷Don't rejoice when your enemy falls. Don't let your heart be glad when he is overthrown;

¹⁸Lest Yahweh see it, and it displease him, And he turn away his wrath from him.

¹⁹Don't fret yourself because of evildoers; Neither be envious of the wicked:

²⁰For there will be no reward to the evil man; And the lamp of the wicked shall be snuffed out.

²¹My son, fear Yahweh and the king. Don't join those who are rebellious:

²²For their calamity will rise suddenly; The destruction from them both -- who knows?

²³These also are sayings of the wise. To show partiality in judgment is not good.

²⁴He who says to the wicked, "You are righteous;" Peoples shall curse him, and nations shall abhor him --

²⁵But it will go well with those who convict the guilty, And a rich blessing will come on them.

²⁶An honest answer Is like a kiss on the lips.

²⁷Prepare your work outside. Make it ready for you in the field. Afterwards, build your house.

²⁸Don't be a witness against your neighbor without cause. Don't deceive with your lips.

²⁹Don't say, "I will do to him as he has done to me; I will render to the man according to his work."

³⁰I went by the field of the sluggard, By the vineyard of the man void of understanding;

³¹Behold, it was all grown over with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, And its stone wall was broken down.

³²Then I saw, and considered well. I saw, and received instruction:

³³A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep;

³⁴So shall your poverty come as a robber, And your want as an armed man.

25These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.

²It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

³As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, So the hearts of kings are unsearchable.

⁴Take away the dross from the silver, And material comes out for the refiner;

⁵Take away the wicked from the king's presence, And his throne will be established in righteousness.

⁶Don't exalt yourself in the presence of the king, Or claim a place among great men;

⁷For it is better that it be said to you, "Come up here," Than that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince, Whom your eyes have seen.

⁸Don't be hasty in bringing charges to court. What will you do in the end when your neighbor shames you?

⁹Debate your case with your neighbor, And don't betray the confidence of another;

¹⁰Lest one who hears it put you to shame, And your bad reputation never depart.

¹¹A word fitly spoken Is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

¹²As an ear-ring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, So is a wise reprover to an obedient ear.

¹³As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, So is a faithful messenger to those who send him; For he refreshes the soul of his masters.

¹⁴As clouds and wind without rain, So is he who boasts of gifts deceptively.

¹⁵By patience a ruler is persuaded. A soft tongue breaks the bone.

¹⁶Have you found honey? Eat as much as is sufficient for you, Lest you eat too much, and vomit it.

¹⁷Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor's house, Lest he be weary of you, and hate you.

¹⁸A man who gives false testimony against his neighbor Is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow.

¹⁹Confidence in someone unfaithful in time of trouble Is like a bad tooth, or a lame foot.

²⁰As one who takes away a garment in cold weather, Or vinegar on soda, So is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

²¹If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; If he is thirsty, give him water to drink:

²²For you will heap coals of fire on his head, And Yahweh will reward you.

²³The north wind brings forth rain: So a backbiting tongue brings an angry face.

²⁴It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, Than to share a house with a contentious woman.

²⁵Like cold waters to a thirsty soul, So is good news from a far country.

²⁶Like a muddied spring, and a polluted well, So is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.

²⁷It is not good to eat much honey; Nor is it honorable to seek ones own honor.

²⁸Like a city that is broken down and without walls Is a man whose spirit is without restraint.

26Like snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, So honor is not fitting for a fool.

²Like a fluttering sparrow, Like a darting swallow, So the undeserved curse doesn't come to rest.

³A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, And a rod for the back of fools!

⁴Don't answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him.

⁵Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.

⁶One who sends a message by the hand of a fool Is cutting off feet and drinking violence.

⁷Like the legs of the lame that hang loose: So is a parable in the mouth of fools.

⁸As one who binds a stone in a sling, So is he who gives honor to a fool.

⁹Like a thornbush that goes into the hand of a drunkard, So is a parable in the mouth of fools.

¹⁰As an archer who wounds all, So is he who hires a fool Or he who hires those who pass by.

¹¹As a dog that returns to his vomit, So is a fool who repeats his folly.

¹²Do you 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 road! A fierce lion roams the streets!"

¹⁴As the door turns on its hinges, So does the sluggard on his bed.

¹⁵The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. He is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.

¹⁶The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes Than seven men who answer with discretion.

¹⁷Like one who seizes a dog's ears Is one who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own.

¹⁸Like a madman who shoots firebrands, arrows, and death,

¹⁹Is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, "Am I not joking?"

²⁰For lack of wood the fire goes out; Where there is no gossip, a quarrel dies down.

²¹As coals are to hot embers, And wood to fire, So is a contentious man to kindle strife.

²²The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels, They go down into the innermost parts.

²³Like silver dross on an earthen vessel Are the lips of a fervent one with an evil heart.

²⁴A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, But he harbors evil in his heart.

²⁵When his speech is charming, don't believe him; For there are seven abominations in his heart:

²⁶His malice may be concealed by deception, But his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.

²⁷Whoever digs a pit shall fall into it. Whoever rolls a stone, it will come back on him.

²⁸A lying tongue hates those it hurts; And a flattering mouth works ruin.

27Don't boast about tomorrow; For you don't know what a day may bring forth.

²Let another man praise you, And not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips.

³A stone is heavy, And sand is a burden; But a fool's provocation is heavier than both.

⁴Wrath is cruel, And anger is overwhelming; But who is able to stand before jealousy?

⁵Better is open rebuke Than hidden love.

⁶Faithful are the wounds of a friend; Although the kisses of an enemy are profuse.

⁷A full soul loathes a honeycomb; But to a hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet.

⁸As a bird that wanders from her nest, So is a man who wanders from his home.

⁹Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart; So does earnest counsel from a man's friend.

¹⁰Don't forsake your friend and your father's friend. Don't go to your brother's house in the day of your disaster: Better is a neighbor who is near than a distant brother.

¹¹Be wise, my son, And bring joy to my heart, Then I can answer my tormentor.

¹²A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge; But the simple pass on, and suffer for it:

¹³Take his garment when he puts up collateral for a stranger; Hold it for a wayward woman!

¹⁴He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning, It will be taken as a curse by him.

¹⁵A continual dropping on a rainy day And a contentious wife are alike:

¹⁶Restraining her is like restraining the wind, Or like grasping oil in his right hand.

¹⁷Iron sharpens iron; So a man sharpens his friend's countenance.

¹⁸Whoever tends the fig tree shall eat its fruit. He who looks after his master shall be honored.

¹⁹As water reflects a face, So a man's heart reflects the man.

²⁰Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; And a man's eyes are never satisfied.

²¹The crucible is for silver, And the furnace for gold; But man is refined by his praise.

²²Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, Yet his foolishness will not be removed from him.

²³Know well the state of your flocks, And pay attention to your herds:

²⁴For riches are not forever, Nor does even the crown endure to all generations.

²⁵The hay is removed, and the new growth appears, The grasses of the hills are gathered in.

²⁶The lambs are for your clothing, And the goats are the price of a field.

²⁷There will be plenty of goats' milk for your food, For your family's food, And for the nourishment of your servant girls.

28The wicked flee when no one pursues; But the righteous are as bold as a lion.

²In rebellion, a land has many rulers, But order is maintained by a man of understanding and knowledge.

³A needy man who oppresses the poor Is like a driving rain which leaves no crops.

⁴Those who forsake the law praise the wicked; But those who keep the law contend with them.

⁵Evil men don't understand justice; But those who seek Yahweh understand it fully.

⁶Better is the poor who walks in his integrity, Than he who is perverse in his ways, and he is rich.

⁷Whoever keeps the law is a wise son; But he who is a companion of gluttons shames his father.

⁸He who increases his wealth by excessive interest Gathers it for one who has pity on the poor.

⁹He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.

¹⁰Whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way, He will fall into his own trap; But the blameless will inherit good.

¹¹The rich man is wise in his own eyes; But the poor who has understanding sees through him.

¹²When the righteous triumph, there is great glory; But when the wicked rise, men hide themselves.

¹³He who conceals his sins doesn't prosper, But whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

¹⁴Blessed is the man who always fears; But one who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

¹⁵As a roaring lion or a charging bear, So is a wicked ruler over helpless people.

¹⁶The ruler who lacks judgment is a great tyrant. One who hates ill-gotten gain will have long days.

¹⁷A man who is tormented by life blood will be a fugitive until death; No one will support him.

¹⁸Whoever walks blamelessly is kept safe; But one with perverse ways will fall suddenly.

¹⁹One who works his land will have an abundance of food; But one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.

²⁰A faithful man is rich with blessings; But one who is eager to be rich will not go unpunished.

²¹To show partiality is not good; Yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread.

²²A stingy man hurries after riches, And doesn't know that poverty waits for him.

²³One who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor Than one who flatters with the tongue.

²⁴Whoever robs his father or his mother, and says, "It's not wrong." He is a partner with a destroyer.

²⁵One who is greedy stirs up strife; But one who trusts in Yahweh will prosper.

²⁶One who trusts in himself is a fool; But one who walks in wisdom, he is kept safe.

²⁷One who gives to the poor has no lack; But one who closes his eyes will have many curses.

²⁸When the wicked rise, men hide themselves; But when they perish, the righteous thrive.

29He who is often rebuked and stiffens his neck Will be destroyed suddenly, with no remedy.

²When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; But when the wicked rule, the people groan.

³Whoever loves wisdom brings joy to his father; But a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.

⁴The king by justice makes the land stable, But he who takes bribes tears it down.

⁵A man who flatters his neighbor, Spreads a net for his feet.

⁶An evil man is snared by his sin, But the righteous can sing and be glad.

⁷The righteous care about justice for the poor. The wicked aren't concerned about knowledge.

⁸Mockers stir up a city, But wise men turn away anger.

⁹If a wise man goes to court with a foolish man, The fool rages or scoffs, and there is no peace.

¹⁰The bloodthirsty hate a man of integrity; And they seek the life of the upright.

¹¹A fool vents all of his anger, But a wise man brings himself under control.

¹²If a ruler listens to lies, All of his officials are wicked.

¹³The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: Yahweh gives sight to the eyes of both.

¹⁴The king who fairly judges the poor, His throne shall be established forever.

¹⁵The rod of correction gives wisdom, But a child left to himself causes shame to his mother.

¹⁶When the wicked increase, sin increases; But the righteous will see their downfall.

¹⁷Correct your son, and he will give you peace; Yes, he will bring delight to your soul.

¹⁸Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But one who keeps the law is blessed.

¹⁹A servant can't be corrected by words. Though he understands, yet he will not respond.

²⁰Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

²¹He who pampers his servant from youth Will have him become a son in the end.

²²An angry man stirs up strife, And a wrathful man abounds in sin.

²³A man's pride brings him low, But one who is of a lowly spirit gains honor.

²⁴Whoever is an accomplice of a thief is an enemy of his own soul. He takes an oath, but dares not testify.

²⁵The fear of man proves to be a snare, But whoever puts his trust in Yahweh is kept safe.

²⁶Many seek the ruler's favor, But a man's justice comes from Yahweh.

²⁷A dishonest man detests the righteous, And the upright in their ways detest the wicked.

30The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, the oracle: The man says to Ithiel, To Ithiel and Ucal:

²"Surely I am the most ignorant man, And don't have a man's understanding.

³I have not learned wisdom, Neither do I have the knowledge of the Holy One.

⁴Who has ascended up into heaven, and descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name, if you know?

⁵"Every word of God is flawless. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

⁶Don't you add to his words, Lest he reprove you, and you be found a liar.

⁷"Two things I have asked of you; Don't deny me before I die:

⁸Remove far from me falsehood and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me;

⁹Lest I be full, deny you, and say, 'Who is Yahweh?' Or lest I be poor, and steal, And so dishonor the name of my God.

¹⁰"Don't slander a servant to his master, Lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.

¹¹There is a generation that curses their father, And doesn't bless their mother.

¹²There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes, Yet are not washed from their filthiness.

¹³There is a generation, oh how lofty are their eyes! Their eyelids are lifted up.

¹⁴There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, And their jaws like knives, To devour the poor from the earth, and the needy from among men.

¹⁵"The leach has two daughters: 'Give, give.' "There are three things that are never satisfied; Four that don't say, 'Enough:'

¹⁶Sheol, the barren womb; The earth that is not satisfied with water; The fire that doesn't say, 'Enough;'

¹⁷And the eye that mocks at his father, And scorns obedience to his mother: The ravens of the valley shall pick it out, The young eagles shall eat it.

¹⁸"There are three things which are too amazing for me, Four which I don't understand:

¹⁹The way of an eagle in the air; The way of a serpent on a rock; The way of a ship in the midst of the sea; And the way of a man with a maiden.

²⁰So is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth, And says, 'I have done nothing wrong.'

²¹"For three things the earth tremble, And under four, it can't bear up:

²²For a servant when he is king; A fool when he is filled with food;

²³For an unloved woman when she is married; And a handmaid who is heir to her mistress.

²⁴"There are four things which are little on the earth, But they are exceeding wise:

²⁵The ants are not a strong people, Yet they provide their food in the summer;

²⁶The conies are but a feeble folk, Yet make they their houses in the rocks;

²⁷The locusts have no king, Yet they advance in ranks;

²⁸You can catch a lizard with your hands, Yet she is in kings' palaces.

²⁹"There are three things which are stately in their march, Four which are stately in going:

³⁰The lion, which is mightiest among animals, And doesn't turn away for any;

³¹The greyhound, the male goat also; And the king against whom there is no rising up.

³²"If you have done foolishly in lifting up yourself, Or if you have thought evil, Put your hand over your mouth.

³³For as the churning of milk brings forth butter, And the wringing of the nose brings forth blood; So the forcing of wrath brings forth strife."

31The words of king Lemuel; the oracle which his mother taught him.

²"Oh, my son!" Oh, son of my womb! Oh, son of my vows!

³Don't give your strength to women, Nor your ways to that which destroys kings.

⁴It is not for kings, Lemuel; it is not for kings to drink wine; Nor for princes to say, 'Where is strong drink?'

⁵Lest they drink, and forget the law, And pervert the justice due to anyone who is afflicted.

⁶Give strong drink to him who is ready to perish; And wine to the bitter in soul:

⁷Let him drink, and forget his poverty, And remember his misery no more.

⁸Open your mouth for the mute, In the cause of all who are left desolate.

⁹Open your mouth, judge righteously, And serve justice to the poor and needy."

¹⁰Who can find a worthy woman? For her price is far above rubies.

¹¹The heart of her husband trusts in her. He shall have no lack of gain.

¹²She does him good, and not harm, All the days of her life.

¹³She seeks wool and flax, And works eagerly with her hands.

¹⁴She is like the merchant ships. She brings her bread from afar.

¹⁵She rises also while it is yet night, Gives food to her household, And their task to her servant girls.

¹⁶She considers a field, and buys it. With the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard.

¹⁷She girds her loins with strength, And makes her arms strong.

¹⁸She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp doesn't go out by night.

¹⁹She lays her hands to the distaff, And her hands hold the spindle.

²⁰She stretches out her hand to the poor; Yes, she reaches forth her hands to the needy.

²¹She is not afraid of the snow for her household; For all her household are clothed with scarlet.

²²She makes for herself carpets of tapestry. Her clothing is fine linen and purple.

²³Her husband is respected in the gates, When he sits among the elders of the land.

²⁴She makes linen garments and sells them, And delivers sashes to the merchant.

²⁵Strength and dignity are her clothing. She laughs at the time to come.

²⁶She opens her mouth with wisdom. The law of kindness is on her tongue.

²⁷She looks well to the ways of her household, And doesn't eat the bread of idleness.

²⁸Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also praises her:

²⁹"Many women do noble things, But you excel them all."

³⁰Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain; But a woman who fears Yahweh, she shall be praised.

³¹Give her of the fruit of her hands; Let her works praise her in the gates.

1The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

²Hear, heavens, And listen, earth; for Yahweh has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against me.

³The ox knows his owner, And the donkey his master's crib; But Israel doesn't know, My people don't consider.

⁴Ah sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A seed of evil-doers, Children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.

⁵Why should you be beaten more, That you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, And the whole heart faint.

⁶From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: Wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven't been closed, neither bandaged, neither soothed with oil.

⁷Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, And it is desolate, As overthrown by strangers.

⁸The daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, As a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, As a besieged city.

⁹Unless Yahweh of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, We would have been as Sodom; We would have been like Gomorrah.

¹⁰Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom. Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.

¹¹What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?, says Yahweh. I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, And the fat of fed animals. I don't delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs, Or of male goats.

¹²When you come to appear before me, Who has required this at your hand, to trample my courts?

¹³Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me; New moons, Sabbaths, and convocations: I can't bear with evil assemblies.

¹⁴My soul hates your New Moons and your appointed feasts; they are a trouble to me; I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁵When you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

¹⁶Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil;

¹⁷learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

¹⁸Come now, and let us reason together, says Yahweh: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

¹⁹If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land:

²⁰but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.

²¹How is the faithful city become a prostitute! she who was full of justice! righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

²²Your silver is become dross, your wine mixed with water.

²³Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards: they don't judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

²⁴Therefore says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of my enemies;

²⁵and I will turn my hand on you, and thoroughly purge away your dross, and will take away all your tin;

²⁶and I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning: afterward you shall be called The city of righteousness, a faithful town.

²⁷Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness.

²⁸But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake Yahweh shall be consumed.

²⁹For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.

³⁰For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.

³¹The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them.

2The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

²It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of Yahweh's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it.

³Many peoples shall go and say, Come you, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.

⁴He will judge between the nations, and will decide concerning many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

⁵House of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of Yahweh.

⁶For you have forsaken your people the house of Jacob, because they are filled [with customs] from the east, and [are] soothsayers like the Philistines, and they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.

⁷Their land is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.

⁸Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.

⁹Man is bowed down, and mankind is humbled; therefore don't forgive them.

¹⁰Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty.

¹¹The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Yahweh alone shall be exalted in that day.

¹²For there shall be a day of Yahweh of Hosts on all that is proud and haughty, and on all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low;

¹³and on all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and on all the oaks of Bashan,

¹⁴and on all the high mountains, and on all the hills that are lifted up,

¹⁵and on every lofty tower, and on every fortified wall,

¹⁶and on all the ships of Tarshish, and on all pleasant imagery.

¹⁷The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and Yahweh alone shall be exalted in that day.

¹⁸The idols shall utterly pass away.

¹⁹Men shall go into the caves of the rocks, and into the holes of the earth, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake mightily the earth.

²⁰In that day men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for them to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

²¹to go into the caverns of the rocks, and into the clefts of the ragged rocks, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of his majesty, when he arises to shake mightily the earth.

²²Cease you from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?

3For, behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, does take away from Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water;

²the mighty man, and the man of war; the judge, and the prophet, and the diviner, and the elder;

³the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the expert artificer, and the skillful enchanter.

⁴I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

⁵The people shall be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable.

⁶When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, [saying], You have clothing, be you our ruler, and let this ruin be under your hand;

⁷in that day shall he lift up [his voice], saying, I will not be a healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: you shall not make me ruler of the people.

⁸For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Yahweh, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

⁹The show of their face testifies against them. They declare their sin as Sodom. They don't hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have done evil to themselves.

¹⁰Say you of the righteous, that [it shall be] well [with him]; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

¹¹Woe to the wicked! [it shall be] ill [with him]; for what his hands have done shall be done to him.

¹²As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.

¹³Yahweh stands up to contend, and stands to judge the peoples.

¹⁴Yahweh will enter into judgment with the elders of his people, and the princes of it: It is you who have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses:

¹⁵what do you mean that you crush my people, and grind the face of the poor? says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts.

¹⁶Moreover Yahweh said, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet;

¹⁷therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Yahweh will lay bare their secret parts.

¹⁸In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, and the headbands, and the crescents;

¹⁹the pendants, and the bracelets, and the mufflers;

²⁰the headdresses, and the ankle chains, and the sashes, and the perfume-boxes, and the amulets;

²¹the rings, and the nose-jewels;

²²the festival robes, and the mantles, and the shawls, and the satchels;

²³the hand-mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the veils.

²⁴It shall happen that instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth; branding instead of beauty.

²⁵Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty in the war.

²⁶Her gates shall lament and mourn; and she shall be desolate and sit on the ground.

4Seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing: only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.

²In that day shall the branch of Yahweh be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be excellent and comely for those who are escaped of Israel.

³It shall happen, that he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem;

⁴when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst of it, by the spirit of justice, and by the spirit of burning.

⁵Yahweh will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory [shall be spread] a covering.

⁶There shall be a pavilion for a shade in the day-time from the heat, and for a refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain.

5Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

²and he dug it, and gathered out the stones of it, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

³Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard.

⁴What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? why, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

⁵Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge of it, and it shall be eaten up; I will break down the wall of it, and it shall be trodden down:

⁶and I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor hoed; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.

⁷For the vineyard of Yahweh of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry.

⁸Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there be no room, and you be made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!

⁹In my ears [says] Yahweh of Hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and beautiful, without inhabitant.

¹⁰For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield [but] an ephah.

¹¹Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; who stay late into the night, until wine inflame them!

¹²The harp and the lute, the tambourine and the pipe, and wine, are [in] their feasts; but they don't regard the work of Yahweh, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.

¹³Therefore my people are gone into captivity for lack of knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude are parched with thirst.

¹⁴Therefore Sheol has enlarged its desire, and opened its mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he who rejoices among them, descend [into it].

¹⁵The mean man is bowed down, and the great man is humbled, and the eyes of the lofty are humbled:

¹⁶but Yahweh of Hosts is exalted in justice, and God the Holy One is sanctified in righteousness.

¹⁷Then shall the lambs feed as in their pasture, and the waste places of the fat ones shall wanderers eat.

¹⁸Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and sin as it were with a cart rope;

¹⁹who say, Let him make speed, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!

²⁰Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

²¹Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

²²Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink;

²³who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

²⁴Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

²⁵Therefore is the anger of Yahweh kindled against his people, and he has stretched forth his hand against them, and has struck them; and the mountains tremble, and their dead bodies are as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

²⁶He will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss for them from the end of the earth; and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly.

²⁷None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the belt of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

²⁸whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses' hoofs shall be accounted as flint, and their wheels as a whirlwind:

²⁹their roaring shall be like a lioness, they shall roar like young lions; yes, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and carry it away safe, and there shall be none to deliver.

³⁰They shall roar against them in that day like the roaring of the sea: and if one look to the land, behold, darkness [and] distress; and the light is darkened in the clouds of it.

6In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.

²Above him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly.

³One cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

⁴The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Hosts.

⁶Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:

⁷and he touched my mouth with it, and said, Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.

⁸I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I; send me.

⁹He said, Go, and tell this people, Hear you indeed, but don't understand; and see you indeed, but don't perceive.

¹⁰Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.

¹¹Then said I, Lord, how long? He answered, Until cities be waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste,

¹²and Yahweh have removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land.

¹³If there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall in turn be eaten up: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remains, when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock of it.

7It happened in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.

²It was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.

³Then said Yahweh to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field;

⁴and say to him, Take heed, and be quiet; don't be afraid, neither let your heart be faint, because of these two tails of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

⁵Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have purposed evil against you, saying,

⁶Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set up a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel;

⁷thus says the Lord Yahweh, It shall not stand, neither shall it happen.

⁸For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years shall Ephraim be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people:

⁹and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.

¹⁰Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying,

¹¹Ask you a sign of Yahweh your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

¹²But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt Yahweh.

¹³He said, "Listen now, house of David: Is it a small thing for you to weary men, that you will weary my God also?

¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

¹⁵Butter and honey shall he eat, when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

¹⁶For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken.

¹⁷Yahweh will bring on you, and on your people, and on your father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah [even] the king of Assyria.

¹⁸It shall happen in that day, that Yahweh will hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

¹⁹They shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all thorn-hedges, and on all pastures.

²⁰In that day will the Lord shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, [even] with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.

²¹It shall happen in that day, that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep;

²²and it shall happen, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall everyone eat that is left in the midst of the land.

²³It shall happen in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall be for briers and thorns.

²⁴With arrows and with bow shall one come there, because all the land shall be briers and thorns.

²⁵All the hills that were dug with the mattock, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep."

8Yahweh said to me, Take a great tablet, and write on it with the pen of a man, For Maher-shalal-hash-baz;

²and I will take to me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.

³I went to the prophetess; and she conceived, and bore a son. Then said Yahweh to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

⁴For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and, My mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria.

⁵Yahweh spoke to me yet again, saying,

⁶Because this people have refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;

⁷now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up on them the waters of the River, strong and many, [even] the king of Assyria and all his glory: and it shall come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks;

⁸and it shall sweep onward into Judah; it shall overflow and pass through; it shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of its wings shall fill the breadth of your land, Immanuel.

⁹Make an uproar, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces! And give ear, all you of far countries: gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces! Gird yourselves, and be broken in pieces!

¹⁰Take counsel together, and it shall be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.

¹¹For Yahweh spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

¹²Don't you say, "A conspiracy!" concerning all whereof this people shall say, "A conspiracy!" neither fear you their fear, nor be in dread [of it].

¹³Yahweh of hosts, him shall you sanctify; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

¹⁴He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁵Many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.

¹⁶Bind you up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

¹⁷I will wait for Yahweh, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.

¹⁸Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Yahweh of Hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.

¹⁹When they shall tell you, "Consult with those who have familiar spirits and with the wizards, who chirp and who mutter:" shouldn't a people consult with their God? on behalf of the living [should they consult] with the dead?

²⁰To the law and to the testimony! if they don't speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.

²¹They shall pass through it, sore distressed and hungry; and it shall happen that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse by their king and by their God, and turn their faces upward:

²²and they shall look to the earth, and see, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness [they shall be] driven away.

9But there shall be no gloom to her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali; but in the latter time has he made it glorious, by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

²The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light: those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them has the light shined.

³You have multiplied the nation, you have increased their joy: they joy before you according to the joy in harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

⁴For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.

⁵For all the armor of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall be for burning, for fuel of fire.

⁶For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Hosts will perform this.

⁸The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it has lighted on Israel.

⁹All the people shall know, [even] Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart,

¹⁰The bricks are fallen, but we will build with hewn stone; the sycamores are cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.

¹¹Therefore Yahweh will set up on high against him the adversaries of Rezin, and will stir up his enemies,

¹²the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

¹³Yet the people have not turned to him who struck them, neither have they sought Yahweh of Hosts.

¹⁴Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day.

¹⁵The elder and the honorable man, he is the head; and the prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail.

¹⁶For those who lead this people cause them to err; and those who are led of them are destroyed.

¹⁷Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is profane and an evil-doer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

¹⁸For wickedness burns as the fire; it devours the briers and thorns; yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.

¹⁹Through the wrath of Yahweh of hosts is the land burnt up; and the people are as the fuel of fire: no man spares his brother.

²⁰One shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:

²¹Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

10Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write perverseness;

²to turn aside the needy from justice, and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

³What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will you flee for help? and where will you leave your glory?

⁴They shall only bow down under the prisoners, and shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

⁵Ho Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!

⁶I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

⁷However he doesn't mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.

⁸For he says, Aren't my princes all of them kings?

⁹Isn't Calno as Carchemish? Isn't Hamath as Arpad? Isn't Samaria as Damascus?

¹⁰As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose engraved images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

¹¹shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

¹²Therefore it shall happen that, when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

¹³For he has said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding: and I have removed the bounds of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures, and like a valiant man I have brought down those who sit [on thrones]:

¹⁴and my hand has found as a nest the riches of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that are forsaken, have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or that opened the mouth, or chirped.

¹⁵Shall the ax boast itself against him who hews therewith? Shall the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? as if a rod should wield those who lift it up, [or] as if a staff should lift up [him who is] not wood.

¹⁶Therefore will the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory there shall be kindled a burning like the burning of fire.

¹⁷The light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.

¹⁸He will consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and it shall be as when a standard-bearer faints.

¹⁹The remnant of the trees of his forest shall be few, so that a child may write them.

²⁰It shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and those who are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again lean on him who struck them, but shall lean on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

²¹A remnant shall return, [even] the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

²²For though your people, Israel, be as the sand of the sea, [only] a remnant of them shall return: a destruction [is] determined, overflowing with righteousness.

²³For a full end, and that determined, will the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, make in the midst of all the earth.

²⁴Therefore thus says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, my people who dwell in Zion, don't be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt.

²⁵For yet a very little while, and the indignation [against you] shall be accomplished, and my anger [shall be directed] to his destruction.

²⁶Yahweh of Hosts will stir up against him a scourge, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and his rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up after the manner of Egypt.

²⁷It shall happen in that day, that his burden shall depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed by reason of fatness.

²⁸He is come to Aiath, he is passed through Migron; at Michmash he lays up his baggage;

²⁹they are gone over the pass; they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul is fled.

³⁰Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim! listen, Laishah! You poor Anathoth!

³¹Madmenah is a fugitive; the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.

³²This very day shall he halt at Nob: he shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

³³Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, will lop the boughs with terror: and the high of stature shall be hewn down, and the lofty shall be brought low.

³⁴He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

11There shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit.

²The Spirit of Yahweh shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.

³His delight shall be in the fear of Yahweh; and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after the hearing of his ears;

⁴but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he kill the wicked.

⁵Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

⁶The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.

⁷The cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

⁸The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

⁹They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁰It shall happen in that day, that the root of Jesse, who stands for an ensign of the peoples, to him shall the nations seek; and his resting-place shall be glorious.

¹¹It shall happen in that day, that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, who shall remain, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

¹²He will set up an ensign for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

¹³The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and those who vex Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

¹⁴They shall fly down on the shoulder of the Philistines on the west; together shall they despoil the children of the east: they shall put forth their hand on Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.

¹⁵Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind will he wave his hand over the River, and will strike it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.

¹⁶There shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, who shall remain, from Assyria; like as there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

12In that day you will say, "I will give thanks to you, Yahweh; for though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you comfort me.

²Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will not be afraid; for Yah, Yahweh, is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation."

³Therefore with joy you shall draw water out of the wells of salvation.

⁴In that day you will say, "Give thanks to Yahweh! Call on his name. Declare his doings among the peoples. Proclaim that his name is exalted!

⁵Sing to Yahweh, for he has done excellent things! Let this be known in all the earth!

⁶Cry aloud and shout, you inhabitant of Zion; for great in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel!"

13The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

²Set you up an ensign on the bare mountain, lift up the voice to them, wave the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

³I have commanded my consecrated ones, yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones.

⁴The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! the noise of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Yahweh of Hosts is mustering the host for the battle.

⁵They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

⁶Wail you; for the day of Yahweh is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

⁷Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt:

⁸and they shall be dismayed; pangs and sorrows shall take hold [of them]; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail: they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces [shall be] faces of flame.

⁹Behold, the day of Yahweh comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners of it out of it.

¹⁰For the stars of the sky and the constellations of it shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not cause its light to shine.

¹¹I will punish the world for [their] evil, and the wicked for their iniquity: and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

¹²I will make a man more rare than fine gold, even a man than the pure gold of Ophir.

¹³Therefore I will make the heavens to tremble, and the earth shall be shaken out of its place, in the wrath of Yahweh of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

¹⁴It shall happen, that as the chased roe, and as sheep that no man gathers, they shall turn every man to his own people, and shall flee every man to his own land.

¹⁵Everyone who is found shall be thrust through; and everyone who is taken shall fall by the sword.

¹⁶Their infants also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be rifled, and their wives ravished.

¹⁷Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

¹⁸[Their] bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

¹⁹Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

²⁰It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be lived in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.

²¹But wild animals of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.

²²Wolves shall cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

14For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the sojourner shall join himself with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

²The peoples shall take them, and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Yahweh for servants and for handmaids: and they shall take them captive whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

³It shall happen in the day that Yahweh shall give you rest from your sorrow, and from your trouble, and from the hard service in which you were made to serve,

⁴that you shall take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

⁵Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers;

⁶who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained.

⁷The whole earth is at rest, [and] is quiet: they break forth into singing.

⁸Yes, the fir-trees rejoice at you, [and] the cedars of Lebanon, [saying], Since you are laid low, no lumberjack is come up against us.

⁹Sheol from beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the dead for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

¹⁰All they shall answer and tell you, Are you also become weak as we? are you become like us?

¹¹Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, [and] the noise of your viols: the worm is spread under you, and worms cover you.

¹²How you are fallen from heaven, day-star, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!

¹³You said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit on the mountain of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north;

¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.

¹⁵Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit.

¹⁶Those who see you shall gaze at you, they shall consider you, [saying], "Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms;

¹⁷who made the world as a wilderness, and overthrew the cities of it; who didn't let loose his prisoners to their home?"

¹⁸All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.

¹⁹But you are cast forth away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; as a dead body trodden under foot.

²⁰You shall not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have killed your people; the seed of evil-doers shall not be named forever.

²¹Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up, and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities.

²²I will rise up against them, says Yahweh of Hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son's son, says Yahweh.

²³I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says Yahweh of Hosts.

²⁴Yahweh of Hosts has sworn, saying, Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

²⁵that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulder.

²⁶This is the purpose that is purposed on the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out on all the nations.

²⁷For Yahweh of Hosts has purposed, and who shall annul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

²⁸In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.

²⁹Don't rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent's root shall come forth an adder, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

³⁰The firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant shall be killed.

³¹Howl, gate; cry, city; you are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for there comes a smoke out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.

³²What then shall one answer the messengers of the nation? That Yahweh has founded Zion, and in her shall the afflicted of his people take refuge.

15The burden of Moab. For in a night Ar of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to nothing; for in a night Kir of Moab is laid waste, [and] brought to nothing.

²They are gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep: Moab wails over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off.

³In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth; on their housetops, and in their broad places, everyone wails, weeping abundantly.

⁴Heshbon cries out, and Elealeh; their voice is heard even to Jahaz: therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud; his soul trembles within him.

⁵My heart cries out for Moab; her nobles [flee] to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishi-yah: for by the ascent of Luhith with weeping they go up; for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.

⁶For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate; for the grass is withered away, the tender grass fails, there is no green thing.

⁷Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away over the brook of the willows.

⁸For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the wailing of it to Eglaim, and the wailing of it to Beer-elim.

⁹For the waters of Dimon are full of blood; for I will bring yet more on Dimon, a lion on them of Moab that escape, and on the remnant of the land.

16Send you the lambs for the ruler of the land from Selah to the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.

²For it shall be that, as wandering birds, as a scattered nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of the Arnon.

³Give counsel, execute justice; make your shade as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; don't betray the fugitive.

⁴Let my outcasts dwell with you; as for Moab, be you a covert to him from the face of the destroyer. For the extortioner is brought to nothing, destruction ceases, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.

⁵A throne shall be established in lovingkindness; and one shall sit thereon in truth, in the tent of David, judging, and seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab, [that] he is very proud; even of his arrogance, and his pride, and his wrath; his boastings are nothing.

⁷Therefore shall Moab wail for Moab, everyone shall wail: for the raisin-cakes of Kir-hareseth shall you mourn, utterly stricken.

⁸For the fields of Heshbon languish, [and] the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the nations have broken down the choice branches of it, which reached even to Jazer, which wandered into the wilderness; its shoots were spread abroad, they passed over the sea.

⁹Therefore I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah; I will water you with my tears, Heshbon, and Elealeh: for on your summer fruits and on your harvest the [battle] shout is fallen.

¹⁰Gladness is taken away, and joy out of the fruitful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither joyful noise: nobody shall tread out wine in the presses; I have made the [vintage] shout to cease.

¹¹Why my heart sounds like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir-heres.

¹²It shall happen, when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, and shall come to his sanctuary to pray, that he shall not prevail.

¹³This is the word that Yahweh spoke concerning Moab in time past.

¹⁴But now Yahweh has spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt, with all his great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and of no account.

17The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

²The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

³The fortress shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria; they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, says Yahweh of Hosts.

⁴It shall happen in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.

⁵It shall be as when the harvester gathers the standing grain, and his arm reaps the ears; yes, it shall be as when one gleans ears in the valley of Rephaim.

⁶Yet there shall be left therein gleanings, as the shaking of an olive-tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost branches of a fruitful tree, says Yahweh, the God of Israel.

⁷In that day shall men look to their Maker, and their eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸They shall not look to the altars, the work of their hands; neither shall they have respect to that which their fingers have made, either the Asherim, or the sun-images.

⁹In that day shall their strong cities be as the forsaken places in the wood and on the mountain top, which were forsaken from before the children of Israel; and it shall be a desolation.

¹⁰For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength; therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set it with strange slips.

¹¹In the day of your planting you hedge it in, and in the morning you make your seed to blossom; but the harvest flees away in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

¹²Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!

¹³The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm.

¹⁴At evening, behold, terror; [and] before the morning they are no more. This is the portion of those who despoil us, and the lot of those who rob us.

18Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;

²that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, [saying], Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!

³All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see you; and when the trumpet is blown, hear you.

⁴For thus has Yahweh said to me, I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling-place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

⁵For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches will he take away [and] cut down.

⁶They shall be left together to the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the animals of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer on them, and all the animals of the earth shall winter on them.

⁷In that time shall a present be brought to Yahweh of Hosts [from] a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Yahweh of Hosts, Mount Zion.

19The burden of Egypt. Behold, Yahweh rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall tremble at his presence; and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

²I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, [and] kingdom against kingdom.

³The spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst of it; and I will destroy the counsel of it: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to those who have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.

⁴I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts.

⁵The waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and become dry.

⁶The rivers shall become foul; the streams of Egypt shall be diminished and dried up; the reeds and flags shall wither away.

⁷The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, shall become dry, be driven away, and be no more.

⁸The fishermen shall lament, and all those who cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters shall languish.

⁹Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, shall be confounded.

¹⁰The pillars [of Egypt] shall be broken in pieces; all those who work for hire [shall be] grieved in soul.

¹¹The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say you to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?

¹²Where then are your wise men? and let them tell you now; and let them know what Yahweh of Hosts has purposed concerning Egypt.

¹³The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Memphis are deceived; they have caused Egypt to go astray, who are the corner-stone of her tribes.

¹⁴Yahweh has mingled a spirit of perverseness in the midst of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in every work of it, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

¹⁵Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm-branch or rush, may do.

¹⁶In that day shall the Egyptians be like women; and they shall tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of Yahweh of Hosts, which he shakes over them.

¹⁷The land of Judah shall become a terror to Egypt; everyone to whom mention is made of it shall be afraid, because of the purpose of Yahweh of Hosts, which he purposes against it.

¹⁸In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Yahweh of hosts; one shall be called The city of destruction.

¹⁹In that day shall there be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border of it to Yahweh.

²⁰It shall be for a sign and for a witness to Yahweh of Hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and he will send them a savior, and a defender, and he will deliver them.

²¹Yahweh shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know Yahweh in that day; yes, they shall worship with sacrifice and offering, and shall vow a vow to Yahweh, and shall perform it.

²²Yahweh will strike Egypt, smiting and healing; and they shall return to Yahweh, and he will be entreated of them, and will heal them.

²³In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians shall worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth;

²⁵because Yahweh of Hosts has blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.

20In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it;

²at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and loose the sackcloth from off your loins, and put your shoe from off your foot. He did so, walking naked and barefoot.

³Yahweh said, Like as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia;

⁴so shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

⁵They shall be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.

⁶The inhabitant of this coast-land shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and we, how shall we escape?

21The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.

²A grievous vision is declared to me; the treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; besiege, Media; all the sighing of it have I made to cease.

³Therefore are my loins filled with anguish; pangs have taken hold on me, as the pangs of a woman in travail: I am pained so that I can't hear; I am dismayed so that I can't see.

⁴My heart flutters, horror has frightened me; the twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling to me.

⁵They prepare the table, they set the watch, they eat, they drink: rise up, you princes, anoint the shield.

⁶For thus has the Lord said to me, Go, set a watchman: let him declare what he sees:

⁷and when he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with much heed.

⁸He cried as a lion: Lord, I stand continually on the watch-tower in the day-time, and am set in my ward whole nights;

⁹and, behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs. He answered, Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.

¹⁰You my threshing, and the grain of my floor! that which I have heard from Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared to you.

¹¹The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?

¹²The watchman said, The morning comes, and also the night: if you will inquire, inquire you: turn you, come.

¹³The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall you lodge, you caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴To him who was thirsty they brought water; the inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitives with their bread.

¹⁵For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle.

¹⁶For thus has the Lord said to me, Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall fail;

¹⁷and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it.

22The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you are wholly gone up to the housetops?

²You that are full of shouting, a tumultuous city, a joyous town; your slain are not slain with the sword, neither are they dead in battle.

³All your rulers fled away together, they were bound by the archers; all who were found of you were bound together; they fled afar off.

⁴Therefore said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; don't labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁵For it is a day of confusion, and of treading down, and of perplexity, from the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, in the valley of vision; a breaking down of the walls, and a crying to the mountains.

⁶Elam bore the quiver, with chariots of men [and] horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷It happened that your choicest valleys were full of chariots, and the horsemen set themselves in array at the gate.

⁸He took away the covering of Judah; and you did look in that day to the armor in the house of the forest.

⁹You saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool;

¹⁰and you numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall;

¹¹you made also a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you didn't look to him who had done this, neither had you respect to him who purposed it long ago.

¹²In that day did the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

¹³and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.

¹⁴Yahweh of Hosts revealed himself in my ears, Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you until you die, says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, Go, get you to this treasurer, even to Shebna, who is over the house, [and say],

¹⁶"What do you here? and whom has you here, that you have hewed you out here a tomb? Cutting him out a tomb on high, chiseling a habitation for himself in the rock!"

¹⁷Behold, Yahweh, like a [strong] man, will hurl you away violently; yes, he will wrap you up closely.

¹⁸He will surely wind you round and round, [and toss you] like a ball into a large country; there shall you die, and there shall be the chariots of your glory, you shame of your lord's house.

¹⁹I will thrust you from your office; and from your station shall you be pulled down.

²⁰It shall happen in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah:

²¹and I will cloth him with your robe, and strengthen him with your belt, and I will commit your government into his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.

²²The key of the house of David will I lay on his shoulder; and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

²³I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a throne of glory to his father's house.

²⁴They shall hang on him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, every small vessel, from the cups even to all the pitchers.

²⁵In that day, says Yahweh of hosts, shall the nail that was fastened in a sure place give way; and it shall be hewn down, and fall; and the burden that was on it shall be cut off; for Yahweh has spoken it.

23The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.

²Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.

³On great waters the seed of the Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the market of nations.

⁴Be you ashamed, Sidon; for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea, saying, I have not travailed, nor brought forth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins.

⁵When the report comes to Egypt, they shall be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.

⁶Pass you over to Tarshish; wail, you inhabitants of the coast.

⁷Is this your joyous [city], whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her afar off to sojourn?

⁸Who has purposed this against Tyre, the giver of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?

⁹Yahweh of hosts has purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.

¹⁰Pass through your land as the Nile, daughter of Tarshish; there is no restraint any more.

¹¹He has stretched out his hand over the sea, he has shaken the kingdoms: Yahweh has given commandment concerning Canaan, to destroy the strongholds of it.

¹²He said, You shall no more rejoice, you oppressed virgin daughter of Sidon: arise, pass over to Kittim; even there shall you have no rest.

¹³Behold, the land of the Chaldeans: this people was not; the Assyrian founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness; they set up their towers; they overthrew the palaces of it; they made it a ruin.

¹⁴Howl, you ships of Tarshish; for your stronghold is laid waste.

¹⁵It shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years it shall be to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute.

¹⁶Take a harp, go about the city, you prostitute that has been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.

¹⁷It shall happen after the end of seventy years, that Yahweh will visit Tyre, and she shall return to her hire, and shall play the prostitute with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth.

¹⁸Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to Yahweh: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for those who dwell before Yahweh, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

24Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants of it.

²It shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest to him.

³The earth shall be utterly emptied, and utterly laid waste; for Yahweh has spoken this word.

⁴The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away, the lofty people of the earth do languish.

⁵The earth also is polluted under the inhabitants of it; because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.

⁶Therefore has the curse devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

⁷The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted do sigh.

⁸The mirth of tambourines ceases, the noise of those who rejoice ends, the joy of the harp ceases.

⁹They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to those who drink it.

¹⁰The waste city is broken down; every house is shut up, that no man may come in.

¹¹There is a crying in the streets because of the wine; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.

¹²In the city is left desolation, and the gate is struck with destruction.

¹³For thus shall it be in the midst of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive-tree, as the gleanings when the vintage is done.

¹⁴These shall lift up their voice, they shall shout; for the majesty of Yahweh they cry aloud from the sea.

¹⁵Why glorify you Yahweh in the east, even the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the isles of the sea.

¹⁶From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs: Glory to the righteous. But I said, I pine away, I pine away, woe is me! the treacherous have dealt treacherously; yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously.

¹⁷Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are on you, O inhabitant of the earth.

¹⁸It shall happen, that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble.

¹⁹The earth is utterly broken, the earth is torn apart, the earth is shaken violently.

²⁰The earth shall stagger like a drunken man, and shall sway back and forth like a hammock; and the disobedience of it shall be heavy on it, and it shall fall, and not rise again.

²¹It shall happen in that day, that Yahweh will punish the host of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth on the earth.

²²They shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison; and after many days shall they be visited.

²³Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for Yahweh of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and before his elders shall be glory.

25Yahweh, you are my God; I will exalt you, I will praise your name; for you have done wonderful things, [even] counsels of old, in faithfulness [and] truth.

²For you have made of a city a heap, of a fortified city a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.

³Therefore shall a strong people glorify you; a city of awesome nations shall fear you.

⁴For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, when the blast of the awesome ones is as a storm against the wall.

⁵As the heat in a dry place will you bring down the noise of strangers; as the heat by the shade of a cloud, the song of the awesome ones shall be brought low.

⁶In this mountain will Yahweh of Hosts make to all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

⁷He will destroy in this mountain the surface of the covering that covers all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations.

⁸He has swallowed up death forever; and the Lord Yahweh will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from off all the earth: for Yahweh has spoken it.

⁹It shall be said in that day, Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is Yahweh; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

¹⁰For in this mountain will the hand of Yahweh rest; and Moab shall be trodden down in his place, even as straw is trodden down in the water of the dung-hill.

¹¹He shall spread forth his hands in the midst of it, as he who swims spreads forth [his hands] to swim; but [Yahweh] will lay low his pride together with the craft of his hands.

¹²The high fortress of your walls has he brought down, laid low, and brought to the ground, even to the dust.

26In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: we have a strong city; salvation will he appoint for walls and bulwarks.

²Open you the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith may enter in.

³You will keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on you]; because he trusts in you.

⁴Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock.

⁵For he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city: he lays it low, he lays it low even to the ground; he brings it even to the dust.

⁶The foot shall tread it down; even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

⁷The way of the just is uprightness: you that are upright do direct the path of the just.

⁸Yes, in the way of your judgments, Yahweh, have we waited for you; to your name, even to your memorial [name], is the desire of our soul.

⁹With my soul have I desired you in the night; yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly: for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal wrongfully, and will not see the majesty of Yahweh.

¹¹Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don't see: but they shall see [your] zeal for the people, and be put to shame; yes, fire shall devour your adversaries.

¹²Yahweh, you will ordain peace for us; for you have also worked all our works for us.

¹³Yahweh our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us; but by you only will we make mention of your name.

¹⁴[They are] dead, they shall not live; [they are] deceased, they shall not rise: therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and made all memory of them to perish.

¹⁵You have increased the nation, O Yahweh, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

¹⁶Yahweh, in trouble have they visited you; they poured out a prayer [when] your chastening was on them.

¹⁷Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, Yahweh.

¹⁸We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

¹⁹Your dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is [as] the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.

²⁰Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation be past.

²¹For, behold, Yahweh comes forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

27In that day Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan the swift serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent; and he will kill the monster that is in the sea.

²In that day: A vineyard of wine, sing you to it.

³I Yahweh am its keeper; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

⁴Wrath is not in me: would that the briers and thorns were against me in battle! I would march on them, I would burn them together.

⁵Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; [yes], let him make peace with me.

⁶In days to come shall Jacob take root; Israel shall blossom and bud; and they shall fill the surface of the world with fruit.

⁷Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? or are they slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by them?

⁸In measure, when you send them away, you do content with them; he has removed [them] with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in sunder, [so that] the Asherim and the sun-images shall rise no more.

¹⁰For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches of it.

¹¹When the boughs of it are withered, they shall be broken off; the women shall come, and set them on fire; for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.

¹²It shall happen in that day, that Yahweh will beat off [his fruit] from the flood of the River to the brook of Egypt; and you shall be gathered one by one, you children of Israel.

¹³It shall happen in that day, that a great trumpet shall be blown; and they shall come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt; and they shall worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

28Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley of those who are overcome with wine!

²Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one; as a tempest of hail, a destroying storm, as a tempest of mighty waters overflowing, will he cast down to the earth with the hand.

³The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under foot:

⁴and the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be as the first-ripe fig before the summer; which when he who looks on it sees, while it is yet in his hand he eats it up.

⁵In that day will Yahweh of Hosts become a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the residue of his people;

⁶and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷Even these reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they stagger with strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

⁸For all tables are full of vomit [and] filthiness, [so that there is] no place [clean].

⁹Whom will he teach knowledge? and whom will he make to understand the message? those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?

¹⁰For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little.

¹¹No, but by [men of] strange lips and with another language will he speak to this people;

¹²to whom he said, This is the rest, give you rest to him who is weary; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.

¹³Therefore shall the word of Yahweh be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

¹⁴Why hear the word of Yahweh, you scoffers, that rule this people that is in Jerusalem:

¹⁵Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

¹⁶therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner -[stone] of sure foundation: he who believes shall not be in haste.

¹⁷I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.

¹⁸Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.

¹⁹As often as it passes though, it shall take you; for morning by morning shall it pass through, by day and by night: and it shall be nothing but terror to understand the message.

²⁰For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it; and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.

²¹For Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Perazim, he will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his strange act.

²²Now therefore don't you be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for a decree of destruction have I heard from the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, on the whole earth.

²³Give you ear, and hear my voice; listen, and hear my speech.

²⁴Does he who plows to sow plow continually? does he [continually] open and harrow his ground?

²⁵When he has leveled the surface of it, doesn't he cast abroad the dill, and scatter the cumin, and put in the wheat in rows, and the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in the border of it?

²⁶For his God does instruct him aright, [and] does teach him.

²⁷For the dill are not threshed with a sharp [threshing] instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about on the cumin; but the dill are beaten out with a staff, and the cumin with a rod.

²⁸Bread [grain] is ground; for he will not be always threshing it: and though the wheel of his cart and his horses scatter it, he does not grind it.

²⁹This also comes forth from Yahweh of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.

29Ho Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! add you year to year; let the feasts come round:

²then will I distress Ariel, and there shall be mourning and lamentation; and she shall be to me as Ariel.

³I will encamp against you round about, and will lay siege against you with posted troops, and I will raise siege works against you.

⁴You shall be brought down, and shall speak out of the ground, and your speech shall be low out of the dust; and your voice shall be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

⁵But the multitude of your foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the awesome ones as chaff that passes away: yes, it shall be in an instant suddenly.

⁶She shall be visited of Yahweh of Hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

⁷The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, shall be as a dream, a vision of the night.

⁸It shall be as when a hungry man dreams, and, behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreams, and, behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul has appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against Mount Zion.

⁹Stay you and wonder; take your pleasure and be blind: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

¹⁰For Yahweh has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and your heads, the seers, has he covered.

¹¹All vision is become to you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you; and he says, I can't, for it is sealed:

¹²and the book is delivered to him who is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you; and he says, I am not learned.

¹³The Lord said, Because this people draw near [to me], and with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught [them];

¹⁴therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

¹⁵Woe to those who hide deep their counsel from Yahweh, and whose works are in the dark, and who say, Who sees us? and who knows us?

¹⁶You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be esteemed as clay; that the thing made should say of him who made it, He didn't make me; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, He has no understanding?

¹⁷Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?

¹⁸In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

¹⁹The humble also shall increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the terrible one is brought to nothing, and the scoffer ceases, and all those who watch for iniquity are cut off;

²¹that make a man an offender in [his] cause, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just with a thing of nothing.

²²Therefore thus says Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.

²³But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name; yes, they shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall stand in awe of the God of Israel.

²⁴They also who err in spirit shall come to understanding, and those who murmur shall receive instruction.

30Woe to the rebellious children, says Yahweh, who take counsel, but not of me; and who make a league, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,

²that set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!

³Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

⁴For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors are come to Hanes.

⁵They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

⁶The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that shall not profit [them].

⁷For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I called her Rahab who sits still.

⁸Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever.

⁹For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of Yahweh;

¹⁰who tell the seers, "Don't see;" and to the prophets, "Don't prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits,

¹¹get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

¹²Why thus says the Holy One of Israel, Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely thereon;

¹³therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.

¹⁴He shall break it as a potter's vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing; so that there shall not be found among the pieces of it a broken piece with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern.

¹⁵For thus said the Lord Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength. You would not:

¹⁶but you said, No, for we will flee on horses; therefore shall you flee: and, We will ride on the swift; therefore shall those who pursue you be swift.

¹⁷One thousand [shall flee] at the threat of one; at the threat of five shall you flee: until you be left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill.

¹⁸Therefore will Yahweh wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy on you: for Yahweh is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

¹⁹For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more; he will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry; when he shall hear, he will answer you.

²⁰Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be hidden anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers;

²¹and your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk you in it; when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.

²²You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold: you shall cast them away as an unclean thing; you shall tell it, Get you hence.

²³He will give the rain for your seed, with which you shall sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground, and it shall be fat and plenteous. In that day shall your cattle feed in large pastures;

²⁴the oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground shall eat savory provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.

²⁵There shall be on every lofty mountain, and on every high hill, brooks [and] streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

²⁶Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the hurt of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.

²⁷Behold, the name of Yahweh comes from far, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire;

²⁸and his breath is as an overflowing stream, that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction: and a bridle that causes to err [shall be] in the jaws of the peoples.

²⁹You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of Israel.

³⁰Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of [his] anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, and tempest, and hailstones.

³¹For through the voice of Yahweh shall the Assyrian be dismayed; with his rod will he strike [him].

³²Every stroke of the appointed staff, which Yahweh shall lay on him, shall be with [the sound of] tambourines and harps; and in battles with the brandishing [of his arm] will he fight with them.

³³For a Topheth is prepared of old; yes, for the king it is made ready; he has made it deep and large; the pile of it is fire and much wood; the breath of Yahweh, like a stream of sulfur, does kindle it.

31Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don't look to the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Yahweh!

²Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evil-doers, and against the help of those who work iniquity.

³Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit: and when Yahweh shall stretch out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.

⁴For thus says Yahweh to me, As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds are called forth against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so will Yahweh of Hosts come down to fight on Mount Zion, and on the hill of it.

⁵As birds hovering, so will Yahweh of Hosts protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver [it], he will pass over and preserve [it].

⁶Turn you to him from whom you have deeply revolted, children of Israel.

⁷For in that day they shall cast away every man his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made to you for a sin.

⁸The Assyrian shall fall by the sword, not of man; and the sword, not of men, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall become subject to forced labor.

⁹His rock shall pass away by reason of terror, and his princes shall be dismayed at the ensign, says Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

32Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice.

²A man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a great rock in a weary land.

³The eyes of those who see shall not be dim, and the ears of those who hear shall listen.

⁴The heart of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.

⁵The fool shall be no more called noble, nor the churl said to be bountiful.

⁶For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice profanity, and to utter error against Yahweh, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

⁷The instruments of the churl are evil: he devises wicked devices to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.

⁸But the noble devises noble things; and in noble things shall he continue.

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease, [and] hear my voice; you careless daughters, give ear to my speech.

¹⁰For days beyond a year shall you be troubled, you careless women; for the vintage shall fail, the harvest shall not come.

¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease; be troubled, you careless ones; strip you, and make you bare, and gird [sackcloth] on your loins.

¹²They shall strike on the breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

¹³On the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.

¹⁴For the palace shall be forsaken; the populous city shall be deserted; the hill and the watch-tower shall be for dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;

¹⁵until the Spirit be poured on us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest.

¹⁶Then justice shall dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness shall abide in the fruitful field.

¹⁷The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

¹⁸My people shall abide in a peaceable habitation, and in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.

¹⁹But it shall hail in the downfall of the forest; and the city shall be utterly laid low.

²⁰Blessed are yet who sow beside all waters, who send forth the feet of the ox and the donkey.

33Woe to you who destroy, and you weren't destroyed; and deal treacherously, and they didn't deal treacherously with you! When you have ceased to destroy, you shall be destroyed; and when you have made an end of dealing treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with you.

²Yahweh, be gracious to us; we have waited for you: be you our arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

³At the noise of the tumult the peoples are fled; at the lifting up of yourself the nations are scattered.

⁴Your spoil shall be gathered as the caterpillar gathers: as locusts leap shall men leap on it.

⁵Yahweh is exalted; for he dwells on high: he has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

⁶There shall be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge: the fear of Yahweh is your treasure.

⁷Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

⁸The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceases: [the enemy] has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, he doesn't regard man.

⁹The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is confounded and withers away; Sharon is like a desert; and Bashan and Carmel shake off [their leaves].

¹⁰Now will I arise, says Yahweh; now will I lift up myself; now will I be exalted.

¹¹You shall conceive chaff, you shall bring forth stubble: your breath is a fire that shall devour you.

¹²The peoples shall be as the burning of lime, as thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.

¹³Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might.

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless ones: Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? who among us can dwell with everlasting burning?

¹⁵He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; he who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands from taking a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking on evil:

¹⁶He shall dwell on high; his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks; his bread shall be given [him]; his waters shall be sure.

¹⁷Your eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall see a land that reaches afar.

¹⁸Your heart shall muse on the terror: Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed [the tribute]? where is he who counted the towers?

¹⁹You shall not see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that you can not comprehend, of a strange language that you can not understand.

²⁰Look on Zion, the city of our solemnities: your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tent that shall not be removed, the stakes whereof shall never be plucked up, neither shall any of the cords of it be broken.

²¹But there Yahweh will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams, in which shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.

²²For Yahweh is our judge, Yahweh is our lawgiver, Yahweh is our king; he will save us.

²³Your rigging is loosed; they could not strengthen the foot of their mast, they could not spread the sail: then was the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame took the prey.

²⁴The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people who dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.

34Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you peoples: let the earth hear, and the fullness of it; the world, and all things that come forth from it.

²For Yahweh has indignation against all the nations, and wrath against all their host: he has utterly destroyed them, he has delivered them to the slaughter.

³Their slain also shall be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies shall come up; and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

⁴All the host of the sky shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fade away, as the leaf fades from off the vine, and as a fading [leaf] from the fig-tree.

⁵For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky: behold, it shall come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, to judgment.

⁶The sword of Yahweh is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷The wild-oxen shall come down with them, and the bulls with the bulls: and their land shall be drunken with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

⁸For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

⁹The streams of [Edom] shall be turned into pitch, and the dust of it into sulfur, and the land of it shall become burning pitch.

¹⁰It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke of it shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.

¹¹But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it; and the owl and the raven shall dwell therein: and he will stretch over it the line of confusion, and the plummet of emptiness.

¹²They shall call the nobles of it to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³Thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses of it; and it shall be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.

¹⁴The wild animals of the desert shall meet with the wolves, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; yes, the night-monster shall settle there, and shall find her a place of rest.

¹⁵There shall the dart-snake make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shade; yes, there shall the kites be gathered, everyone with her mate.

¹⁶Seek you out of the book of Yahweh, and read: no one of these shall be missing, none shall want her mate; for my mouth, it has commanded, and his Spirit, it has gathered them.

¹⁷He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them by line: they shall possess it forever; from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

35The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

²It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon: they shall see the glory of Yahweh, the excellency of our God.

³Strengthen you the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

⁴Tell those who are of a fearful heart, Be strong, don't be afraid: behold, your God will come [with] vengeance, [with] the recompense of God; he will come and save you.

⁵Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

⁶Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the mute shall sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

⁷The glowing sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water: in the habitation of jackals, where they lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

⁸A highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but is shall be for for him who walks in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there.

⁹No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous animal go up thereon; they shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk [there]:

¹⁰and the ransomed of Yahweh shall return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

36Now it happened in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them.

²The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a great army. He stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field.

³Then came forth to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder.

⁴Rabshakeh said to them, Say you now to Hezekiah, Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this in which you trust?

⁵I say, [your] counsel and strength for the war are but vain words: now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

⁶Behold, you trust on the staff of this bruised reed, even on Egypt, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him.

⁷But if you tell me, We trust in Yahweh our God: isn't that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar?

⁸Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you be able on your part to set riders on them.

⁹How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

¹⁰Am I now come up without Yahweh against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it.

¹¹Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah to Rabshakeh, Please speak, to your servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and don't speak to us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people who are on the wall.

¹²But Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to your master, and to you, to speak these words? [has he] not [sent me] to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water with you?

¹³Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, Hear you the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

¹⁴Thus says the king, Don't let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you:

¹⁵neither let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, Yahweh will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

¹⁶Don't listen to Hezekiah: for thus says the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and eat you everyone of his vine, and everyone of his fig-tree, and drink you everyone the waters of his own cistern;

¹⁷until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹⁸Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, Yahweh will deliver us. Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

¹⁹Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

²⁰Who are they among all the gods of these countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?

²¹But they held their peace, and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, saying, Don't answer him.

²²Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

37It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh.

²He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

³They said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of rejection; for the children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring forth.

⁴It may be Yahweh your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard: why lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.

⁵So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

⁶Isaiah said to them, Thus shall you tell your master, Thus says Yahweh, Don't be afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

⁷Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear news, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

⁸So Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah; for he had heard that he was departed from Lachish.

⁹He heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, He is come out to fight against you. When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

¹⁰Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying, Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

¹¹Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shall you be delivered?

¹²Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?

¹³Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?

¹⁴Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of Yahweh, and spread it before Yahweh.

¹⁵Hezekiah prayed to Yahweh, saying,

¹⁶Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, who sits [above] the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.

¹⁷Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear; open your eyes, Yahweh, and behold; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God.

¹⁸Of a truth, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries, and their land,

¹⁹and have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.

²⁰Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, even you only.

²¹Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Whereas you have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria,

²²this is the word which Yahweh has spoken concerning him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.

²³Whom have you defied and blasphemed? and against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? [even] against the Holy One of Israel.

²⁴By your servants have you defied the Lord, and have said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars of it, and the choice fir-trees of it; and I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field;

²⁵I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.

²⁶Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it of ancient times? now have I brought it to pass, that it should be your to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

²⁷Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as a field [of grain] before it is grown up.

²⁸But I know your sitting down, and your going out, and your coming in, and your raging against me.

²⁹Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance is come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.

³⁰This shall be the sign to you: you shall eat this year that which grows of itself, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of it.

³¹The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

³²For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion those who shall escape. The zeal of Yahweh of Hosts will perform this.

³³Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.

³⁴By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come to this city, says Yahweh.

³⁵For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

³⁶The angel of Yahweh went forth, and struck in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

³⁷So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and lived at Nineveh.

³⁸It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar-haddon his son reigned in his place.

38In those days was Hezekiah sick to death. Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Set your house in order; for you shall die, and not live.

²Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Yahweh,

³and said, Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight. Hezekiah wept sore.

⁴Then came the word of Yahweh to Isaiah, saying,

⁵Go, and tell Hezekiah, Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your father, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears: behold, I will add to your days fifteen years.

⁶I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.

⁷This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken:

⁸behold, I will cause the shadow on the steps, which is gone down on the dial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the dial whereon it was gone down.

⁹The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness.

¹⁰I said, In the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the residue of my years.

¹¹I said, I shall not see Yah, Yah in the land of the living: I shall see man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

¹²My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me as a shepherd's tent: I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life; he will cut me off from the loom: From day even to night will you make an end of me.

¹³I quieted [myself] until morning; as a lion, so he breaks all my bones: From day even to night will you make an end of me.

¹⁴Like a swallow [or] a crane, so did I chatter; I did moan as a dove; my eyes fail [with looking] upward: Lord, I am oppressed, be you my collateral.

¹⁵What shall I say? he has both spoken to me, and himself has done it: I shall go softly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶Lord, by these things men live; Wholly therein is the life of my spirit: Why recover you me, and make me to live.

¹⁷Behold, [it was] for [my] peace [that] I had great bitterness: But you have in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; For you have cast all my sins behind your back.

¹⁸For Sheol can't praise you, death can't celebrate you: Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth.

¹⁹The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day: The father to the children shall make known your truth.

²⁰Yahweh is [ready] to save me: Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments All the days of our life in the house of Yahweh.

²¹Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaster on the boil, and he shall recover.

²²Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of Yahweh?

39At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been sick, and was recovered.

²Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn't show them.

³Then came Isaiah the prophet to king Hezekiah, and said to him, What said these men? and from whence came they to you? Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country to me, even from Babylon.

⁴Then said he, What have they seen in your house? Hezekiah answered, All that is in my house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them.

⁵Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Yahweh of Hosts:

⁶Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, says Yahweh.

⁷Of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you shall father, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.

⁸Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of Yahweh which you have spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.

40Comfort you, comfort you my people, says your God.

²Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and cry to her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh's hand double for all her sins.

³The voice of one who cries, Prepare you in the wilderness the way of Yahweh; make level in the desert a highway for our God.

⁴Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain:

⁵and the glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.

⁶The voice of one saying, Cry. One said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory of it is as the flower of the field.

⁷The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of Yahweh blows on it; surely the people is grass.

⁸The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand forever.

⁹You who tell good news to Zion, get you up on a high mountain; you who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, don't be afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold, your God!

¹⁰Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him: Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

¹¹He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, [and] will gently lead those who have their young.

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the sky with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

¹³Who has directed the Spirit of Yahweh, or being his counselor has taught him?

¹⁴With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are accounted as the small dust of the balance: Behold, he takes up the isles as a very little thing.

¹⁶Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the animals of it sufficient for a burnt offering.

¹⁷All the nations are as nothing before him; they are accounted by him as less than nothing, and vanity.

¹⁸To whom then will you liken God? or what likeness will you compare to him?

¹⁹The image, a workman has cast [it], and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts [for it] silver chains.

²⁰He who is too impoverished for [such] an offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks to him a skillful workman to set up an engraved image, that shall not be moved.

²¹Have you not known? have yet not heard? has it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

²²[It is] he who sits above the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants of it are as grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in;

²³who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth as vanity.

²⁴Yes, they have not been planted; yes, they have not been sown; yes, their stock has not taken root in the earth: moreover he blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

²⁵To whom then will you liken me, that I should be equal [to him]? says the Holy One.

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their host by number; he calls them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is lacking.

²⁷Why say you, Jacob, and speak, Israel, My way is hid from Yahweh, and the justice [due] to me is passed away from my God?

²⁸Have you not known? have you not heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding.

²⁹He gives power to the faint; and to him who has no might he increases strength.

³⁰Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

³¹but those who wait for Yahweh shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.

41Keep silence before me, islands; and let the peoples renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak; let us come near together to judgment.

²Who has raised up one from the east, whom he calls in righteousness to his foot? he gives nations before him, and makes him rule over kings; he gives them as the dust to his sword, as the driven stubble to his bow.

³He pursues them, and passes on safely, even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.

⁴Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.

⁵The isles have seen, and fear; the ends of the earth tremble; they draw near, and come.

⁶They help everyone his neighbor; and [every one] says to his brother, Be of good courage.

⁷So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith, [and] he who smoothes with the hammer him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good; and he fastens it with nails, that is should not be moved.

⁸But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend,

⁹you whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from the corners of it, and said to you, You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you away;

¹⁰Don't you be afraid, for I am with you; don't be dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

¹¹Behold, all those who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded: those who strive with you shall be as nothing, and shall perish.

¹²You shall seek them, and shall not find them, even those who contend with you: those who war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nothing.

¹³For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, Don't be afraid; I will help you.

¹⁴Don't be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel; I will help you, says Yahweh, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵Behold, I have made you [to be] a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shall make the hills as chaff.

¹⁶You shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; and you shall rejoice in Yahweh, you shall glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷The poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue fails for thirst; I, Yahweh, will answer them, I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

¹⁸I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

¹⁹I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, and the myrtle, and the oil-tree; I will set in the desert the fir-tree, the pine, and the box-tree together:

²⁰that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of Yahweh has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹Produce your cause, says Yahweh; bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Jacob.

²²Let them bring forth, and declare to us what shall happen: declare you the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.

²³Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods: yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together.

²⁴Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.

²⁵I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun one who calls on my name: and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.

²⁶Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? and before, that we may say, [He is] right? yes, there is none who declares, yes, there is none who shows, yes, there is none who hears your words.

²⁷[I am the] first [who says] to Zion, Behold, behold them; and I will give to Jerusalem one who brings good news.

²⁸When I look, there is no man: even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word.

²⁹Behold, all of them, their works are vanity [and] nothing; their molten images are wind and confusion.

42Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him; he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.

²He will not cry, nor lift up his voice, nor cause it to be heard in the street.

³A bruised reed will he not break, and a dimly burning wick will he not quench: he will bring forth justice in truth.

⁴He will not fail nor be discouraged, until he have set justice in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his law.

⁵Thus says God Yahweh, he who created the heavens, and stretched them forth; he who spread abroad the earth and that which comes out of it; he who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk therein:

⁶I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;

⁷to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison-house.

⁸I am Yahweh, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to engraved images.

⁹Behold, the former things have happened, and new things do I declare. Before they spring forth I tell you of them.

¹⁰Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth; you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants of it.

¹¹Let the wilderness and the cities of it lift up [their voice], the villages that Kedar does inhabit; let the inhabitants of Sela sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.

¹²Let them give glory to Yahweh, and declare his praise in the islands.

¹³Yahweh will go forth as a mighty man; he will stir up [his] zeal like a man of war: he will cry, yes, he will shout aloud; he will do mightily against his enemies.

¹⁴I have long time held my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: [now] will I cry out like a travailing woman; I will gasp and pant together.

¹⁵I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools.

¹⁶I will bring the blind by a way that they don't know; in paths that they don't know will I lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things will I do, and I will not forsake them.

¹⁷They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly put to shame, who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, You are our gods.

¹⁸Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, that you may see.

¹⁹Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he who is at peace, and blind as Yahweh's servant?

²⁰You see many things, but don't observe. His ears are open, but he doesn't hear.

²¹It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify the law, and make it honorable.

²²But this is a people robbed and plundered; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses: they are for a prey, and none delivers; for a spoil, and none says, Restore.

²³Who is there among you who will give ear to this? who will listen and hear for the time to come?

²⁴Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Didn't Yahweh? he against whom we have sinned, and in whose ways they would not walk, neither were they obedient to his law.

²⁵Therefore he poured on him the fierceness of his anger, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire round about, yet he didn't know; and it burned him, yet he didn't lay it to heart.

43But now thus says Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel: Don't be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine.

²When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle on you.

³For I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.

⁴Since you have been precious in my sight, [and] honorable, and I have loved you; therefore will I give men in your place, and peoples instead of your life.

⁵Don't be afraid; for I am with you: I will bring your seed from the east, and gather you from the west;

⁶I will tell the north, Give up; and to the south, Don't keep back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth;

⁷everyone who is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yes, whom I have made.

⁸Bring forth the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears.

⁹Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, It is truth.

¹⁰You are my witnesses, says Yahweh, and my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

¹¹I, even I, am Yahweh; and besides me there is no savior.

¹²I have declared, and I have saved, and I have showed; and there was no strange [god] among you: therefore you are my witnesses, says Yahweh, and I am God.

¹³Yes, since the day was I am he; and there is none who can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who can hinder it?

¹⁴Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing.

¹⁵I am Yahweh, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh, who makes a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;

¹⁷who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the mighty man (they lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched as a wick):

¹⁸Don't remember the former things, neither consider the things of old.

¹⁹Behold, I will do a new thing; now shall it spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

²⁰The animals of the field shall honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen,

²¹the people which I formed for myself, that they might set forth my praise.

²²Yet you have not called on me, Jacob; but you have been weary of me, Israel.

²³You have not brought me of your sheep for burnt offerings; neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense.

²⁴You have bought me no sweet cane with money, neither have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices; but you have burdened me with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities.

²⁵I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.

²⁶Put me in remembrance; let us plead together: set you forth [your cause], that you may be justified.

²⁷Your first father sinned, and your teachers have transgressed against me.

²⁸Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel a reviling.

44Yet now hear, Jacob my servant, and Israel, who I have chosen:

²Thus says Yahweh who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you: Don't be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

³For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring:

⁴and they shall spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.

⁵One shall say, I am Yahweh's; and another shall call [himself] by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand to Yahweh, and surname [himself] by the name of Israel.

⁶Thus says Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Hosts: I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.

⁷Who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and that shall happen, let them declare.

⁸Don't fear, neither be afraid: haven't I declared to you of old, and showed it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indee, there is not. I don't know any Rock.

⁹Those who fashion an engraved image are all of them vanity; and the things that they delight in shall not profit; and their own witnesses don't see, nor know: that they may be put to shame.

¹⁰Who has fashioned a god, or molten an image that is profitable for nothing?

¹¹Behold, all his fellows shall be put to shame; and the workmen, they are of men: let them all be gathered together, let them stand up; they shall fear, they shall be put to shame together.

¹²The smith [makes] an ax, and works in the coals, and fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm: yes, he is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint.

¹³The carpenter stretches out a line; he marks it out with a pencil; he shapes it with planes, and he marks it out with the compasses, and shapes it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house.

¹⁴He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest: he plants a fir-tree, and the rain nourishes it.

¹⁵Then shall it be for a man to burn; and he takes of it, and warms himself; yes, he kindles it, and bakes bread: yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it an engraved image, and falls down to it.

¹⁶He burns part of it in the fire; with part of it he eats flesh; he roasts roast, and is satisfied; yes, he warms himself, and says, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire.

¹⁷The residue of it he makes a god, even his engraved image; he falls down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, Deliver me; for you are my god.

¹⁸They don't know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can't see; and their hearts, that they can't understand.

¹⁹None calls to mind, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yes, also I have baked bread on the coals of it; I have roasted flesh and eaten it: and shall I make the residue of it an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?

²⁰He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can't deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

²¹Remember these things, Jacob, and Israel; for you are my servant: I have formed you; you are my servant: Israel, you shall not be forgotten by me.

²²I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins: return to me; for I have redeemed you.

²³Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it; shout, you lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel.

²⁴Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb: I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who stretches forth the heavens alone; who spreads abroad the earth (who is with me?);

²⁵who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;

²⁶who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited; and of the cities of Judah, They shall be built, and I will raise up the waste places of it;

²⁷who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers;

²⁸Who says of Cyrus, [He is] my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying of Jerusalem, She shall be built; and of the temple, Your foundation shall be laid.

45Thus says Yahweh to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:

²I will go before you, and make the rough places smooth; I will break in pieces the doors of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron;

³and I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, who call you by your name, even the God of Israel.

⁴For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called you by your name: I have surnamed you, though you have not known me.

⁵I am Yahweh, and there is none else; besides me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known me;

⁶that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none besides me: I am Yahweh, and there is no one else.

⁷I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I am Yahweh, who does all these things.

⁸Distil, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, that it may bring forth salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up together; I, Yahweh, have created it.

⁹Woe to him who strives with his Maker -- a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, "What are you making?" or your work, "He has no hands?"

¹⁰Woe to him who says to a father, "What have you become the father of?" or to a woman, "With what do you travail?"

¹¹Thus says Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: Ask me of the things that are to come; concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command you me.

¹²I have made the earth, and created man on it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens; and all their host have I commanded.

¹³I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward, says Yahweh of Hosts.

¹⁴Thus says Yahweh: "The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be yours. They shall go after you. In chains they shall come over; and they shall fall down to you. They shall make supplication to you: 'Surely God is in you; and there is none else, there is no other god.

¹⁵Most assuredly you are a God who hid yourself, God of Israel, the Savior.' "

¹⁶They shall be put to shame, yes, confounded, all of them; they shall go into confusion together who are makers of idols.

¹⁷[But] Israel shall be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation: you shall not be put to shame nor confounded world without end.

¹⁸For thus says Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn't create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited: I am Yahweh; and there is no one else.

¹⁹I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness; I didn't say to the seed of Jacob, Seek you me in vain: I, Yahweh, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

²⁰Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations: they have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can't save.

²¹Declare you, and bring [it] forth; yes, let them take counsel together: who has showed this from ancient time? who has declared it of old? Haven't I, Yahweh? and there is no God else besides me, a just God and a Savior; there is no one besides me.

²²Look to me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.

²³By myself have I sworn, the word is gone forth from my mouth [in] righteousness, and shall not return, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

²⁴Only in Yahweh, it is said of me, is righteousness and strength; even to him shall men come; and all those who were incensed against him shall be put to shame.

²⁵In Yahweh shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.

46Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols are on the animals, and on the cattle: the things that you carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary [animal].

²They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.

³Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been borne [by me] from their birth, that have been carried from the womb;

⁴and even to old age I am he, and even to gray hairs will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; yes, I will carry, and will deliver.

⁵To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?

⁶Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down -- yes, they worship.

⁷They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands, from its place it shall not move: yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.

⁸Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind, you transgressors.

⁹Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; [I am] God, and there is none like me;

¹⁰declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not [yet] done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure;

¹¹calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country; yes, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it.

¹²Listen to me, you stout-hearted, who are far from righteousness:

¹³I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not wait; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.

47Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called tender and delicate.

²Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove your veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers.

³Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and will spare no man.

⁴Our Redeemer, Yahweh of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

⁵Sit you silent, and get you into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called The mistress of kingdoms.

⁶I was angry with my people, I profaned my inheritance, and gave them into your hand: you did show them no mercy; on the aged have you very heavily laid your yoke.

⁷You said, I shall be mistress forever; so that you did not lay these things to your heart, neither did remember the latter end of it.

⁸Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:

⁹but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.

¹⁰For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, None sees me; your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you, and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me.

¹¹Therefore shall evil come on you; you shall not know the dawning of it: and mischief shall fall on you; you shall not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you don't know.

¹²Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail.

¹³You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels: let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save you from the things that shall come on you.

¹⁴Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before.

¹⁵Thus shall the things be to you in which you have labored: those who have trafficked with you from your youth shall wander everyone to his quarter; there shall be none to save you.

48Hear you this, house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness

²(for they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Hosts is his name):

³I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of my mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they happened.

⁴Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass;

⁵therefore I have declared it to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it you; lest you should say, My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them.

⁶You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? I have showed you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known.

⁷They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn't hear them; lest you should say, Behold, I knew them.

⁸Yes, you didn't hear; yes, you didn't know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you did deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb.

⁹For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off.

¹⁰Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

¹¹For my own sake, for my own sake, will I do it; for how should [my name] be profaned? and my glory I will not give to another.

¹²Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

¹³Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.

¹⁴Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm [shall be on] the Chaldeans.

¹⁵I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

¹⁶Come you near to me, hear you this; from the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, and his Spirit.

¹⁷Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.

¹⁸Oh that you had listened to my commandments! then had your peace been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:

¹⁹your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your loins like the grains of it: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.

²⁰Go you forth from Babylon, flee you from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare you, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say you, Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob.

²¹They didn't thirst when he led them through the deserts; he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; he split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

²²There is no peace, says Yahweh, to the wicked.

49Listen, isles, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name:

²and he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand has he hid me: and he has made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he kept me close:

³and he said to me, You are my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

⁴But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely the justice [due] to me is with Yahweh, and my recompense with my God.

⁵Now says Yahweh who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered to him (for I am honorable in the eyes of Yahweh, and my God is become my strength);

⁶yes, he says, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.

⁷Thus says Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, [and] his Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of Yahweh who is faithful, [even] the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.

⁸Thus says Yahweh, In an acceptable time have I answered you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you; and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage:

⁹saying to those who are bound, Go forth; to those who are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and on all bare heights shall be their pasture.

¹⁰They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for he who has mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water will he guide them.

¹¹I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.

¹²Behold, these shall come from far; and, behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.

¹³Sing, heavens; and be joyful, earth; and break forth into singing, mountains: for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.

¹⁴But Zion said, Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.

¹⁵Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

¹⁶Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

¹⁷Your children make haste; your destroyers and those who made you waste shall go forth from you.

¹⁸Lift up your eyes round about, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live, says Yahweh, you shall surely clothe you with them all as with an ornament, and gird yourself with them, like a bride.

¹⁹For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now shall you be too strait for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be far away.

²⁰The children of your bereavement shall yet say in your ears, The place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell.

²¹Then shall you say in your heart, Who has conceived these for me, seeing I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering back and forth? and who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?

²²Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my ensign to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

²³Kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am Yahweh; and those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.

²⁴Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be delivered?

²⁵But thus says Yahweh, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children.

²⁶I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

50Thus says Yahweh, Where is the bill of your mother's divorce, with which I have put her away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away.

²Why, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can't redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst.

³I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.

⁴The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary: he wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

⁵The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward.

⁶I gave my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I didn't hide my face from shame and spitting.

⁷For the Lord Yahweh will help me; therefore I have not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

⁸He is near who justifies me; who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together: who is my adversary? Let him come near to me.

⁹Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me; who is he who shall condemn me? Behold, all they shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.

¹⁰Who is among you who fears Yahweh, who obeys the voice of his servant? He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the name of Yahweh, and rely on his God.

¹¹Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who gird yourselves about with firebrands; walk you in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that you have kindled. This shall you have of my hand; you shall lie down in sorrow.

51Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh: look to the rock whence you were hewn, and to the hold of the pit whence you were dug.

²Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many.

³For Yahweh has comforted Zion; he has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

⁴Attend to me, my people; and give ear to me, my nation: for a law shall go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for a light of the peoples.

⁵My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the peoples; the isles shall wait for me, and on my arm shall they trust.

⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and those who dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

⁷Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; don't you fear the reproach of men, neither be you dismayed at their insults.

⁸For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation to all generations.

⁹Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh; awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn't it you who did cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?

¹⁰Isn't it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?

¹¹The ransomed of Yahweh shall return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy; [and] sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

¹²I, even I, am he who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass;

¹³and have forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and fear continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?

¹⁴The captive exile shall speedily be loosed; and he shall not die [and go down] into the pit, neither shall his bread fail.

¹⁵For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves of it roar: Yahweh of Hosts is his name.

¹⁶I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, You are my people.

¹⁷Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.

¹⁸There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up.

¹⁹These two things are befallen you, who shall bemoan you? desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort you?

²⁰Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God.

²¹Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but now with wine:

²²Thus says your Lord Yahweh, and your God who pleads the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath; you shall no more drink it again:

²³and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and you have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to those who go over.

52Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.

²Shake yourself from the dust; arise, sit [on your throne], Jerusalem: loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion.

³For thus says Yahweh, You were sold for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money.

⁴For thus says the Lord Yahweh, My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there: and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause.

⁵Now therefore, what do I here, says Yahweh, seeing that my people is taken away for nothing? those who rule over them do howl, says Yahweh, and my name continually all the day is blasphemed.

⁶Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore [they shall know] in that day that I am he who does speak; behold, it is I.

⁷How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns!

⁸The voice of your watchmen! they lift up the voice, together do they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when Yahweh returns to Zion.

⁹Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.

¹⁰Yahweh has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

¹¹Depart you, depart you, go you out from there, touch no unclean thing; go you out of the midst of her; cleanse yourselves, you who bear the vessels of Yahweh.

¹²For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight: for Yahweh will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward.

¹³Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.

¹⁴Like as many were astonished at you (his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men),

¹⁵so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand.

53Who has believed our message? and to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?

²For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

³He was despised, and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised; and we didn't respect him.

⁴Surely he has borne our infirmities, and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, struck of God, and afflicted.

⁵But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed.

⁶All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn't open his mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didn't open his mouth.

⁸By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who [among them] considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living for the disobedience of my people to whom the stroke [was due]?

⁹They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see [his] seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand.

¹¹He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by the knowledge of himself shall my righteous servant justify many; and he shall bear their iniquities.

¹²Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors: yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

54Sing, barren, you who didn't bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says Yahweh.

²Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations; don't spare: lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.

³For you shall spread aboard on the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall possess the nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

⁴Don't be afraid; for you shall not be ashamed: neither be you confounded; for you shall not be put to shame: for you shall forget the shame of your youth; and the reproach of your widowhood shall you remember no more.

⁵For your Maker is your husband; Yahweh of Hosts is his name: and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; the God of the whole earth shall he be called.

⁶For Yahweh has called you as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off, says your God.

⁷For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.

⁸In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting lovingkindness will I have mercy on you, says Yahweh your Redeemer.

⁹For this is [as] the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.

¹⁰For the mountains may depart, and the hills be removed; but my lovingkindness shall not depart from you, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, says Yahweh who has mercy on you.

¹¹you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in beautiful colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires.

¹²I will make your pinnacles of rubies, and your gates of emeralds, and all your border of precious stones.

¹³All your children shall be taught of Yahweh; and great shall be the peace of your children.

¹⁴In righteousness shall you be established: you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not be afraid; and from terror, for it shall not come near you.

¹⁵Behold, they may gather together, but not by me: whoever shall gather together against you shall fall because of you.

¹⁶Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and brings forth a weapon for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

¹⁷No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of Yahweh, and their righteousness which is of me, says Yahweh.

55Ho, everyone who thirsts, come you to the waters, and he who has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

²Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which doesn't satisfy? listen diligently to me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

³Turn your ear, and come to me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

⁴Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.

⁵Behold, you shall call a nation that you don't know; and a nation that didn't know you shall run to you, because of Yahweh your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.

⁶Seek you Yahweh while he may be found; call you on him while he is near:

⁷let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

⁸For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says Yahweh.

⁹For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn't return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

¹¹so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

¹²For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands.

¹³Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree: and it shall be to Yahweh for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

56Thus says Yahweh, Keep you justice, and do righteousness; for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.

²Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast; who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.

³Neither let the foreigner, who has joined himself to Yahweh, speak, saying, Yahweh will surely separate me from his people; neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.

⁴For thus says Yahweh of the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast my covenant:

⁵To them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.

⁶Also the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh, to minister to him, and to love the name of Yahweh, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant;

⁷even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

⁸The Lord Yahweh, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, Yet will I gather [others] to him, besides his own who are gathered.

⁹All you animals of the field, come to devour, [yes], all you animals in the forest.

¹⁰His watchmen are blind, they are all without knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they can't bark; dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.

¹¹Yes, the dogs are greedy, they can never have enough; and these are shepherds who can't understand: they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter.

¹²Come you, [say they], I will get wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, [a day] great beyond measure.

57The righteous perishes, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil [to come].

²He enters into peace; they rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness.

³But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the prostitute.

⁴Against whom do you sport yourselves? against whom make you a wide mouth, and put out the tongue? Aren't you children of disobedience, a seed of falsehood,

⁵you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

⁶Among the smooth [stones] of the valley is your portion; they, they are your lot; even to them have you poured a drink-offering, you have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?

⁷On a high and lofty mountain have you set your bed; there also went you up to offer sacrifice.

⁸Behind the doors and the posts have you set up your memorial: for you have uncovered [yourself] to another than me, and are gone up; you have enlarged your bed, and made you a covenant with them: you loved their bed where you saw it.

⁹You went to the king with oil, and did increase your perfumes, and did send your ambassadors far off, and did debase yourself even to Sheol.

¹⁰You were wearied with the length of your way; yet you didn't say, It is in vain: you found a reviving of your strength; therefore you weren't faint.

¹¹Of whom have you been afraid and in fear, that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven't I held my peace even of long time, and you don't fear me?

¹²I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they shall not profit you.

¹³When you cry, let those who you have gathered deliver you; but the wind shall take them, a breath shall carry them all away: but he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain.

¹⁴He will say, Cast you up, cast you up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.

¹⁵For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

¹⁶For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls who I have made.

¹⁷For the iniquity of his covetousness was I angry, and struck him; I hid [my face] and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.

¹⁸I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.

¹⁹I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near, says Yahweh; and I will heal him.

²⁰But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can't rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.

²¹There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked.

58Cry aloud, don't spare, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

²Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and didn't forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

³Why have we fasted, [say they], and you don't see? [why] have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find [your own] pleasure, and exact all your labors.

⁴Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness: you don't fast this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.

⁵Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?

⁶Isn't this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

⁷Isn't it to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? when you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?

⁸Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your healing shall spring forth speedily; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Yahweh shall by your rearward.

⁹Then shall you call, and Yahweh will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly;

¹⁰and if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity be as the noonday;

¹¹and Yahweh will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make strong your bones; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters don't fail.

¹²Those who shall be of you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

¹³If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, [and] the holy of Yahweh honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking [your own] words:

¹⁴then shall you delight yourself in Yahweh; and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.

59Behold, Yahweh's hand is not shortened, that it can't save; neither his ear heavy, that it can't hear:

²but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

³For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness.

⁴None sues in righteousness, and none pleads in truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

⁵They hatch adders' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.

⁶Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

⁷Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their paths.

⁸The way of peace they don't know; and there is no justice in their goings: they have made them crooked paths; whoever goes therein does not know peace.

⁹Therefore is justice far from us, neither does righteousness overtake us: we look for light, but, behold, darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.

¹⁰We grope for the wall like the blind; yes, we grope as those who have no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the twilight; among those who are lusty we are as dead men.

¹¹We roar all like bears, and moan sore like doves: we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

¹²For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:

¹³transgressing and denying Yahweh, and turning away from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

¹⁴Justice is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness can't enter.

¹⁵Yes, truth is lacking; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him who there was no justice.

¹⁶He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and his righteousness, it upheld him.

¹⁷He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.

¹⁸According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense.

¹⁹So shall they fear the name of Yahweh from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the breath of Yahweh drives.

²⁰A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob, says Yahweh.

²¹As for me, this is my covenant with them, says Yahweh: my Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed, says Yahweh, from henceforth and forever.

60Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of Yahweh is risen on you.

²For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Yahweh will arise on you, and his glory shall be seen on you.

³Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

⁴Lift up your eyes round about, and see: they all gather themselves together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be carried in the arms.

⁵Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

⁶The multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praises of Yahweh.

⁷All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on my altar; and I will glorify the house of my glory.

⁸Who are these who fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?

⁹Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, for the name of Yahweh your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has glorified you.

¹⁰Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you: for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor have I had mercy on you.

¹¹Your gates also shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, and their kings led captive.

¹²For that nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; yes, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

¹³The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the fir-tree, the pine, and the box-tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.

¹⁴The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending to you; and all those who despised you shall bow themselves down at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you The city of Yahweh, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no man passed through you, I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.

¹⁶You shall also suck the milk of the nations, and shall suck the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

¹⁷For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron. I will also make your officers peace, and righteousness your ruler.

¹⁸Violence shall no more be heard in your land, desolation nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.

¹⁹The sun shall be no more your light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light to you: but Yahweh will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory.

²⁰Your sun shall no more go down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself; for Yahweh will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.

²¹Your people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

²²The little one shall become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation; I, Yahweh, will hasten it in its time.

61The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening [of the prison] to those who are bound;

²to proclaim the year of Yahweh's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

³to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.

⁴They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

⁵Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vine-dressers.

⁶But you shall be named the priests of Yahweh; men shall call you the ministers of our God: you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves.

⁷Instead of your shame [you shall have] double; and instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be to them.

⁸For I, Yahweh, love justice, I hate robbery with iniquity; and I will give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

⁹Their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which Yahweh has blessed.

¹⁰I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

¹¹For as the earth brings forth its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

62For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.

²The nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of Yahweh shall name.

³You shall also be a crown of beauty in the hand of Yahweh, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

⁴You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate: but you shall be called Hephzi-bah, and your land Beulah; for Yahweh delights in you, and your land shall be married.

⁵For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

⁶I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day nor night: you who call on Yahweh, take no rest,

⁷and give him no rest, until he establish, and until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

⁸Yahweh has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies; and foreigners shall not drink your new wine, for which you have labored:

⁹but those who have garnered it shall eat it, and praise Yahweh; and those who have gathered it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.

¹⁰Go through, go through the gates; prepare you the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up an ensign for the peoples.

¹¹Behold, Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth, Say you to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

¹²They shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of Yahweh: and you shall be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.

63Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.

²Why are you red in your clothing, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat?

³I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: yes, I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing.

⁴For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.

⁵I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my wrath, it upheld me.

⁶I trod down the peoples in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.

⁷I will make mention of the lovingkindnesses of Yahweh, [and] the praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.

⁸For he said, Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely: so he was their Savior.

⁹In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old.

¹⁰But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, [and] himself fought against them.

¹¹Then he remembered the days of old, Moses [and] his people, [saying], Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? where is he who put his holy Spirit in the midst of them?

¹²who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? who divided the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name?

¹³who led them through the depths, as a horse in the wilderness, so that they didn't stumble?

¹⁴As the cattle that go down into the valley, the Spirit of Yahweh caused them to rest; so did you lead your people, to make yourself a glorious name.

¹⁵Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where are your zeal and your mighty acts? the yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me.

¹⁶For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn't know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us: you, Yahweh, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name.

¹⁷O Yahweh, why do you make us to err from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants' sake, the tribes of your inheritance.

¹⁸Your holy people possessed [it] but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.

¹⁹We are become as they over whom you never bear rule, as those who were not called by your name.

64Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence,

²as when fire kindles the brushwood, [and] the fire causes the waters to boil; to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!

³When you did terrible things which we didn't look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

⁴For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides you, who works for him who waits for him.

⁵You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways: behold, you were angry, and we sinned: in them [have we been] of long time; and shall we be saved?

⁶For we are all become as one who is unclean, and all our righteousness are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

⁷There is none who calls on your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of you; for you have hid your face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities.

⁸But now, Yahweh, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.

⁹Don't be angry very sore, Yahweh, neither remember iniquity forever: see, look, we beg you, we are all your people.

¹⁰Your holy cities are become a wilderness, Zion is become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

¹¹Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant places are laid waste.

¹²Will you refrain yourself for these things, Yahweh? will you hold your peace, and afflict us very sore?

65I am inquired of by those who didn't ask; I am found by those who didn't seek me: I said, See me, see me, to a nation that was not called by my name.

²I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;

³a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens, and burning incense on bricks;

⁴who sit among the graves, and lodge in the secret places; who eat pig's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;

⁵who say, Stand by yourself, don't come near to me, for I am holier than you. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all the day.

⁶Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, yes, I will recompense into their bosom,

⁷your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, says Yahweh, who have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills; therefore will I first measure their work into their bosom.

⁸Thus says Yahweh, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, Don't destroy it, for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all.

⁹I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains; and my chosen shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.

¹⁰Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in, for my people who have sought me.

¹¹But you who forsake Yahweh, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for Fortune, and who fill up mingled wine to Destiny;

¹²I will destine you to the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear; but you did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn't delight.

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame;

¹⁴behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for vexation of spirit.

¹⁵You shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you; and he will call his servants by another name:

¹⁶so that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from my eyes.

¹⁷For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

¹⁸But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

¹⁹I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of crying.

²⁰There shall be no more there an infant of days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; for the child shall die one hundred years old, and the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed.

²¹They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.

²²They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

²³They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for calamity; for they are the seed of the blessed of Yahweh, and their offspring with them.

²⁴It shall happen that, before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

²⁵The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says Yahweh.

66Thus says Yahweh, heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what manner of house will you build to me? and what place shall be my rest?

²For all these things has my hand made, and [so] all these things came to be, says Yahweh: but to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.

³He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog's neck; he who offers an offering, [as he who offers] pig's blood; he who burns frankincense, as he who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations:

⁴I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears on them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spoke, they did not hear: but they did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn't delight.

⁵Hear the word of Yahweh, you who tremble at his word: Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name's sake, have said, Let Yahweh be glorified, that we may see your joy; but it is those who shall be put to shame.

⁶A voice of tumult from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of Yahweh that renders recompense to his enemies.

⁷Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man-child.

⁸Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? shall a nation be brought forth at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

⁹Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? says Yahweh: shall I who cause to bring forth shut [the womb]? says your God.

¹⁰Rejoice you with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her;

¹¹that you may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that you may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.

¹²For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and you shall suck [of it]; you shall be borne on the side, and shall be dandled on the knees.

¹³As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

¹⁴You shall see [it], and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hand of Yahweh shall be known toward his servants; and he will have indignation against his enemies.

¹⁵For, behold, Yahweh will come with fire, and his chariots shall be like the whirlwind; to render his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire.

¹⁶For by fire will Yahweh execute judgment, and by his sword, on all flesh; and the slain of Yahweh shall be many.

¹⁷Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves [to go] to the gardens, behind one in the midst, eating pig's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together, says Yahweh.

¹⁸For I [know] their works and their thoughts: [the time] comes, that I will gather all nations and languages; and they shall come, and shall see my glory.

¹⁹I will set a sign among them, and I will send such as escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off, who have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations.

²⁰They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations for an offering to Yahweh, on horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says Yahweh, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into the house of Yahweh.

²¹Of them also will I take for priests [and] for Levites, says Yahweh.

²²For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says Yahweh, so shall your seed and your name remain.

²³It shall happen, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says Yahweh.

²⁴They shall go forth, and look on the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh.

1The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:

²to whom the word of Yahweh came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

³It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

⁴Now the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

⁵Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.

⁶Then said I, Ah, Lord Yahweh! behold, I don't know how to speak; for I am a child.

⁷But Yahweh said to me, Don't say, I am a child; for to whoever I shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command you, you shall speak.

⁸Don't be afraid because of them; for I am with you to deliver you, says Yahweh.

⁹Then Yahweh put forth his hand, and touched my mouth; and Yahweh said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth:

¹⁰behold, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

¹¹Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what see you? I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree.

¹²Then said Yahweh to me, You have well seen: for I watch over my word to perform it.

¹³The word of Yahweh came to me the second time, saying, What see you? I said, I see a boiling caldron; and the face of it is from the north.

¹⁴Then Yahweh said to me, Out of the north evil shall break forth on all the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁵For, behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says Yahweh; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls of it round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

¹⁶I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

¹⁷You therefore gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command you: don't be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them.

¹⁸For, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes of it, against the priests of it, and against the people of the land.

¹⁹They shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you: for I am with you, says Yahweh, to deliver you.

2The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

³Israel [was] holiness to Yahweh, the first-fruits of his increase: all who devour him shall be held guilty; evil shall come on them, says Yahweh.

⁴Hear you the word of Yahweh, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:

⁵thus says Yahweh, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

⁶Neither said they, Where is Yahweh who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none passed through, and where no man lived?

⁷I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat the fruit of it and the goodness of it; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.

⁸The priests didn't say, Where is Yahweh? and those who handle the law didn't know me: the rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

⁹Therefore I will yet contend with you, says Yahweh, and with your children's children will I contend.

¹⁰For pass over to the isles of Kittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there has been such a thing.

¹¹Has a nation changed [its] gods, which yet are no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

¹²Be astonished, you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be you very desolate, says Yahweh.

¹³For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

¹⁴Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born [slave]? why is he become a prey?

¹⁵The young lions have roared on him, and yelled; and they have made his land waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant.

¹⁶The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of your head.

¹⁷Haven't you procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, when he led you by the way?

¹⁸Now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? or what have you to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?

¹⁹Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you, says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts.

²⁰For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds; and you said, I will not serve; for on every high hill and under every green tree you did bow yourself, playing the prostitute.

²¹Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

²²For though you wash you with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord Yahweh.

²³How can you say, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals? see your way in the valley, know what you have done: [you are] a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

²⁴a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind in her desire; in her occasion who can turn her away? all those who seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

²⁵Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst: but you said, It is in vain; no, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

²⁶As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets;

²⁷who tell a stock, You are my father; and to a stone, You have brought me forth: for they have turned their back to me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.

²⁸But where are your gods that you have made you? let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah.

²⁹Why will you contend with me? you all have transgressed against me, says Yahweh.

³⁰In vain have I struck your children; they received no correction: your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

³¹Generation, see the word of Yahweh. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? or a land of thick darkness? why say my people, We are broken loose; we will come no more to you?

³²Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

³³How trimmest you your way to seek love! therefore even the wicked women have you taught your ways.

³⁴Also in your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor: you did not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things.

³⁵Yet you said, I am innocent; surely his anger is turned away from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with you, because you say, I have not sinned.

³⁶Why go you about so much to change your way? you shall be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

³⁷From there also shall you go forth, with your hands on your head: for Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with them.

3They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, will he return to her again? Won't that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me, says Yahweh.

²Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see; where have you not been lain with? By the ways have you sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

³Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute's forehead, you refused to be ashamed.

⁴Will you not from this time cry to me, My Father, you are the guide of my youth?

⁵Will he retain [his anger] forever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.

⁶Moreover Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she is gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the prostitute.

⁷I said after she had done all these things, She will return to me; but she didn't return: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

⁸I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, didn't fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.

⁹It happened through the lightness of her prostitution, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

¹⁰Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense, says Yahweh.

¹¹Yahweh said to me, Backsliding Israel has showed herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, says Yahweh; I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful, says Yahweh, I will not keep [anger] forever.

¹³Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says Yahweh.

¹⁴Return, backsliding children, says Yahweh; for I am a husband to you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

¹⁵and I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

¹⁶It shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says Yahweh, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Yahweh; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more.

¹⁷At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Yahweh; and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

¹⁸In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

¹⁹But I said, How I will put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of the nations! and I said, You shall call me My Father, and shall not turn away from following me.

²⁰Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel, says Yahweh.

²¹A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping [and] the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God.

²²Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding. Behold, we are come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.

²³Truly in vain is [the help that is looked for] from the hills, the tumult on the mountains: truly in Yahweh our God is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

²⁵Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God.

4If you will return, Israel, says Yahweh, if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you shall not be removed;

²and you shall swear, As Yahweh lives, in truth, in justice, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

³For thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and don't sow among thorns.

⁴Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

⁵Declare you in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow you the trumpet in the land: cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.

⁶Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, don't stay; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

⁷A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.

⁸For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn't turned back from us.

⁹It shall happen at that day, says Yahweh, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.

¹⁰Then said I, Ah, Lord Yahweh! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace; whereas the sword reaches to the life.

¹¹At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse;

¹²a full wind from these shall come for me: now will I also utter judgments against them.

¹³Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots [shall be] as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are ruined.

¹⁴Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?

¹⁵For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of Ephraim:

¹⁶make you mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, [that] watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.

¹⁷As keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she has been rebellious against me, says Yahweh.

¹⁸Your way and your doings have procured these things to you; this is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.

¹⁹My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can't hold my peace; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

²⁰Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] my curtains in a moment.

²¹How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²For my people are foolish, they know don't me; they are foolish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

²³I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

²⁴I saw the mountains, and, behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.

²⁵I saw, and, behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky were fled.

²⁶I saw, and, behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities of it were broken down at the presence of Yahweh, [and] before his fierce anger.

²⁷For thus says Yahweh, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end.

²⁸For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.

²⁹Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers; they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.

³⁰You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain do you make yourself beautiful; [your] lovers despise you, they seek your life.

³¹For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, [saying], Woe is me now! for my soul faints before the murderers.

5Run you back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places of it, if you can find a man, if there are any who does justly, who seeks truth; and I will pardon her.

²Though they say, As Yahweh lives; surely they swear falsely.

³O Yahweh, don't your eyes look on truth? you have stricken them, but they were not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

⁴Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they don't know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God:

⁵I will get me to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

⁶Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, [and] their backsliding is increased.

⁷How can I pardon you? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes' houses.

⁸They were as fed horses roaming at large; everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife.

⁹Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰Go you up on her walls, and destroy; but don't make a full end: take away her branches; for they are not Yahweh's.

¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, says Yahweh.

¹²They have denied Yahweh, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

¹³and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done to them.

¹⁴Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

¹⁵Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far, house of Israel, says Yahweh: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don't know, neither understand what they say.

¹⁶Their quiver is an open tomb, they are all mighty men.

¹⁷They shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, [which] your sons and your daughters should eat; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig-trees; they shall beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.

¹⁸But even in those days, says Yahweh, I will not make a full end with you.

¹⁹It shall happen, when you shall say, Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us? then shall you say to them, Like as you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

²⁰Declare you this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

²¹Hear now this, foolish people, and without understanding; who have eyes, and don't see; who have ears, and don't hear:

²²Don't you fear me? says Yahweh: won't you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can't pass it? and though the waves of it toss themselves, yet they can't prevail; though they roar, yet they can't pass over it.

²³But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.

²⁴Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear Yahweh our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

²⁵Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you.

²⁶For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.

²⁷As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and grew rich.

²⁸They are grew fat, they shine: yes, they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they don't plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy they don't judge.

²⁹Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

³⁰A wonderful and horrible thing is happen in the land:

³¹the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end of it?

6Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on Beth-haccherem; for evil looks forth from the north, and a great destruction.

²The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut off.

³Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed everyone in his place.

⁴Prepare you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! for the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

⁵Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces.

⁶For thus has Yahweh of Hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

⁷As a well casts forth its waters, so she casts forth her wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before me continually is sickness and wounds.

⁸Be you instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.

⁹Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn again your hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets.

¹⁰To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can't listen: behold, the word of Yahweh is become to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

¹¹Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh; I am weary with holding in: pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.

¹²Their houses shall be turned to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, says Yahweh.

¹³For from the least of them even to the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.

¹⁴They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

¹⁵Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh, Stand you in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk [therein].

¹⁷I set watchmen over you, [saying], Listen to the sound of the trumpet; but they said, We will not listen.

¹⁸Therefore hear, you nations, and know, congregation, what is among them.

¹⁹Hear, earth: behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

²⁰To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.

²¹Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people; and the fathers and the sons together shall stumble against them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish.

²²Thus says Yahweh, Behold, a people comes from the north country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

²³They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion.

²⁴We have heard the report of it; our hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, [and] pangs as of a woman in travail.

²⁵Don't go forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, [and] terror, are on every side.

²⁶Daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make you mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us.

²⁷I have made you a tester of metals [and] a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way.

²⁸They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly.

²⁹The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away.

³⁰Refuse silver shall men them, because Yahweh has rejected them.

7The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

²Stand in the gate of Yahweh's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh.

³Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

⁴Don't you trust in lying words, saying, The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, are these.

⁵For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;

⁶if you don't oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don't shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:

⁷then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forevermore.

⁸Behold, you trust in lying words, that can't profit.

⁹Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,

¹⁰and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do all these abominations?

¹¹Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Yahweh.

¹²But go you now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

¹³Now, because you have done all these works, says Yahweh, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn't hear; and I called you, but you didn't answer:

¹⁴therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

¹⁵I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

¹⁶Therefore don't you pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you.

¹⁷Don't you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink-offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

¹⁹Do they provoke me to anger? says Yahweh; [do they] not [provoke] themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?

²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

²¹Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat you flesh.

²²For I didn't speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

²³but this thing I commanded them, saying, Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk you in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.

²⁴But they didn't listen nor turn their ear, but walked in [their own] counsels [and] in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

²⁵Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:

²⁶yet they didn't listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.

²⁷You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.

²⁸You shall tell them, This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of Yahweh their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

²⁹Cut off your hair, [Jerusalem], and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

³⁰For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says Yahweh: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

³¹They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I didn't command, neither came it into my mind.

³²Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until there be no place [to bury].

³³The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.

³⁴Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.

8At that time, says Yahweh, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves;

²and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of the sky, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth.

³Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them, says Yahweh of Hosts.

⁴Moreover you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?

⁵Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

⁶I listened and heard, but they didn't speak aright: no man repents him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.

⁷Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtle-dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don't know the law of Yahweh.

⁸How do you say, We are wise, and the law of Yahweh is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.

⁹The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken: behold, they have rejected the word of Yahweh; and what manner of wisdom is in them?

¹⁰Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall possess them: for everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.

¹¹They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

¹²Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.

¹³I will utterly consume them, says Yahweh: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf shall fade; and [the things that] I have given them shall pass away from them.

¹⁴Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.

¹⁵We looked for peace, but no good came; [and] for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay!

¹⁶The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those who dwell therein.

¹⁷For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says Yahweh.

¹⁸Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me.

¹⁹Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: isn't Yahweh in Zion? Isn't her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities?

²⁰The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

²¹For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then isn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

9Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

²Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

³They bend their tongue, [as it were] their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don't know me, says Yahweh.

⁴Take you heed everyone of his neighbor, and don't you trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.

⁵They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.

⁶Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says Yahweh.

⁷Therefore thus says Yahweh of Hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how [else] should I do, because of the daughter of my people?

⁸Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him.

⁹Shall I not visit them for these things? says Yahweh; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

¹⁰For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled, they are gone.

¹¹I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

¹²Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and [who is] he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through?

¹³Yahweh says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,

¹⁴but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;

¹⁵therefore thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

¹⁶I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

¹⁷Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, Consider you, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:

¹⁸and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

¹⁹For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.

²⁰Yet hear the word of Yahweh, you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor lamentation.

²¹For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from outside, [and] the young men from the streets.

²²Speak, Thus says Yahweh, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester; and none shall gather [them].

²³Thus says Yahweh, Don't let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don't let the rich man glory in his riches;

²⁴but let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says Yahweh.

²⁵Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will punish all those who are circumcised in [their] uncircumcision:

²⁶Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners [of their hair] cut off, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.

10Hear you the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel:

²thus says Yahweh, "Don't learn the way of the nations, and don't be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them.

³For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the ax.

⁴They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move.

⁵They are like a palm-tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good.

⁶There is none like you, Yahweh; you are great, and your name is great in might.

⁷Who should not fear you, King of the nations? for to you does it appertain; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like you.

⁸But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock.

⁹There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skillful men.

¹⁰But Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation.

¹¹Thus shall you say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.

¹²He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens:

¹³when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries.

¹⁴Every man is become brutish [and is] without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

¹⁵They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

¹⁶The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Hosts is his name.

¹⁷Gather up your wares out of the land, you who abide in the siege.

¹⁸For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel [it].

¹⁹Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is [my] grief, and I must bear it.

²⁰My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are no more: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

²¹For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Yahweh: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.

²²The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals.

²³Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

²⁴Yahweh, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

²⁵Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you, and on the families that don't call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

11The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

²Hear you the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

³and say you to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who doesn't hear the words of this covenant,

⁴which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall you be my people, and I will be your God;

⁵that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then answered I, and said, Amen, Yahweh.

⁶Yahweh said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear you the words of this covenant, and do them.

⁷For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.

⁸Yet they didn't obey, nor turn their ear, but walked everyone in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they didn't do them.

⁹Yahweh said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they are gone after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

¹¹Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will bring evil on them, which they shall not be able to escape; and they shall cry to me, but I will not listen to them.

¹²Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry to the gods to which they offer incense: but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

¹³For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.

¹⁴Therefore don't you pray for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble.

¹⁵What has my beloved to do in my house, seeing she has worked lewdness [with] many, and the holy flesh is passed from you? when you do evil, then you rejoice.

¹⁶Yahweh called your name, A green olive-tree, beautiful with goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire on it, and the branches of it are broken.

¹⁷For Yahweh of Hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have worked for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal.

¹⁸Yahweh gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it: then you showed me their doings.

¹⁹But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I didn't know that they had devised devices against me, [saying], Let us destroy the tree with the fruit of it, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

²⁰But, Yahweh of Hosts, who judge righteously, who try the heart and the mind, I shall see your vengeance on them; for to you have I revealed my cause.

²¹Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, You shall not prophesy in the name of Yahweh, that you not die by our hand;

²²therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine;

²³and there shall be no remnant to them: for I will bring evil on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

12Righteous are you, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet would I reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously?

²You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.

³But you, Yahweh, know me; you see me, and try my heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

⁴How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? for the wickedness of those who dwell therein, the animals are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our latter end.

⁵If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? and though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?

⁶For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; even they have cried aloud after you: don't believe them, though they speak beautiful words to you.

⁷I have forsaken my house, I have cast off my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

⁸My heritage is become to me as a lion in the forest: she has uttered her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.

⁹Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey? are the birds of prey against her round about? go you, assemble all the animals of the field, bring them to devour.

¹⁰Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

¹¹They have made it a desolation; it mourns to me, being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.

¹²Destroyers are come on all the bare heights in the wilderness; for the sword of Yahweh devours from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh has peace.

¹³They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing: and you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of Yahweh.

¹⁴Thus says Yahweh against all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.

¹⁵It shall happen, after that I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.

¹⁶It shall happen, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, As Yahweh lives; even as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built up in the midst of my people.

¹⁷But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it, says Yahweh.

13Thus says Yahweh to me, Go, and buy you a linen belt, and put it on your loins, and don't put it in water.

²So I bought a belt according to the word of Yahweh, and put it on my loins.

³The word of Yahweh came to me the second time, saying,

⁴Take the belt that you have bought, which is on your loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.

⁵So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Yahweh commanded me.

⁶It happened after many days, that Yahweh said to me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there.

⁷Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hid it; and, behold, the belt was marred, it was profitable for nothing.

⁸Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

⁹Thus says Yahweh, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.

¹⁰This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing.

¹¹For as the belt cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says Yahweh; that they may be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

¹²Therefore you shall speak to them this word: Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall tell you, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

¹³Then shall you tell them, Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.

¹⁴I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says Yahweh: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them.

¹⁵Hear you, and give ear; don't be proud; for Yahweh has spoken.

¹⁶Give glory to Yahweh your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

¹⁷But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for [your] pride; and my eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because Yahweh's flock is taken captive.

¹⁸Say you to the king and to the queen-mother, Humble yourselves, sit down; for your headdresses are come down, even the crown of your glory.

¹⁹The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them: Judah is carried away captive, all of it; it is wholly carried away captive.

²⁰Lift up your eyes, and see those who come from the north: where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?

²¹What will you say, when he shall set over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? shall not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?

²²If you say in your heart, Why are these things come on me? for the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels suffer violence.

²³Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

²⁴Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that passes away, by the wind of the wilderness.

²⁵This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me, says Yahweh; because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

²⁶Therefore will I also uncover your skirts on your face, and your shame shall appear.

²⁷I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries, and your neighing, the lewdness of your prostitution, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem! you will not be made clean; how long shall it yet be?

14The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.

²Judah mourns, and the gates of it languish, they sit in black on the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

³Their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are put to shame and confounded, and cover their heads.

⁴Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are put to shame, they cover their heads.

⁵Yes, the hind also in the field calves, and forsakes [her young], because there is no grass.

⁶The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage.

⁷Though our iniquities testify against us, work you for your name's sake, Yahweh; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.

⁸You hope of Israel, the Savior of it in the time of trouble, why should you be as a sojourner in the land, and as a wayfaring man who turns aside to stay for a night?

⁹Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can't save? yet you, Yahweh, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; don't leave us.

¹⁰Thus says Yahweh to this people, Even so have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet: therefore Yahweh does not accept them; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

¹¹Yahweh said to me, Don't pray for this people for [their] good.

¹²When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal-offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

¹³Then said I, Ah, Lord Yahweh! behold, the prophets tell them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.

¹⁴Then Yahweh said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name; I didn't send them, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke I to them: they prophesy to you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart.

¹⁵Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, and I didn't send them, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

¹⁶The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them-them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness on them.

¹⁷You shall say this word to them, Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound.

¹⁸If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine! for both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.

¹⁹Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay!

²⁰We acknowledge, Yahweh, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you.

²¹Do not abhor [us], for your name's sake; do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, don't break your covenant with us.

²²Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the sky give showers? Aren't you he, Yahweh our God? therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.

15Then said Yahweh to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

²It shall happen, when they tell you, Where shall we go forth? then you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.

³I will appoint over them four kinds, says Yahweh: the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

⁴I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

⁵For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? or who will bemoan you? or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare?

⁶You have rejected me, says Yahweh, you are gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting.

⁷I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved [them] of children, I have destroyed my people; they didn't return from their ways.

⁸Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.

⁹She who has borne seven languishes; she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been put to shame and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says Yahweh.

¹⁰Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; [yet] everyone of them does curse me.

¹¹Yahweh said, Most assuredly I will strengthen you for good; most assuredly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

¹²Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass?

¹³Your substance and your treasures will I give for a spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.

¹⁴I will make [them] to pass with your enemies into a land which you don't know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn on you.

¹⁵Yahweh, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; don't take me away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.

¹⁶Your words were found, and I ate them; and your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of hosts.

¹⁷I didn't sit in the assembly of those who make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand; for you have filled me with indignation.

¹⁸Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you indeed be to me as a deceitful [brook], as waters that fail?

¹⁹Therefore thus says Yahweh, If you return, then will I bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall return to you, but you shall not return to them.

²⁰I will make you to this people a fortified brazen wall; and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says Yahweh.

²¹I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.

16The word of Yahweh came also to me, saying,

²You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.

³For thus says Yahweh concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became the father of them in this land:

⁴They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth.

⁵For thus says Yahweh, Don't enter into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says Yahweh, even lovingkindness and tender mercies.

⁶Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them;

⁷neither shall men break [bread] for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

⁸You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.

⁹For thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰It shall happen, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall tell you, Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?

¹¹Then shall you tell them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says Yahweh, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

¹²and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don't listen to me:

¹³therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.

¹⁴Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be said, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

¹⁵but, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them. I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says Yahweh, and they shall fish them up; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.

¹⁷For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.

¹⁸First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.

¹⁹Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, [even] vanity and things in which there is no profit.

²⁰Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods?

²¹Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is Yahweh.

17The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, [and] with the point of a diamond: it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars;

²while their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the green trees on the high hills.

³My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a spoil, [and] your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.

⁴You, even of yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you don't know: for you have kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn forever.

⁵Thus says Yahweh: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.

⁶For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited.

⁷Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose trust Yahweh is.

⁸For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?

¹⁰I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

¹¹As the partridge that sits on [eggs] which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool.

¹²A glorious throne, [set] on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.

¹³Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters.

¹⁴Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.

¹⁵Behold, they tell me, Where is the word of Yahweh? let it come now.

¹⁶As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you; neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of my lips was before your face.

¹⁷Don't be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of evil.

¹⁸Let them be put to shame who persecute me, but let not me be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but don't let me be dismayed; bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

¹⁹Thus said Yahweh to me: Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;

²⁰and tell them, Hear you the word of Yahweh, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:

²¹Thus says Yahweh, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

²²neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day holy, neither do any work: but make the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.

²³But they didn't listen, neither turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction.

²⁴It shall happen, if you diligently listen to me, says Yahweh, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein;

²⁵then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever.

²⁶They shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill-country, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing [sacrifices of] thanksgiving, to the house of Yahweh.

²⁷But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates of it, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

18The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

²Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.

³Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he was making a work on the wheels.

⁴When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

⁶House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter? says Yahweh. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.

⁷At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;

⁸if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.

⁹At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;

¹⁰if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.

¹¹Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

¹²But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do everyone after the stubbornness of his evil heart.

¹³Therefore thus says Yahweh: Ask you now among the nations, who has heard such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.

¹⁴Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? [or] shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?

¹⁵For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false [gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up;

¹⁶to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

¹⁷I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

¹⁸Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

¹⁹Give heed to me, Yahweh, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me.

²⁰Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.

²¹Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, [and] their young men struck of the sword in battle.

²²Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

²³Yet, Yahweh, you know all their counsel against me to kill me; don't forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before you; deal you with them in the time of your anger.

19Thus said Yahweh, Go, and buy a potter's earthen bottle, and [take] of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;

²and go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you;

³and say, Hear you the word of Yahweh, kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears, his ears shall tingle.

⁴Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, that they didn't know, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents,

⁵and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal; which I didn't command, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:

⁶therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter.

⁷I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life: and their dead bodies will I give to be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth.

⁸I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues of it.

⁹I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, shall distress them.

¹⁰Then shall you break the bottle in the sight of the men who go with you,

¹¹and shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that can't be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, until there be no place to bury.

¹²Thus will I do to this place, says Yahweh, and to the inhabitants of it, even making this city as Topheth:

¹³and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of the sky, and have poured out drink-offerings to other gods.

¹⁴Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of Yahweh's house, and said to all the people:

¹⁵Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear my words.

20Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in the house of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

²Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of Yahweh.

³It happened on the next day, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah to him, Yahweh has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.

⁴For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall kill them with the sword.

⁵Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all the gains of it, and all the precious things of it, yes, all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies; and they shall make them a prey, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

⁶You, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house shall go into captivity; and you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die, and there shall you be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.

⁷Yahweh, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded; you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the day, every one mocks me.

⁸For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, Violence and destruction! because the word of Yahweh is made a reproach to me, and a derision, all the day.

⁹If I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I can't [contain].

¹⁰For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, [say] all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall; peradventure he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

¹¹But Yahweh is with me as an awesome mighty one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail; they shall be utterly put to shame, because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonor which shall never be forgotten.

¹²But, Yahweh of Hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance on them; for to you have I revealed my cause.

¹³Sing to Yahweh, praise you Yahweh; for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evil-doers.

¹⁴Cursed be the day in which I was born: don't let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.

¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought news to my father, saying, A man-child is born to you; making him very glad.

¹⁶Let that man be as the cities which Yahweh overthrew, and didn't repent: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime;

¹⁷because he didn't kill me from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.

¹⁸Why came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

21The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,

²Please inquire of Yahweh for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon makes war against us: peradventure Yahweh will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.

³Then said Jeremiah to them, Thus shall you tell Zedekiah:

⁴Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who besiege you, without the walls; and I will gather them into the midst of this city.

⁵I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation.

⁶I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and animal: they shall die of a great pestilence.

⁷Afterward, says Yahweh, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, even such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life: and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

⁸To this people you shall say, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.

⁹He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he who goes out, and passes over to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be to him for a prey.

¹⁰For I have set my face on this city for evil, and not for good, says Yahweh: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

¹¹Touching the house of the king of Judah, hear you the word of Yahweh:

¹²House of David, thus says Yahweh, Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

¹³Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, [and] of the rock of the plain, says Yahweh; you that say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?

¹⁴I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says Yahweh; and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is round about her.

22Thus said Yahweh: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,

²Say, Hear the word of Yahweh, king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates.

³Thus says Yahweh: Execute you justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the sojourner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place.

⁴For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

⁵But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says Yahweh, that this house shall become a desolation.

⁶For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, [and] the head of Lebanon; [yet] surely I will make you a wilderness, [and] cities which are not inhabited.

⁷I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

⁸Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Why has Yahweh done thus to this great city?

⁹Then they shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

¹⁰Don't you weep for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep sore for him who goes away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

¹¹For thus says Yahweh touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, [and] who went forth out of this place: He shall not return there any more.

¹²But in the place where they have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more.

¹³Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; who uses his neighbor's service without wages, and doesn't give him his hire;

¹⁴who says, I will build me a wide house and spacious chambers, and cuts him out windows; and it is ceiling with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

¹⁵Shall you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Didn't your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? then it was well with him.

¹⁶He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Wasn't this to know me? says Yahweh.

¹⁷But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

¹⁸Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: they shall not lament for him, [saying], Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! They shall not lament for him, [saying] Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!

¹⁹He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers are destroyed.

²¹I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you didn't obey my voice.

²²The wind shall feed all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.

²³Inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied shall you be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in travail!

²⁴As I live, says Yahweh, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, yet would I pluck you there;

²⁵and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

²⁶I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country, where you were not born; and there shall you die.

²⁷But to the land whereunto their soul longs to return, there shall they not return.

²⁸Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? is he a vessel in which none delights? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they don't know?

²⁹O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Yahweh.

³⁰Thus says Yahweh, Write you this man childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling in Judah.

23Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says Yahweh.

²Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, says Yahweh.

³I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply.

⁴I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says Yahweh.

⁵Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

⁶In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called: Yahweh our righteousness.

⁷Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that they shall no more say, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

⁸but, As Yahweh lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them. They shall dwell in their own land.

⁹Concerning the prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of Yahweh, and because of his holy words.

¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right;

¹¹for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I found their wickedness, says Yahweh.

¹²Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation, says Yahweh.

¹³I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

¹⁴In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, so that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them become to me as Sodom, and the inhabitants of it as Gomorrah.

¹⁵Therefore thus says Yahweh of Hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land.

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, Don't listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Yahweh.

¹⁷They say continually to those who despise me, Yahweh has said, You shall have peace; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come on you.

¹⁸For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his word? who has marked my word, and heard it?

¹⁹Behold, the tempest of Yahweh, [even his] wrath, is gone forth, yes, a whirling tempest: it shall burst on the head of the wicked.

²⁰The anger of Yahweh shall not return, until he has executed, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly.

²¹I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I didn't speak to them, yet they prophesied.

²²But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

²³Am I a God at hand, says Yahweh, and not a God afar off?

²⁴Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says Yahweh. Don't I fill heaven and earth? says Yahweh.

²⁵I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

²⁶How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart?

²⁷who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.

²⁸The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat? says Yahweh.

²⁹Isn't my word like fire? says Yahweh; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

³⁰Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who steal my words everyone from his neighbor.

³¹Behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who use their tongues, and say, He says.

³²Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says Yahweh, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I didn't send them, nor commanded them; neither do they profit this people at all, says Yahweh.

³³When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of Yahweh? then shall you tell them, What burden! I will cast you off, says Yahweh.

³⁴As for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, who shall say, The burden of Yahweh, I will even punish that man and his house.

³⁵Thus shall you say everyone to his neighbor, and everyone to his brother, What has Yahweh answered? and, What has Yahweh spoken?

³⁶The burden of Yahweh shall you mention no more: for every man's own word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of Yahweh of Hosts our God.

³⁷Thus shall you say to the prophet, What has Yahweh answered you? and, What has Yahweh spoken?

³⁸But if you say, The burden of Yahweh; therefore thus says Yahweh: Because you say this word, The burden of Yahweh, and I have sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of Yahweh;

³⁹therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence:

⁴⁰and I will bring an everlasting reproach on you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

24Yahweh showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of Yahweh, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

²One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

³Then said Yahweh to me, What see you, Jeremiah? I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that can't be eaten, they are so bad.

⁴The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

⁵Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good.

⁶For I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

⁷I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Yahweh: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

⁸As the bad figs, which can't be eaten, they are so bad, surely thus says Yahweh, So will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt,

⁹I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.

¹⁰I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, until they be consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.

25The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (the same was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon,)

²which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:

³From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years, the word of Yahweh has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking; but you have not listened.

⁴Yahweh has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, (but you have not listened, nor inclined your ear to hear,)

⁵saying, Return you now everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Yahweh has given to you and to your fathers, from of old and even forevermore;

⁶and don't go after other gods to serve them or worship them, and don't provoke me to anger with the work of your hands; and I will do you no harm.

⁷Yet you have not listened to me, says Yahweh; that you may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.

⁸Therefore thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Because you have not heard my words,

⁹behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says Yahweh, and [I will send] to Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants of it, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.

¹⁰Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.

¹¹This whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

¹²It shall happen, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, says Yahweh, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it desolate forever.

¹³I will bring on that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.

¹⁴For many nations and great kings shall make bondservants of them, even of them; and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the work of their hands.

¹⁵For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me: take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it.

¹⁶They shall drink, and reel back and forth, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.

¹⁷Then took I the cup at Yahweh's hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom Yahweh had sent me:

¹⁸[to wit], Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings of it, and the princes of it, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day;

¹⁹Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;

²⁰and all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of the Uz, and all the kings of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;

²¹Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon;

²²and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the isle which is beyond the sea;

²³Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all who have the corners [of their hair] cut off;

²⁴and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people who dwell in the wilderness;

²⁵and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes;

²⁶and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world, which are on the surface of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

²⁷You shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Drink you, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.

²⁸It shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then shall you tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: You shall surely drink.

²⁹For, behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says Yahweh of Hosts.

³⁰Therefore prophesy you against them all these words, and tell them, Yahweh will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he will mightily roar against his fold; he will give a shout, as those who tread [the grapes], against all the inhabitants of the earth.

³¹A noise shall come even to the end of the earth; for Yahweh has a controversy with the nations; he will enter into judgment with all flesh: as for the wicked, he will give them to the sword, says Yahweh.

³²Thus says Yahweh of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest shall be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

³³The slain of Yahweh shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung on the surface of the ground.

³⁴Wail, you shepherds, and cry; and wallow [in ashes], you principal of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are fully come, and you shall fall like a goodly vessel.

³⁵The shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.

³⁶A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of the principal of the flock! for Yahweh lays waste their pasture.

³⁷The peaceable folds are brought to silence because of the fierce anger of Yahweh.

³⁸He has left his covert, as the lion; for their land is become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressing [sword], and because of his fierce anger.

26In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from Yahweh, saying,

²Thus says Yahweh: Stand in the court of Yahweh's house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in Yahweh's house, all the words that I command you to speak to them; don't diminish a word.

³It may be they will listen, and turn every man from his evil way; that I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do to them because of the evil of their doings.

⁴You shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,

⁵to listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send to you, even rising up early and sending them, but you have not listened;

⁶then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.

⁷The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of Yahweh.

⁸It happened, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that Yahweh had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, You shall surely die.

⁹Why have you prophesied in the name of Yahweh, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant? All the people were gathered to Jeremiah in the house of Yahweh.

¹⁰When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of Yahweh; and they sat in the entry of the new gate of Yahweh's [house].

¹¹Then spoke the priests and the prophets to the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy of death; for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.

¹²Then spoke Jeremiah to all the princes and to all the people, saying, Yahweh sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.

¹³Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of Yahweh your God; and Yahweh will repent him of the evil that he has pronounced against you.

¹⁴But as for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as is good and right in your eyes.

¹⁵Only know for certain that, if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, and on this city, and on the inhabitants of it; for of a truth Yahweh has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.

¹⁶Then said the princes and all the people to the priests and to the prophets: This man is not worthy of death; for he has spoken to us in the name of Yahweh our God.

¹⁷Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,

¹⁸Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

¹⁹Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Didn't he fear Yahweh, and entreat the favor of Yahweh, and Yahweh repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus should we commit great evil against our own souls.

²⁰There was also a man who prophesied in the name of Yahweh, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:

²¹and when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty-men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt:

²²and Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, [namely], Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt;

²³and they fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him to Jehoiakim the king, who killed him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.

²⁴But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

27In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

²Thus says Yahweh to me: Make you bonds and bars, and put them on your neck;

³and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah;

⁴and give them a charge to their masters, saying, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Thus shall you tell your masters:

⁵I have made the earth, the men and the animals that are on the surface of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me.

⁶Now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the animals of the field also have I given him to serve him.

⁷All the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his own land come: and then many nations and great kings shall make him their bondservant.

⁸It shall happen, that the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, says Yahweh, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

⁹But as for you, don't you listen to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreams, nor to your soothsayers, nor to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon:

¹⁰for they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and you should perish.

¹¹But the nation that shall bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, that [nation] will I let remain in their own land, says Yahweh; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.

¹²I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

¹³Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

¹⁴Don't listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie to you.

¹⁵For I have not sent them, says Yahweh, but they prophesy falsely in my name; that I may drive you out, and that you may perish, you, and the prophets who prophesy to you.

¹⁶Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Don't listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, Behold, the vessels of Yahweh's house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon; for they prophesy a lie to you.

¹⁷Don't listen to them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: why should this city become a desolation?

¹⁸But if they be prophets, and if the word of Yahweh be with them, let them now make intercession to Yahweh of Hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of Yahweh, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, don't go to Babylon.

¹⁹For thus says Yahweh of Hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that are left in this city,

²⁰which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn't take, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;

²¹yes, thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of Yahweh, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem:

²²They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be, until the day that I visit them, says Yahweh; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.

28It happened the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was of Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of Yahweh, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,

²Thus speaks Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

³Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of Yahweh's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried to Babylon:

⁴and I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, who went to Babylon, says Yahweh; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

⁵Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people who stood in the house of Yahweh,

⁶even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: Yahweh do so; Yahweh perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring again the vessels of Yahweh's house, and all them of the captivity, from Babylon to this place.

⁷Nevertheless hear you now this word that I speak in your ears, and in the ears of all the people:

⁸The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.

⁹The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet shall happen, then shall the prophet be known, that Yahweh has truly sent him.

¹⁰Then Hananiah the prophet took the bar from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and broke it.

¹¹Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon within two full years from off the neck of all the nations. The prophet Jeremiah went his way.

¹²Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,

¹³Go, and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus says Yahweh: You have broken the bars of wood; but you have made in their place bars of iron.

¹⁴For thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may served Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the animals of the field also.

¹⁵Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah: Yahweh has not sent you; but you make this people to trust in a lie.

¹⁶Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will send you away from off the surface of the earth: this year you shall die, because you have spoken rebellion against Yahweh.

¹⁷So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

29Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon,

²(after that Jeconiah the king, and the queen-mother, and the eunuchs, [and] the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem,)

³by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,) saying,

⁴Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the captivity, whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon:

⁵Build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

⁶Take wives, and father sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply you there, and don't be diminished.

⁷Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to Yahweh for it; for in the peace of it shall you have peace.

⁸For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: Don't let your prophets who are in the midst of you, and your diviners, deceive you; neither listen you to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.

⁹For they prophesy falsely to you in my name: I have not sent them, says Yahweh.

¹⁰For thus says Yahweh, After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says Yahweh, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.

¹²You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

¹³You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.

¹⁴I will be found of you, says Yahweh, and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places wither I have driven you, says Yahweh; and I will bring you again to the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

¹⁵Because you have said, Yahweh has raised us up prophets in Babylon;

¹⁶thus says Yahweh concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who haven't gone forth with you into captivity;

¹⁷thus says Yahweh of Hosts; Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that can't be eaten, they are so bad.

¹⁸I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them;

¹⁹because they have not listened to my words, says Yahweh, with which I sent to them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear, says Yahweh.

²⁰Hear you therefore the word of Yahweh, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

²¹Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in my name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall kill them before your eyes;

²²and of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;

²³because they have worked folly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I didn't command them; and I am he who knows, and am witness, says Yahweh.

²⁴Concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite you shall speak, saying,

²⁵Thus speaks Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying,

²⁶Yahweh has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, that there may be officers in the house of Yahweh, for every man who is mad, and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles.

²⁷Now therefore, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you,

²⁸because he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, [The captivity] is long: build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them?

²⁹Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet.

³⁰Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying,

³¹Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus says Yahweh concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I didn't send him, and he has caused you to trust in a lie;

³²therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed; he shall not have a man to dwell among this people, neither shall he see the good that I will do to my people, says Yahweh, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh.

30The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

²Thus speaks Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying, Write you all the words that I have spoken to you in a book.

³For, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will turn again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, says Yahweh; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.

⁴These are the words that Yahweh spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah.

⁵For thus says Yahweh: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.

⁶Ask you now, and see whether a man does travail with child: why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?

⁷Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

⁸It shall come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and will burst your bonds; and strangers shall no more make him their bondservant;

⁹but they shall serve Yahweh their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up to them.

¹⁰Therefore don't you be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says Yahweh; neither be dismayed, Israel: for, behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.

¹¹For I am with you, says Yahweh, to save you: for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not make a full end of you; but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.

¹²For thus says Yahweh, Your hurt is incurable, and your wound grievous.

¹³There is none to plead your cause, that you may be bound up: you have no healing medicines.

¹⁴All your lovers have forgotten you; they don't seek you: for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased.

¹⁵Why cry you for your hurt? your pain is incurable: for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased, I have done these things to you.

¹⁶Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, everyone of them, shall go into captivity; and those who despoil you shall be a spoil, and all who prey on you will I give for a prey.

¹⁷For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says Yahweh; because they have called you an outcast, [saying], It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.

¹⁸Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will turn again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have compassion on his dwelling-places; and the city shall be built on its own hill, and the palace shall be inhabited after its own manner.

¹⁹Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

²⁰Their children also shall be as before, and their congregation shall be established before me; and I will punish all who oppress them.

²¹Their prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach to me: for who is he who has had boldness to approach to me? says Yahweh.

²²You shall be my people, and I will be your God.

²³Behold, the tempest of Yahweh, [even his] wrath, is gone forth, a sweeping tempest: it shall burst on the head of the wicked.

²⁴The fierce anger of Yahweh shall not return, until he has executed, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it.

31At that time, says Yahweh, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

²Thus says Yahweh, The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

³Yahweh appeared of old to me, [saying], Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you.

⁴Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: again shall you be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.

⁵Again shall you plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy [the fruit of it].

⁶For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise you, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.

⁷For thus says Yahweh, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish you, praise you, and say, Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel.

⁸Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, [and] with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together: a great company shall they return here.

⁹They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

¹⁰Hear the word of Yahweh, you nations, and declare it in the isles afar off; and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as shepherd does his flock.

¹¹For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

¹²They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

¹³Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

¹⁴I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says Yahweh.

¹⁵Thus says Yahweh: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says Yahweh; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷There is hope for your latter end, says Yahweh; and [your] children shall come again to their own border.

¹⁸I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus], You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed [to the yoke]: turn you me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.

¹⁹Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

²⁰Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says Yahweh.

²¹Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.

²²How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? for Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man.

²³Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities of it, when I shall bring again their captivity: Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.

²⁴Judah and all the cities of it shall dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.

²⁵For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished.

²⁶On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.

²⁷Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of animal.

²⁸It shall happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, says Yahweh.

²⁹In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

³⁰But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

³¹Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

³²not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh.

³³But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:

³⁴and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

³⁵Thus says Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves of it roar; Yahweh of hosts is his name:

³⁶If these ordinances depart from before me, says Yahweh, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.

³⁷Thus says Yahweh: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says Yahweh.

³⁸Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that the city shall be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner.

³⁹The measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and shall turn about to Goah.

⁴⁰The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy to Yahweh; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever.

32The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.

²Now at that time the king of Babylon's army was besieging Jerusalem; and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah's house.

³For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why do you prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

⁴and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes;

⁵and he shall bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, says Yahweh: though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not prosper?

⁶Jeremiah said, The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

⁷Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come to you, saying, Buy you my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is your to buy it.

⁸So Hanamel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of Yahweh, and said to me, Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is your, and the redemption is your; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of Yahweh.

⁹I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

¹⁰I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.

¹¹So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, [according to] the law and custom, and that which was open:

¹²and I delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle's [son], and in the presence of the witnesses who subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard.

¹³I charged Baruch before them, saying,

¹⁴Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel; that they may continue many days.

¹⁵For thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.

¹⁶Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to Yahweh, saying,

¹⁷Ah Lord Yahweh! behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you,

¹⁸who show lovingkindness to thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them; the great, the mighty God, Yahweh of Hosts is his name;

¹⁹great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open on all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:

²⁰who did set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day, both in Israel and among [other] men; and mad you a name, as at this day;

²¹and did bring forth your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror;

²²and gave them this land, which you did swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;

²³and they came in, and possessed it, but they didn't obey your voice, neither walked in your law; they have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do: therefore you have caused all this evil to come on them.

²⁴Behold, the mounds, they are come to the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence; and what you have spoken is happen; and, behold, you see it.

²⁵You have said to me, Lord Yahweh, Buy you the field for money, and call witnesses; whereas the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

²⁶Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁷Behold, I am Yahweh, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?

²⁸Therefore thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it:

²⁹and the Chaldeans, who fight against this city, shall come and set this city on fire, and burn it, with the houses, on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal, and poured out drink-offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.

³⁰For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says Yahweh.

³¹For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it even to this day; that I should remove it from before my face,

³²because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

³³They have turned to me the back, and not the face: and though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.

³⁴But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

³⁵They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through [the fire] to Molech; which I didn't command them, neither did it come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

³⁶Now therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof you say, It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence:

³⁷Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries, where I have driven them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:

³⁸and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:

³⁹and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:

⁴⁰and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good; and I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.

⁴¹Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.

⁴²For thus says Yahweh: Like as I have brought all this great evil on this people, so will I bring on them all the good that I have promised them.

⁴³Fields shall be bought in this land, whereof you say, It is desolate, without man or animal; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

⁴⁴Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe the deeds, and seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the hill-country, and in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South: for I will cause their captivity to return, says Yahweh.

33Moreover the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the guard, saying,

²Thus says Yahweh who does it, Yahweh who forms it to establish it; Yahweh is his name:

³Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don't know.

⁴For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are broken down [to make a defense] against the mounds and against the sword;

⁵while [men] come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have killed in my anger and in my wrath, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city:

⁶Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth.

⁷I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.

⁸I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned against me, and whereby they have transgressed against me.

⁹[This city] shall be to me for a name of joy, for a praise and for a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do to them, and shall fear and tremble for all the good and for all the peace that I procure to it.

¹⁰Thus says Yahweh: Yet again there shall be heard in this place, whereof you say, It is waste, without man and without animal, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without animal,

¹¹the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, Give thanks to Yahweh of Hosts, for Yahweh is good, for his lovingkindness endures forever; [and of them] who bring [sacrifices of] thanksgiving into the house of Yahweh. For I will cause the captivity of the land to return as at the first, says Yahweh.

¹²Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Yet again shall there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without animal, and in all the cities of it, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.

¹³In the cities of the hill-country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks again pass under the hands of him who numbers them, says Yahweh.

¹⁴Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will perform that good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.

¹⁵In those days, and at that time, will I cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

¹⁶In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and this is [the name] whereby she shall be called: Yahweh our righteousness.

¹⁷For thus says Yahweh: David shall never want a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel;

¹⁸neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to burn meal-offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.

¹⁹The word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁰Thus says Yahweh: If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season;

²¹then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.

²²As the host of the sky can't be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites who minister to me.

²³The word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁴Don't you consider what this people has spoken, saying, The two families which Yahweh did choose, he has cast them off? thus do they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.

²⁵Thus says Yahweh: If my covenant of day and night fails, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;

²⁶then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and will have mercy on them.

34The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of it, saying:

²Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Go, and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:

³and you shall not escape out of his hand, but shall surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and your eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with you mouth to mouth, and you shall go to Babylon.

⁴Yet hear the word of Yahweh, O Zedekiah king of Judah: thus says Yahweh concerning you, You shall not die by the sword;

⁵you shall die in peace; and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so shall they make a burning for you; and they shall lament you, [saying], Ah Lord! for I have spoken the word, says Yahweh.

⁶Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,

⁷when the king of Babylon's army was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these [alone] remained of the cities of Judah [as] fortified cities.

⁸The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them;

⁹that every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, who is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should make bondservants of them, [to wit], of a Jew his brother.

¹⁰All the princes and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that everyone should let his man-servant, and everyone his maid-servant, go free, that none should make bondservants of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go:

¹¹but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

¹²Therefore the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

¹³Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,

¹⁴At the end of seven years you shall let go every man his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to you, and has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you: but your fathers didn't listen to me, neither inclined their ear.

¹⁵You were now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:

¹⁶but you turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their pleasure, to return; and you brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.

¹⁷Therefore thus says Yahweh: you have not listened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim to you a liberty, says Yahweh, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.

¹⁸I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it;

¹⁹the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf;

²⁰I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and their dead bodies shall be for food to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth.

²¹Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, who have gone away from you.

²²Behold, I will command, says Yahweh, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

35The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

²Go to the house of the Rechabites, and speak to them, and bring them into the house of Yahweh, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.

³Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites;

⁴and I brought them into the house of Yahweh, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the threshold.

⁵I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, Drink you wine.

⁶But they said, We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, You shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your sons, forever:

⁷neither shall you build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents; that you may live many days in the land in which you sojourn.

⁸We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters;

⁹nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:

¹⁰but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

¹¹But it happened, when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians; so we dwell at Jerusalem.

¹²Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying,

¹³Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Go, and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction to listen to my words? says Yahweh.

¹⁴The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are performed; and to this day they drink none, for they obey their father's commandment: but I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking; and you have not listened to me.

¹⁵I have sent also to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return you now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and don't go after other gods to serve them, and you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but you have not inclined your ear, nor listened to me.

¹⁶Because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not listened to me;

¹⁷therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them, but they have not heard; and I have called to them, but they have not answered.

¹⁸Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he commanded you;

¹⁹therefore thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me forever.

36It happened in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

²Take a scroll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.

³It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

⁴Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of Yahweh, which he had spoken to him, on a scroll of a book.

⁵Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I can't go into the house of Yahweh:

⁶therefore go you, and read in the scroll, which you have written from my mouth, the words of Yahweh in the ears of the people in Yahweh's house on the fast-day; and also you shall read them in the ears of all Judah who come out of their cities.

⁷It may be they will present their supplication before Yahweh, and will return everyone from his evil way; for great is the anger and the wrath that Yahweh has pronounced against this people.

⁸Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of Yahweh in Yahweh's house.

⁹Now it happened in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem, and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem, proclaimed a fast before Yahweh.

¹⁰Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of Yahweh, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan, the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of Yahweh's house, in the ears of all the people.

¹¹When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of Yahweh,

¹²he went down into the king's house, into the scribe's chamber: and, behold, all the princes were sitting there, [to wit], Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.

¹³Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.

¹⁴Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take in your hand the scroll in which you have read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand, and came to them.

¹⁵They said to him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.

¹⁶Now it happened, when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one toward another, and said to Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words.

¹⁷They asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How did you write all these words at his mouth?

¹⁸Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.

¹⁹Then said the princes to Baruch, Go, hide you, you and Jeremiah; and let no man know where you are.

²⁰They went in to the king into the court; but they had laid up the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; and they told all the words in the ears of the king.

²¹So the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll; and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes who stood beside the king.

²²Now the king was sitting in the winter-house in the ninth month: and [there was a fire in] the brazier burning before him.

²³It happened, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, that [the king] cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.

²⁴They were not afraid, nor tore their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words.

²⁵Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the scroll; but he would not hear them.

²⁶The king commanded Jerahmeel the king's son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but Yahweh hid them.

²⁷Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the scroll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,

²⁸Take again another scroll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.

²⁹Concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, Thus says Yahweh: You have burned this scroll, saying, Why have you written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from there man and animal?

³⁰Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.

³¹I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on them, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they didn't listen.

³²Then took Jeremiah another scroll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there were added besides to them many like words.

37Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned as king, instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah.

²But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did listen to the words of Yahweh, which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah.

³Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now to Yahweh our God for us.

⁴Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people; for they had not put him into prison.

⁵Pharaoh's army was come forth out of Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they broke up from Jerusalem.

⁶Then came the word of Yahweh to the prophet Jeremiah, saying,

⁷Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Thus shall you tell the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me: Behold, Pharaoh's army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.

⁸The Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city; and they shall take it, and burn it with fire.

⁹Thus says Yahweh, Don't deceive yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us; for they shall not depart.

¹⁰For though you had struck the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yes would they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

¹¹It happened that, when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army,

¹²then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to receive his portion there, in the midst of the people.

¹³When he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he laid hold on Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You are falling away to the Chaldeans.

¹⁴Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I am not falling away to the Chaldeans. But he didn't listen to him; so Irijah laid hold on Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes.

¹⁵The princes were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison.

¹⁶When Jeremiah was come into the dungeon-house, and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days;

¹⁷Then Zedekiah the king sent, and fetched him: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from Yahweh? Jeremiah said, There is. He said also, You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.

¹⁸Moreover Jeremiah said to king Zedekiah, Wherein have I sinned against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison?

¹⁹Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land?

²⁰Now please hear, my lord the king: please let my supplication be presented before you, that you not cause me to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.

²¹Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah into the court of the guard; and they gave him daily a loaf of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city was spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

38Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchijah, heard the words that Jeremiah spoke to all the people, saying,

²Thus says Yahweh, He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he who goes forth to the Chaldeans shall live, and his life shall be to him for a prey, and he shall live.

³Thus says Yahweh, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.

⁴Then the princes said to the king, Let this man, we pray you, be put to death; because he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them: for this man doesn't seek the welfare of this people, but the hurt.

⁵Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand; for the king is not he who can do anything against you.

⁶Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchijah the king's son, that was in the court of the guard: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. In the dungeon there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire.

⁷Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon (the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin,)

⁸Ebed-melech went forth out of the king's house, and spoke to the king, saying,

⁹My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is likely to die in the place where he is, because of the famine; for there is no more bread in the city.

¹⁰Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men with you, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die.

¹¹So Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took there rags and worn-out garments, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah.

¹²Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, Put now these rags and worn-out garments under your armholes under the cords. Jeremiah did so.

¹³So they drew up Jeremiah with the cords, and took him up out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

¹⁴Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet to him into the third entry that is in the house of Yahweh: and the king said to Jeremiah, I will ask you a thing; hide nothing from me.

¹⁵Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? and if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.

¹⁶So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying, As Yahweh lives, who made us this soul, I will not put you to death, neither will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life.

¹⁷Then said Jeremiah to Zedekiah, Thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you will go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then your soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and you shall live, and your house.

¹⁸But if you will not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape out of their hand.

¹⁹Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews who are fallen away to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.

²⁰But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver you. Obey, I beg you, the voice of Yahweh, in that which I speak to you: so it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live.

²¹But if you refuse to go forth, this is the word that Yahweh has showed me:

²²behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say, Your familiar friends have set you on, and have prevailed over you: [now that] your feet are sunk in the mire, they are turned away back.

²³They shall bring out all your wives and your children to the Chaldeans; and you shall not escape out of their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and you shall cause this city to be burned with fire.

²⁴Then said Zedekiah to Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and you shall not die.

²⁵But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you, and tell you, Declare to us now what you have said to the king; don't hide it from us, and we will not put you to death; also what the king said to you:

²⁶then you shall tell them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die there.

²⁷Then came all the princes to Jeremiah, and asked him; and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived.

²⁸So Jeremiah abode in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

39It happened when Jerusalem was taken, (in the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and besieged it;

²in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city,)

³that all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, [to wit], Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.

⁴It happened that, when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, through the gate between the two walls; and he went out toward the Arabah.

⁵But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgment on him.

⁶Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon killed all the nobles of Judah.

⁷Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.

⁸The Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.

⁹Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the residue of the people who remained in the city, the deserters also who fell away to him, and the residue of the people who remained.

¹⁰But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

¹¹Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying,

¹²Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do to him even as he shall tell you.

¹³So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushazban, Rab-saris, and Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon;

¹⁴they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guard, and committed him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he lived among the people.

¹⁵Now the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the guard, saying,

¹⁶Go, and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring my words on this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished before you in that day.

¹⁷But I will deliver you in that day, says Yahweh; and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.

¹⁸For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but your life shall be for a prey to you; because you have put your trust in me, says Yahweh.

40The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah, who were carried away captive to Babylon.

²The captain of the guard took Jeremiah, and said to him, Yahweh your God pronounced this evil on this place;

³and Yahweh has brought it, and done according as he spoke: because you have sinned against Yahweh, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come on you.

⁴Now, behold, I loose you this day from the chains which are on your hand. If it seem good to you to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will look well to you; but if it seem ill to you to come with me into Babylon, forbear: behold, all the land is before you; where it seems good and right to you to go, there go.

⁵Now while he was not yet gone back, Go back then, [said he], to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right to you to go. So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a present, and let him go.

⁶Then went Jeremiah to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah, and lived with him among the people who were left in the land.

⁷Now when all the captains of the forces who were in the fields, even they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, and women, and children, and of the poorest of the land, of those who were not carried away captive to Babylon;

⁸then they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, [to wit], Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.

⁹Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan swore to them and to their men, saying, Don't be afraid to serve the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.

¹⁰As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to stand before the Chaldeans who shall come to us: but you, gather you wine and summer fruits and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken.

¹¹Likewise when all the Jews who were in Moab, and among the children of Ammon, and in Edom, and who were in all the countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan;

¹²then all the Jews returned out of all places where they were driven, and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah, to Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer fruits very much.

¹³Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were in the fields, came to Gedaliah to Mizpah,

¹⁴and said to him, Do you know that Baalis the king of the children of Ammon has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life? But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam didn't believe them.

¹⁵Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, Please let me go, and I will kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man shall know it: why should he take your life, that all the Jews who are gathered to you should be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish?

¹⁶But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, You shall not do this thing; for you speak falsely of Ishmael.

41Now it happened in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal and [one of] the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah.

²Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men who were with him, and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.

³Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with him, [to wit], with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.

⁴It happened the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, and no man knew it,

⁵that there came men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and having cut themselves, with meal-offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them to the house of Yahweh.

⁶Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went: and it happened, as he met them, he said to them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.

⁷It was so, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah killed them, [and cast them] into the midst of the pit, he, and the men who were with him.

⁸But ten men were found among those who said to Ishmael, Don't kill us; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he stopped, and didn't kill them among their brothers.

⁹Now the pit in which Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had killed, by the side of Gedaliah (the same was who which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel,) Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were killed.

¹⁰Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people who were in Mizpah, even the king's daughters, and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the children of Ammon.

¹¹But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done,

¹²then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon.

¹³Now it happened that, when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, then they were glad.

¹⁴So all the people who Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah.

¹⁵But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the children of Ammon.

¹⁶Then took Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after that he had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, [to wit], the men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon:

¹⁷and they departed, and lived in Geruth Chimham, which is by Beth-lehem, to go to enter into Egypt,

¹⁸because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the land.

42Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near,

²and said to Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we pray you, our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to Yahweh your God, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do see us:

³that Yahweh your God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the thing that we should do.

⁴Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray to Yahweh your God according to your words; and it shall happen that whatever thing Yahweh shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you.

⁵Then they said to Jeremiah, Yahweh be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don't do according to all the word with which Yahweh your God shall send you to us.

⁶Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of Yahweh our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of Yahweh our God.

⁷It happened after ten days, that the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah.

⁸Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,

⁹and said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him:

¹⁰If you will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent me of the evil that I have done to you.

¹¹Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; don't be afraid of him, says Yahweh: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

¹²I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you, and cause you to return to your own land.

¹³But if you say, We will not dwell in this land; so that you don't obey the voice of Yahweh your God,

¹⁴saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:

¹⁵now therefore hear you the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah: Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;

¹⁶then it shall happen, that the sword, which you fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, whereof you are afraid, shall follow hard after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.

¹⁷So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there: they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring on them.

¹⁸For thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath has been poured forth on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth on you, when you shall enter into Egypt; and you shall be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.

¹⁹Yahweh has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, Don't you go into Egypt: know certainly that I have testified to you this day.

²⁰For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, Pray for us to Yahweh our God; and according to all that Yahweh our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it:

²¹and I have this day declared it to you; but you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God in anything for which he has sent me to you.

²²Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where you desire to go to sojourn there.

43It happened that, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking to all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, with which Yahweh their God had sent him to them, even all these words,

²then spoke Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying to Jeremiah, You speak falsely: Yahweh our God has not sent you to say, You shall not go into Egypt to sojourn there;

³but Baruch the son of Neriah sets you on against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death, and carry us away captive to Babylon.

⁴So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, didn't obey the voice of Yahweh, to dwell in the land of Judah.

⁵But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, who were returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to sojourn in the land of Judah;

⁶the men, and the women, and the children, and the king's daughters, and every person who Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah;

⁷and they came into the land of Egypt; for they didn't obey the voice of Yahweh: and they came to Tahpanhes.

⁸Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,

⁹Take great stones in your hand, and hide them in mortar in the brick work, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah;

¹⁰and tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne on these stones that I have hidden; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.

¹¹He shall come, and shall strike the land of Egypt; such as are for death [shall be given] to death, and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword.

¹²I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captive: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment; and he shall go forth from there in peace.

¹³He shall also break the pillars of Beth-shemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of Egypt shall he burn with fire.

44The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who lived in the land of Egypt, who lived at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the country of Pathros, saying,

²Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwells therein,

³because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, [and] to serve other gods, that they didn't know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.

⁴However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Oh, don't do this abominable thing that I hate.

⁵But they didn't listen, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods.

⁶Therefore my wrath and my anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.

⁷Therefore now thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why commit you [this] great evil against your own souls, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, to leave you none remaining;

⁸in that you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you are gone to sojourn; that you may be cut off, and that you may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

⁹Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁰They are not humbled even to this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.

¹¹Therefore thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.

¹²I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an object of horror, [and] an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.

¹³For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence;

¹⁴so that none of the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or be left, to return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return save such as shall escape.

¹⁵Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the people who lived in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,

¹⁶As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we will not listen to you.

¹⁷But we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink-offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.

¹⁸But since we left off burning incense to the queen of the sky, and pouring out drink-offerings to her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.

¹⁹When we burned incense to the queen of the sky, and poured out drink-offerings to her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink-offerings to her, without our husbands?

²⁰Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men, and to the women, even to all the people who had given him who answer, saying,

²¹The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, didn't Yahweh remember them, and didn't it come into his mind?

²²so that Yahweh could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed; therefore is your land become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.

²³Because you have burned incense, and because you have sinned against Yahweh, and have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is happened to you, as it is this day.

²⁴Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt:

²⁵Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying, You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and with your hands have fulfilled it, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink-offerings to her: establish then your vows, and perform your vows.

²⁶Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says Yahweh, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, As the Lord Yahweh lives.

²⁷Behold, I watch over them for evil, and not for good; and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.

²⁸Those who escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine, or theirs.

²⁹This shall be the sign to you, says Yahweh, that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil:

³⁰Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy, and sought his life.

45The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these word in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

²Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to you, Baruch:

³You did say, Woe is me now! for Yahweh has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.

⁴Thus shall you tell him, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up; and this in the whole land.

⁵Seek you great things for yourself? Don't seek them; for, behold, I will bring evil on all flesh, says Yahweh; but your life will I give to you for a prey in all places where you go.

46The word of Yahweh which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.

²Of Egypt: concerning the army of Pharaoh-neco king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon struck in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah.

³Prepare you the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.

⁴Harness the horses, and get up, you horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail.

⁵Why have I seen it? they are dismayed and are turned backward; and their mighty ones are beaten down, and have fled apace, and don't look back: terror is on every side, says Yahweh.

⁶Don't let the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates have they stumbled and fallen.

⁷Who is this who rises up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?

⁸Egypt rises up like the Nile, and his waters toss themselves like the rivers: and he says, I will rise up, I will cover the earth; I will destroy cities and the inhabitants of it.

⁹Go up, you horses; and rage, you chariots; and let the mighty men go forth: Cush and Put, who handle the shield; and the Ludim, who handle and bend the bow.

¹⁰For that day is [a day] of the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour and be satiate, and shall drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

¹¹Go up into Gilead, and take balm, virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain do you use many medicines; there is no healing for you.

¹²The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, they are fallen both of them together.

¹³The word that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴Declare you in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes: say you, Stand forth, and prepare you; for the sword has devoured round about you.

¹⁵Why are your strong ones swept away? they didn't stand, because Yahweh did drive them.

¹⁶He made many to stumble, yes, they fell one on another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing sword.

¹⁷They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he has let the appointed time pass by.

¹⁸As I live, says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Hosts, surely like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.

¹⁹You daughter who dwell in Egypt, furnish yourself to go into captivity; for Memphis shall become a desolation, and shall be burnt up, without inhabitant.

²⁰Egypt is a very beautiful heifer; [but] destruction out of the north is come, it is come.

²¹Also her hired men in the midst of her are like calves of the stall; for they also are turned back, they are fled away together, they didn't stand: for the day of their calamity is come on them, the time of their visitation.

²²The sound of it shall go like the serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as wood cutters.

²³They shall cut down her forest, says Yahweh, though it can't be searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable.

²⁴The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.

²⁵Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh, and those who trust in him:

²⁶and I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants; and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, says Yahweh.

²⁷But don't be afraid you, Jacob my servant, neither be dismayed, Israel: for, behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.

²⁸Don't be afraid you, O Jacob my servant, says Yahweh; for I am with you: for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you; but I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.

47The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before that Pharaoh struck Gaza.

²Thus says Yahweh: Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and those who dwell therein; and the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.

³At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers don't look back to their children for feebleness of hands;

⁴because of the day that comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains: for Yahweh will destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Caphtor.

⁵Baldness is come on Gaza; Ashkelon is brought to nothing, the remnant of their valley: how long will you cut yourself?

⁶You sword of Yahweh, how long will it be before you be quiet? put up yourself into your scabbard; rest, and be still.

⁷How can you be quiet, seeing Yahweh has given you a charge? Against Ashkelon, and against the sea-shore, there has he appointed it.

48Of Moab. Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nebo! for it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is taken; Misgab is put to shame and broken down.

²The praise of Moab is no more; in Heshbon they have devised evil against her: Come, and let us cut her off from being a nation. You also, Madmen, shall be brought to silence: the sword shall pursue you.

³The sound of a cry from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction!

⁴Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.

⁵For by the ascent of Luhith with continual weeping shall they go up; for at the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction.

⁶Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

⁷For, because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also shall be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, his priests and his princes together.

⁸The destroyer shall come on every city, and no city shall escape; the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed; as Yahweh has spoken.

⁹Give wings to Moab, that she may fly and get her away: and her cities shall become a desolation, without any to dwell therein.

¹⁰Cursed be he who does the work of Yahweh negligently; and cursed be he who keeps back his sword from blood.

¹¹Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed.

¹²Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will send to him those who pour off, and they shall pour him off; and they shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles in pieces.

¹³Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence.

¹⁴How say you, We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war?

¹⁵Moab is laid waste, and they are gone up into his cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Hosts.

¹⁶The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hurries fast.

¹⁷All you who are round about him, bemoan him, and all you who know his name; say, How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod!

¹⁸You daughter who dwells in Dibon, come down from your glory, and sit in thirst; for the destroyer of Moab is come up against you, he has destroyed your strongholds.

¹⁹Inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and watch: ask him who flees, and her who escapes; say, What has been done?

²⁰Moab is put to shame; for it is broken down: wail and cry; tell you it by the Arnon, that Moab is laid waste.

²¹Judgment is come on the plain country, on Holon, and on Jahzah, and on Mephaath,

²²and on Dibon, and on Nebo, and on Beth-diblathaim,

²³and on Kiriathaim, and on Beth-gamul, and on Beth-meon,

²⁴and on Kerioth, and on Bozrah, and on all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.

²⁵The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says Yahweh.

²⁶Make you him drunken; for he magnified himself against Yahweh: and Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

²⁷For wasn't Israel a derision to you? was he found among thieves? for as often as you speak of him, you wag the head.

²⁸You inhabitants of Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock; and be like the dove that makes her nest over the mouth of the abyss.

²⁹We have heard of the pride of Moab, [that] he is very proud; his loftiness, and his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart.

³⁰I know his wrath, says Yahweh, that it is nothing; his boastings have worked nothing.

³¹Therefore will I wail for Moab; yes, I will cry out for all Moab: for the men of Kir-heres shall they mourn.

³²With more than the weeping of Jazer will I weep for you, vine of Sibmah: your branches passed over the sea, they reached even to the sea of Jazer: on your summer fruits and on your vintage the destroyer is fallen.

³³Gladness and joy is taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to cease from the wine presses: none shall tread with shouting; the shouting shall be no shouting.

³⁴From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh, even to Jahaz have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim, to Eglath-shelishiyah: for the waters of Nimrim also shall become desolate.

³⁵Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, says Yahweh, him who offers in the high place, and him who burns incense to his gods.

³⁶Therefore my heart sounds for Moab like pipes, and my heart sounds like pipes for the men of Kir-heres: therefore the abundance that he has gotten is perished.

³⁷For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: on all the hands are cuttings, and on the loins sackcloth.

³⁸On all the housetops of Moab and in the streets of it there is lamentation every where; for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which none delights, says Yahweh.

³⁹How is it broken down! [how] do they wail! how has Moab turned the back with shame! so shall Moab become a derision and a terror to all who are round about him.

⁴⁰For thus says Yahweh: Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread out his wings against Moab.

⁴¹Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are seized, and the heart of the mighty men of Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

⁴²Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he has magnified himself against Yahweh.

⁴³Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are on you, inhabitant of Moab, says Yahweh.

⁴⁴He who flees from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he who gets up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring on him, even on Moab, the year of their visitation, says Yahweh.

⁴⁵Those who fled stand without strength under the shadow of Heshbon; for a fire is gone forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and has devoured the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.

⁴⁶Woe to you, O Moab! the people of Chemosh is undone; for your sons are taken away captive, and your daughters into captivity.

⁴⁷Yet will I bring back the captivity of Moab in the latter days, says Yahweh. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

49Of the children of Ammon. Thus says Yahweh: Has Israel no sons? has he no heir? why then does Malcam possess Gad, and his people well in the cities of it?

²Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the children of Ammon; and it shall become a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel possess those who did possess him, says Yahweh.

³Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste; cry, you daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth: lament, and run back and forth among the fences; for Malcam shall go into captivity, his priests and his princes together.

⁴Why glory you in the valleys, your flowing valley, backsliding daughter? who trusted in her treasures, [saying], Who shall come to me?

⁵Behold, I will bring a fear on you, says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, from all who are round about you; and you shall be driven out every man right forth, and there shall be none to gather together the fugitives.

⁶But afterward I will bring back the captivity of the children of Ammon, says Yahweh.

⁷Of Edom. Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?

⁸Flee you, turn back, dwell in the depths, inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau on him, the time that I shall visit him.

⁹If grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, wouldn't they destroy until they had enough?

¹⁰But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is no more.

¹¹Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me.

¹²For thus says Yahweh: Behold, they to whom it didn't pertain to drink of the cup shall assuredly drink; and are you he who shall altogether go unpunished? you shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink.

¹³For I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, that Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities of it shall be perpetual wastes.

¹⁴I have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, [saying], Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.

¹⁵For, behold, I have made you small among the nations, and despised among men.

¹⁶As for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says Yahweh.

¹⁷Edom shall become an astonishment: everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues of it.

¹⁸As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities of it, says Yahweh, no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.

¹⁹Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who will stand before me?

²⁰Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.

²¹The earth trembles at the noise of their fall; there is a cry, the noise whereof is heard in the Red Sea.

²²Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah: and the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

²³Of Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil news, they are melted away: there is sorrow on the sea; it can't be quiet.

²⁴Damascus has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail.

²⁵How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy?

²⁶Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh of Hosts.

²⁷I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.

²⁸Of Kedar, and of the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon struck. Thus says Yahweh: Arise you, go up to Kedar, and destroy the children of the east.

²⁹Their tents and their flocks shall they take; they shall carry away for themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry to them, Terror on every side!

³⁰Flee you, wander far off, dwell in the depths, you inhabitants of Hazor, says Yahweh; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you.

³¹Arise, get you up to a nation that is at ease, that dwells without care, says Yahweh; that have neither gates nor bars, that dwell alone.

³²Their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners [of their hair] cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, says Yahweh.

³³Hazor shall be a dwelling-place of jackals, a desolation forever: no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.

³⁴The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,

³⁵Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might.

³⁶On Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation where the outcasts of Elam shall not come.

³⁷I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before those who seek their life; and I will bring evil on them, even my fierce anger, says Yahweh; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them;

³⁸and I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from there king and princes, says Yahweh.

³⁹But it shall happen in the latter days, that I will bring back the captivity of Elam, says Yahweh.

50The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

²Declare you among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don't conceal: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed; her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed.

³For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled, they are gone, both man and animal.

⁴In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Yahweh their God.

⁵They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces turned toward it, [saying], Come you, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.

⁶My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting-place.

⁷All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Yahweh, the habitation of righteousness, even Yahweh, the hope of their fathers.

⁸Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the male goats before the flocks.

⁹For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her; from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of an expert mighty man; none shall return in vain.

¹⁰Chaldea shall be a prey: all who prey on her shall be satisfied, says Yahweh.

¹¹Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out [the grain], and neigh as strong horses;

¹²your mother shall be utterly put to shame; she who bore you shall be confounded: behold, she shall be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

¹³Because of the wrath of Yahweh she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: everyone who goes by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

¹⁴Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against Yahweh.

¹⁵Shout against her round about: she has submitted herself; her bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh: take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her.

¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone to his own land.

¹⁷Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.

¹⁸Therefore thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.

²⁰In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.

²¹Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: kill and utterly destroy after them, says Yahweh, and do according to all that I have commanded you.

²²A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

²³How is the hammer of the whole earth cut apart and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

²⁴I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babylon, and you weren't aware: you are found, and also caught, because you have striven against Yahweh.

²⁵Yahweh has opened his armory, and has brought forth the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, has a work [to do] in the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶Come against her from the utmost border; open her store-houses; cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left.

²⁷Kill all her bulls; let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.

²⁸The voice of those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance of his temple.

²⁹Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow; encamp against her round about; let none of it escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all her men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh.

³¹Behold, I am against you, you proud one, says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts; for your day is come, the time that I will visit you.

³²The proud one shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up; and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all who are round about him.

³³Thus says Yahweh of hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together; and all who took them captive hold them fast; they refuse to let them go.

³⁴Their Redeemer is strong; Yahweh of Hosts is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁵A sword is on the Chaldeans, says Yahweh, and on the inhabitants of Babylon, and on her princes, and on her wise men.

³⁶A sword is on the boasters, and they shall become fools; a sword is on her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed.

³⁷A sword is on their horses, and on their chariots, and on all the mingled people who are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is on her treasures, and they shall be robbed.

³⁸A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.

³⁹Therefore the wild animals of the desert with the wolves shall dwell there, and the ostriches shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall it be lived in from generation to generation.

⁴⁰As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities of it, says Yahweh, so shall no man dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.

⁴¹Behold, a people comes from the north; and a great nation and many kings shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

⁴²They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Babylon.

⁴³The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of him, [and] pangs as of a woman in travail.

⁴⁴Behold, [the enemy] shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who can stand before me?

⁴⁵Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.

⁴⁶At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth trembles, and the cry is heard among the nations.

51Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against those who dwell in Leb-kamai, a destroying wind.

²I will send to Babylon strangers, who shall winnow her; and they shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.

³Against [him who] bends let the archer bend his bow, and against [him who] lifts himself up in his coat of mail: and don't you spare her young men; destroy you utterly all her host.

⁴They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets.

⁵For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of Yahweh of Hosts; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

⁶Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; don't be cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of Yahweh's vengeance; he will render to her a recompense.

⁷Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh's hand, who made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

⁸Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

⁹We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

¹⁰Yahweh has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.

¹¹Make sharp the arrows; hold firm the shields: Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it: for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, the vengeance of his temple.

¹²Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Yahweh has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

¹³You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is come, the measure of your covetousness.

¹⁴Yahweh of Hosts has sworn by himself, [saying], Surely I will fill you with men, as with the canker-worm; and they shall lift up a shout against you.

¹⁵He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens:

¹⁶when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries.

¹⁷Every man is become brutish [and is] without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

¹⁸They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

¹⁹The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and [Israel] is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Hosts is his name.

²⁰You are my battle-ax and weapons of war: and with you will I break in pieces the nations; and with you will I destroy kingdoms;

²¹and with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;

²²and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein; and with you will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin;

²³and with you will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the farmer and his yoke [of oxen]; and with you will I break in pieces governors and deputies.

²⁴I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says Yahweh.

²⁵Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain, says Yahweh, which destroy all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand on you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain.

²⁶They shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for ever, says Yahweh.

²⁷Set you up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough canker-worm.

²⁸Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, the governors of it, and all the deputies of it, and all the land of their dominion.

²⁹The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.

³⁰The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds; their might has failed; they are become as women: her dwelling-places are set on fire; her bars are broken.

³¹One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to met another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter:

³²and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened.

³³For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.

³⁴Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has, like a monster, swallowed me up, he has filled his maw with my delicacies; he has cast me out.

³⁵The violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.

³⁶Therefore thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.

³⁷Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

³⁸They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions' whelps.

³⁹When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says Yahweh.

⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.

⁴¹How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

⁴²The sea is come up on Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of the waves of it.

⁴³Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass thereby.

⁴⁴I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow any more to him: yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

⁴⁵My people, go you out of the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of Yahweh.

⁴⁶Don't let your heart faint, neither fear you for the news that shall be heard in the land; for news shall come one year, and after that in another year [shall come] news, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will execute judgment on the engraved images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded; and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

⁴⁸Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come to her from the north, says Yahweh.

⁴⁹As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land.

⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword, go you, don't stand still; remember Yahweh from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

⁵¹We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh's house.

⁵²Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will execute judgment on her engraved images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

⁵³Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall destroyers come to her, says Yahweh.

⁵⁴The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

⁵⁵For Yahweh lays Babylon waste, and destroys out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered:

⁵⁶for the destroyer is come on her, even on Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for Yahweh is a God of recompenses, he will surely requite.

⁵⁷I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her deputies, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up, says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Hosts.

⁵⁸Thus says Yahweh of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary.

⁵⁹The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was chief chamberlain.

⁶⁰Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

⁶¹Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words,

⁶²and say, Yahweh, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor animal, but that it shall be desolate forever.

⁶³It shall be, when you have made an end of reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates:

⁶⁴and you shall say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

52Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

²He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

³For through the anger of Yahweh did it happen in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴It happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about.

⁵So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

⁶In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

⁷Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans were against the city round about;) and they went toward the Arabah.

⁸But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

⁹Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgment on him.

¹⁰The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he killed also all the princes of Judah in Riblah.

¹¹He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.

¹²Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem:

¹³and he burned the house of Yahweh, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned he with fire.

¹⁴All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.

¹⁵Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the residue of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue of the multitude.

¹⁶But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vineyard keepers and farmers.

¹⁷The pillars of brass that were in the house of Yahweh, and the bases and the brazen sea that were in the house of Yahweh, did the Chaldeans break in pieces, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon.

¹⁸The pots also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered, took they away.

¹⁹The cups, and the fire pans, and the basins, and the pots, and the lampstands, and the spoons, and the bowls-that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver,-the captain of the guard took away.

²⁰The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve brazen bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made for the house of Yahweh-the brass of all these vessels was without weight.

²¹As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits did compass it; and the thickness of it was four fingers: it was hollow.

²²A capital of brass was on it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital round about, all of brass: and the second pillar also had like these, and pomegranates.

²³There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were one hundred on the network round about.

²⁴The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold:

²⁵and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and seven men of those who saw the king's face, who were found in the city; and the scribe of the captain of the host, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city.

²⁶Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.

²⁷The king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.

²⁸This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand twenty-three Jews;

²⁹in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty-two persons;

³⁰in the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty-five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.

³¹It happened in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the [first] year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison;

³²and he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon,

³³and changed his prison garments. [Jehoiachin] ate bread before him continually all the days of his life:

³⁴and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

1Now it happened in the thirtieth year, in the fourth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

²In the fifth [day] of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,

³the word of Yahweh came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of Yahweh was there on him.

⁴I looked, and, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness round about it, and out of the midst of it as it were glowing metal, out of the midst of the fire.

⁵Out of the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. This was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man.

⁶Everyone had four faces, and everyone of them had four wings.

⁷Their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like burnished brass.

⁸They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings [thus]:

⁹their wings were joined one to another; they didn't turn when they went; they went everyone straight forward.

¹⁰As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man; and they four had the face of a lion on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four had also the face of an eagle.

¹¹Their faces and their wings were separate above; two [wings] of everyone were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.

¹²They went everyone straight forward: where the spirit was to go, they went; they didn't turn when they went.

¹³As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches: [the fire] went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.

¹⁴The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.

¹⁵Now as I saw the living creatures, behold, one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four faces of it.

¹⁶The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl: and they four had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.

¹⁷When they went, they went in their four directions: they didn't turn when they went.

¹⁸As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and they four had their rims full of eyes round about.

¹⁹When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.

²⁰Wherever the spirit was to go, they went; there was the spirit to go: and the wheels were lifted up beside them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

²¹When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

²²Over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like the awesome crystal to look on, stretched forth over their heads above.

²³Under the expanse were their wings straight, the one toward the other: everyone had two which covered on this side, and every one had two which covered on that side, their bodies.

²⁴When they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a noise of tumult like the noise of a host: when they stood, they let down their wings.

²⁵There was a voice above the expanse that was over their heads: when they stood, they let down their wings.

²⁶Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and on the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man on it above.

²⁷I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance of fire within it round about, from the appearance of his loins and upward; and from the appearance of his loins and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness round about him.

²⁸As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.

2He said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.

²The Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard him who spoke to me.

³He said to me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to nations that are rebellious, which have rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day.

⁴The children are impudent and stiff-hearted: I do sent you to them; and you shall tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh.

⁵They, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

⁶You, son of man, don't be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you do dwell among scorpions: don't be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

⁷You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious.

⁸But you, son of man, hear what I tell you; don't be you rebellious like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which I give you.

⁹When I looked, behold, a hand was put forth to me; and, behold, a scroll of a book was therein;

¹⁰He spread it before me: and it was written within and without; and there were written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

3He said to me, Son of man, eat that which you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.

²So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll.

³He said to me, Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

⁴He said to me, Son of man, go, get you to the house of Israel, and speak with my words to them.

⁵For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;

⁶not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.

⁷But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are of hard forehead and of a stiff heart.

⁸Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads.

⁹As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: don't be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

¹⁰Moreover he said to me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.

¹¹Go, get you to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.

¹²Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, [saying], Blessed be the glory of Yahweh from his place.

¹³[I heard] the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing.

¹⁴So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of Yahweh was strong on me.

¹⁵Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.

¹⁶It happened at the end of seven days, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹⁷Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

¹⁸When I tell the wicked, You shall surely die; and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.

¹⁹Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn't turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

²⁰Again, when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.

²¹Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul.

²²The hand of Yahweh was there on me; and he said to me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with you.

²³Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of Yahweh stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.

²⁴Then the Spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet; and he spoke with me, and said to me, Go, shut yourself within your house.

²⁵But you, son of man, behold, they shall lay bands on you, and shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them:

²⁶and I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be mute, and shall not be to them a reprover; for they are a rebellious house.

²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: He who hears, let him hear; and he who forbears, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

4You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem:

²and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it round about.

³Take for yourself an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city: and set your face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

⁴Moreover lie you on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; [according to] the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.

⁵For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days: so shall you bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

⁶Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it to you.

⁷You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.

⁸Behold, I lay bands on you, and you shall not turn you from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege.

⁹Take for yourself also wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make you bread of it; [according to] the number of the days that you shall lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, shall you eat of it.

¹⁰Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time shall you eat it.

¹¹You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time shall you drink.

¹²You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man.

¹³Yahweh said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.

¹⁴Then said I, Ah Lord Yahweh! behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

¹⁵Then he said to me, Behold, I have given you cow's dung for man's dung, and you shall prepare your bread thereon.

¹⁶Moreover he said to me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and in dismay:

¹⁷that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.

5You, son of man, take a sharp sword; [as] a barber's razor shall you take it to you, and shall cause it to pass on your head and on your beard: then take balances to weigh, and divide the hair.

²A third part shall you burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and you shall take a third part, and strike with the sword round about it; and a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.

³You shall take of it a few in number, and bind them in your skirts.

⁴Of these again shall you take, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; therefrom shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel.

⁵Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are round about her.

⁶She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are round about her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you are turbulent more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are round about you;

⁸therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I, even I, am against you; and I will execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations.

⁹I will do in you that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all your abominations.

¹⁰Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of you, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you; and the whole remnant of you will I scatter to all the winds.

¹¹Therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish [you]; neither shall my eye spare, and I also will have no pity.

¹²A third part of you shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of you; and a third part shall fall by the sword round about you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them.

¹³Thus shall my anger be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted; and they shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.

¹⁴Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are round about you, in the sight of all that pass by.

¹⁵So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are round about you, when I shall execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes; (I, Yahweh, have spoken it;)

¹⁶when I shall send on them the evil arrows of famine, that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine on you, and will break your staff of bread;

¹⁷and I will send on you famine and evil animals, and they shall bereave you; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you; and I will bring the sword on you: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

6The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them,

³and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places.

⁴Your altars shall become desolate, and your sun-images shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

⁵I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.

⁶In all your dwelling-places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your sun-images may be hewn down, and your works may be abolished.

⁷The slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

⁸Yet will I leave a remnant, in that you shall have some that escape the sword among the nations, when you shall be scattered through the countries.

⁹Those of you that escape shall remember me among the nations where they shall be carried captive, how that I have been broken with their lewd heart, which has departed from me, and with they eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

¹⁰They shall know that I am Yahweh: I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.

¹¹Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Smite with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, Alas! because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

¹²He who is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he who is near shall fall by the sword; and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my wrath on them.

¹³You shall know that I am Yahweh, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where they offered sweet savor to all their idols.

¹⁴I will stretch out my hand on them, and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations: and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

7Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel, An end: the end is come on the four corners of the land.

³Now is the end on you, and I will send my anger on you, and will judge you according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations.

⁴My eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

⁵Thus says the Lord Yahweh: An evil, an only evil; behold, it comes.

⁶An end is come, the end is come; it awakes against you; behold, it comes.

⁷Your doom is come to you, inhabitant of the land: the time is come, the day is near, [a day of] tumult, and not [of] joyful shouting, on the mountains.

⁸Now will I shortly pour out my wrath on you, and accomplish my anger against you, and will judge you according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations.

⁹My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will bring on you according to your ways; and your abominations shall be in the midst of you; and you shall know that I, Yahweh, do strike.

¹⁰Behold, the day, behold, it comes: your doom is gone forth; the rod has blossomed, pride has budded.

¹¹Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness; none of them [shall remain], nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth: neither shall there be eminency among them.

¹²The time is come, the day draws near: don't let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all the multitude of it.

¹³For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they be yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude of it, none shall return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.

¹⁴They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but none goes to the battle; for my wrath is on all the multitude of it.

¹⁵The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within: he who is in the field shall die with the sword: and he who is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

¹⁶But those of those who escape shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one in his iniquity.

¹⁷All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.

¹⁸They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads.

¹⁹They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of Yahweh: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity.

²⁰As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations [and] their detestable things therein: therefore have I made it to them as an unclean thing.

²¹I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane it.

²²My face will I turn also from them, and they shall profane my secret [place]; and robbers shall enter into it, and profane it.

²³Make the chain; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

²⁴Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pride of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be profaned.

²⁵Destruction comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.

²⁶Mischief shall come on mischief, and rumor shall be on rumor; and they shall seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

²⁷The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do to them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

8It happened in the sixth year, in the sixth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord Yahweh fell there on me.

²Then I saw, and, behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire; from the appearance of his loins and downward, fire; and from his loins and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it were glowing metal.

³He put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner [court] that looks toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.

⁴Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain.

⁵Then said he to me, Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and see, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

⁶He said to me, Son of man, see you what they do? even the great abominations that the house of Israel do commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? but you shall again see yet other great abominations.

⁷He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall.

⁸Then said he to me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had dug in the wall, behold, a door.

⁹He said to me, Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.

¹⁰So I went in and saw; and see, every form of creeping things, and abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed on the wall round about.

¹¹There stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel; and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, every man with his censer in his hand; and the odor of the cloud of incense went up.

¹²Then said he to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his chambers of imagery? for they say, Yahweh doesn't see us; Yahweh has forsaken the land.

¹³He said also to me, You shall again see yet other great abominations which they do.

¹⁴Then he brought me to the door of the gate of Yahweh's house which was toward the north; and see, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz.

¹⁵Then said he to me, Have you seen [this], son of man? you shall again see yet greater abominations than these.

¹⁶He brought me into the inner court of Yahweh's house; and see, at the door of the temple of Yahweh, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs toward the temple of Yahweh, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.

¹⁷Then he said to me, Have you seen [this], son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger: and, behold, they put the branch to their nose.

¹⁸Therefore will I also deal in wrath; my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

9Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause you them that have charge over the city to draw near, every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.

²Behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which lies toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man in the midst of them clothed in linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side. They went in, and stood beside the brazen altar.

³The glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house: and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer's inkhorn by his side.

⁴Yahweh said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done in the midst of it.

⁵To the others he said in my hearing, Go you through the city after him, and strike: don't let your eye spare, neither have you pity;

⁶kill utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but don't come near any man on whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the old men that were before the house.

⁷He said to them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go you forth. They went forth, and struck in the city.

⁸It happened, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell on my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord Yahweh! will you destroy all the residue of Israel in your pouring out of your wrath on Jerusalem?

⁹Then said he to me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of wrestling [of judgment]: for they say, Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn't see.

¹⁰As for me also, my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head.

¹¹Behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as you have commanded me.

10Then I looked, and see, in the expanse that was over the head of the cherubim there appeared above them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.

²He spoke to the man clothed in linen, and said, Go in between the whirling [wheels], even under the cherub, and fill both your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city. He went in as I watched.

³Now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court.

⁴The glory of Yahweh mounted up from the cherub, [and stood] over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of Yahweh's glory.

⁵The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

⁶It came to pass, when he commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim, that he went in, and stood beside a wheel.

⁷The cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took [of it], and put it into the hands of him who was clothed in linen, who took it and went out.

⁸There appeared in the cherubim the form of a man's hand under their wings.

⁹I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub, and another wheel beside another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like a beryl stone.

¹⁰As for their appearance, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel have been within a wheel.

¹¹When they went, they went in their four directions: they didn't turn as they went, but to the place where the head looked they followed it; they didn't turn as they went.

¹²Their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, [even] the wheels that they four had.

¹³As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, the whirling [wheels].

¹⁴Every one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third face the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

¹⁵The cherubim mounted up: this is the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar.

¹⁶When the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the wheels also didn't turn from beside them.

¹⁷When they stood, these stood; and when they mounted up, these mounted up with them: for the spirit of the living creature was in them.

¹⁸The glory of Yahweh went forth from over the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim.

¹⁹The cherubim lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight when they went forth, and the wheels beside them: and they stood at the door of the east gate of Yahweh's house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.

²⁰This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar; and I knew that they were cherubim.

²¹Every one had four faces, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings.

²²As for the likeness of their faces, they were the faces which I saw by the river Chebar, their appearances and themselves; they went every one straight forward.

11Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me to the east gate of Yahweh's house, which looks eastward: and see, at the door of the gate twenty-five men; and I saw in the midst of them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.

²He said to me, Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity, and who give wicked counsel in this city;

³who say, [The time] is not near to build houses: this [city] is the caldron, and we are the flesh.

⁴Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, son of man.

⁵The Spirit of Yahweh fell on me, and he said to me, Speak, Thus says Yahweh: Thus have you said, house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind.

⁶You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled the streets of it with the slain.

⁷Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this [city] is the caldron; but you shall be brought forth out of the midst of it.

⁸You have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword on you, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁹I will bring you forth out of the midst of it, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.

¹⁰You shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

¹¹This [city] shall not be your caldron, neither shall you be the flesh in the midst of it; I will judge you in the border of Israel;

¹²and you shall know that I am Yahweh: for you have not walked in my statutes, neither have you executed my ordinances, but have done after the ordinances of the nations that are round about you.

¹³It happened, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down on my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord Yahweh! will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?

¹⁴The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹⁵Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your relatives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, [are they] to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from Yahweh; to us is this land given for a possession.

¹⁶Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they are come.

¹⁷Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.

¹⁸They shall come there, and they shall take away all the detestable things of it and all the abominations of it from there.

¹⁹I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh;

²⁰that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

²¹But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way on their own heads, says the Lord Yahweh.

²²Then did the cherubim lift up their wings, and the wheels were beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.

²³The glory of Yahweh went up from the midst of the city, and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city.

²⁴The Spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me.

²⁵Then I spoke to them of the captivity all the things that Yahweh had showed me.

12The word of Yahweh also came to me, saying,

²Son of man, you dwell in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see, and don't see, who have ears to hear, and don't hear; for they are a rebellious house.

³Therefore, you son of man, prepare you stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and you shall remove from your place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they are a rebellious house.

⁴You shall bring forth your stuff by day in their sight, as stuff for removing; and you shall go forth yourself at even in their sight, as when men go forth into exile.

⁵Dig you through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby.

⁶In their sight shall you bear it on your shoulder, and carry it forth in the dark; you shall cover your face, that you don't see the land: for I have set you for a sign to the house of Israel.

⁷I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff by day, as stuff for removing, and in the even I dug through the wall with my hand; I brought it forth in the dark, and bore it on my shoulder in their sight.

⁸In the morning came the word of Yahweh to me, saying,

⁹Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, What do you?

¹⁰Say you to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This burden [concerns] the prince in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel among whom they are.

¹¹Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done to them; they shall go into exile, into captivity.

¹²The prince who is among them shall bear on his shoulder in the dark, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, because he shall not see the land with his eyes.

¹³My net also will I spread on him, and he shall be taken in my snare; and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.

¹⁴I will scatter toward every wind all who are round about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.

¹⁵They shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall disperse them among the nations, and scatter them through the countries.

¹⁶But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their abominations among the nations where they come; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

¹⁷Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹⁸Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and with fearfulness;

¹⁹and tell the people of the land, Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread with fearfulness, and drink their water in dismay, that her land may be desolate, [and despoiled] of all that is therein, because of the violence of all those who dwell therein.

²⁰The cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be a desolation; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

²¹The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²²Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision fails?

²³Tell them therefore, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but tell them, The days are at hand, and the fulfillment of every vision.

²⁴For there shall be no more any false vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel.

²⁵For I am Yahweh; I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall be performed; it shall be no more deferred: for in your days, rebellious house, will I speak the word, and will perform it, says the Lord Yahweh.

²⁶Again the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²⁷Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he sees is for many day to come, and he prophesies of times that are far off.

²⁸Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: There shall none of my words be deferred any more, but the word which I shall speak shall be performed, says the Lord Yahweh.

13The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say you to those who prophesy out of their own heart, Hear you the word of Yahweh:

³Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!

⁴Israel, your prophets have been like foxes in the waste places.

⁵You have not gone up into the gaps, neither built up the wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of Yahweh.

⁶They have seen falsehood and lying divination, who say, Yahweh says; but Yahweh has not sent them: and they have made men to hope that the word would be confirmed.

⁷Haven't you seen a false vision, and haven't you spoken a lying divination, in that you say, Yahweh says; but I have not spoken?

⁸Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have spoken falsehood, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁹My hand shall be against the prophets who see false visions, and who divine lies: they shall not be in the council of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁰Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there is no peace; and when one builds up a wall, behold, they daub it with whitewash:

¹¹tell those who daub it with whitewash, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and you, great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it.

¹²Behold, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said to you, Where is the daubing with which you have daubed it?

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will even tear it with a stormy wind in my wrath; and there shall be an overflowing shower in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to consume it.

¹⁴So will I break down the wall that you have daubed with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation of it shall be uncovered; and it shall fall, and you shall be consumed in the midst of it: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

¹⁵Thus will I accomplish my wrath on the wall, and on those who have daubed it with whitewash; and I will tell you, The wall is no more, neither those who daubed it;

¹⁶[to wit], the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁷You, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy you against them,

¹⁸and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the women who sew pillows on all elbows, and make kerchiefs for the head of [persons of] every stature to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of my people, and save souls alive for yourselves?

¹⁹You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to kill the souls who should not die, and to save the souls alive who should not live, by your lying to my people who listen to lies.

²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against your pillows, with which you there hunt the souls to make [them] fly, and I will tear them from your arms; and I will let the souls go, even the souls who you hunt to make [them] fly.

²¹Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

²²Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be saved alive:

²³Therefore you shall no more see false visions, nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

14Then came certain of the elders of Israel to me, and sat before me.

²The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

³Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them?

⁴Therefore speak to them, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Every man of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet; I Yahweh will answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols;

⁵that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.

⁶Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Return you, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

⁷For everyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from me, and takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire for himself of me; I Yahweh will answer him by myself:

⁸and I will set my face against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

⁹If the prophet be deceived and speak a word, I, Yahweh, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand on him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

¹⁰They shall bear their iniquity: the iniquity of the prophet shall be even as the iniquity of him who seeks [to him];

¹¹that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹²The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹³Son of man, when a land sins against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out my hand on it, and break the staff of the bread of it, and send famine on it, and cut off from it man and animal;

¹⁴though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁵If I cause evil animals to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of the animals;

¹⁶though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate.

¹⁷Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off from it man and animal;

¹⁸though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only should be delivered themselves.

¹⁹Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my wrath on it in blood, to cut off from it man and animal;

²⁰though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, they should deliver neither son nor daughter; they should but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.

²¹For thus says the Lord Yahweh: How much more when I send my four sore judgments on Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the evil animals, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and animal!

²²Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be carried forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth to you, and you shall see their way and their doings; and you shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought on it.

²³They shall comfort you, when you see their way and their doings; and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, says the Lord Yahweh.

15The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, what is the vine-tree more than any tree, the vine-branch which is among the trees of the forest?

³Shall wood be taken of it to make any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?

⁴Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire has devoured both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned: is it profitable for any work?

⁵Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work: how much less, when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned, shall it yet be meet for any work!

⁶Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: As the vine-tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

⁷I will set my face against them; they shall go forth from the fire, but the fire shall devour them; and you shall know that I am Yahweh, when I set my face against them.

⁸I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, says the Lord Yahweh.

16Again the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations;

³and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Jerusalem: Your birth and your birth is of the land of the Canaanite; the Amorite was your father, and your mother was a Hittite.

⁴As for your birth, in the day you were born your navel was not cut, neither were you washed in water to cleanse you; you weren't salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

⁵No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open field, for that your person was abhorred, in the day that you were born.

⁶When I passed by you, and saw you weltering in your blood, I said to you, [Though you are] in your blood, live; yes, I said to you, [Though you are] in your blood, live.

⁷I caused you to multiply as that which grows in the field, and you did increase and wax great, and you attained to excellent ornament; your breasts were fashioned, and your hair was grown; yet you were naked and bare.

⁸Now when I passed by you, and looked at you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness: yes, I swore to you, and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord Yahweh, and you became mine.

⁹Then washed I you with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.

¹⁰I clothed you also with embroidered work, and shod you with sealskin, and I girded you about with fine linen, and covered you with silk.

¹¹I decked you with ornaments, and I put bracelets on your hands, and a chain on your neck.

¹²I put a ring on your nose, and ear-rings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head.

¹³Thus was you decked with gold and silver; and your clothing was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered work; you ate fine flour, and honey, and oil; and you were exceeding beautiful, and you did prosper to royal estate.

¹⁴Your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁵But you did trust in your beauty, and played the prostitute because of your renown, and poured out your prostitution on everyone who passed by; his it was.

¹⁶You did take of your garments, and mad for you high places decked with various colors, and played the prostitute on them: [the like things] shall not come, neither shall it be [so].

¹⁷You did also take your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and mad for you images of men, and did play the prostitute with them;

¹⁸and you took your embroidered garments, and covered them, and did set my oil and my incense before them.

¹⁹My bread also which I gave you, fine flour, and oil, and honey, with which I fed you, you did even set it before them for a sweet savor; and [thus] it was, says the Lord Yahweh.

²⁰Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne to me, and these have you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your prostitution a small matter,

²¹that you have slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through [the fire] to them?

²²In all your abominations and your prostitution you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, and was weltering in your blood.

²³It is happen after all your wickedness, (woe, woe to you! says the Lord Yahweh,)

²⁴that you have built to you a vaulted place, and have made you a lofty place in every street.

²⁵You have built your lofty place at the head of every way, and have made your beauty an abomination, and have opened your feet to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your prostitution.

²⁶You have also committed sexual immorality with the Egyptians, your neighbors, great of flesh; and have multiplied your prostitution, to provoke me to anger.

²⁷See therefore, I have stretched out my hand over you, and have diminished your ordinary [food], and delivered you to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way.

²⁸You have played the prostitute also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yes, you have played the prostitute with them, and yet you weren't satisfied.

²⁹You have moreover multiplied your prostitution to the land of traffic, to Chaldea; and yet you weren't satisfied herewith.

³⁰How weak is your heart, says the Lord Yahweh, seeing you do all these things, the work of an impudent prostitute;

³¹in that you build your vaulted place at the head of every way, and make your lofty place in every street, and have not been as a prostitute, in that you scorn hire.

³²A wife who commits adultery! who takes strangers instead of her husband!

³³They give gifts to all prostitutes; but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and bribe them, that they may come to you on every side for your prostitution.

³⁴You are different from [other] women in your prostitution, in that none follows you to play the prostitute; and whereas you give hire, and no hire is given to you, therefore you are different.

³⁵Therefore, prostitute, hear the word of Yahweh:

³⁶Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Because your filthiness was poured out, and your nakedness uncovered through your prostitution with your lovers; and because of all the idols of your abominations, and for the blood of your children, that you gave to them;

³⁷therefore see, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those who you have loved, with all those who you have hated; I will even gather them against you on every side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.

³⁸I will judge you, as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.

³⁹I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your vaulted place, and break down your lofty places; and they shall strip you of your clothes, and take your beautiful jewels; and they shall leave you naked and bare.

⁴⁰They shall also bring up a company against you, and they shall stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their swords.

⁴¹They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will cause you to cease from playing the prostitute, and you shall also give no hire any more.

⁴²So will I cause my wrath toward you to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from you, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.

⁴³Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have raged against me in all these things; therefore, behold, I also will bring your way on your head, says the Lord Yahweh: and you shall not commit this lewdness with all your abominations.

⁴⁴Behold, everyone who uses proverbs shall use [this] proverb against you, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.

⁴⁵You are the daughter of your mother, who loathes her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite.

⁴⁶Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

⁴⁷Yet have you not walked in their ways, nor done after their abominations; but, as [if that were] a very little [thing], you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.

⁴⁸As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.

⁴⁹Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

⁵⁰They were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw [good].

⁵¹Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you have done.

⁵²You also, bear you your own shame, in that you have given judgment for your sisters; through your sins that you have committed more abominable than they, they are more righteous that you: yes, be you also confounded, and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters.

⁵³I will turn again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captives in the midst of them;

⁵⁴that you may bear your own shame, and may be ashamed because of all that you have done, in that you are a comfort to them.

⁵⁵Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate; and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate; and you and your daughters shall return to your former estate.

⁵⁶For your sister Sodom was not mentioned by your mouth in the day of your pride,

⁵⁷before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all who are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, who do despite to you round about.

⁵⁸You have borne your lewdness and your abominations, says Yahweh.

⁵⁹For thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant.

⁶⁰Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish to you an everlasting covenant.

⁶¹Then shall you remember your ways, and be ashamed, when you shall receive your sisters, your elder [sisters] and your younger; and I will give them to you for daughters, but not by your covenant.

⁶²I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall know that I am Yahweh;

⁶³that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done, says the Lord Yahweh.

17The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable to the house of Israel;

³and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, full of feathers, which had various colors, came to Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar:

⁴he cropped off the topmost of the young twigs of it, and carried it to a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants.

⁵He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful soil; he placed it beside many waters; he set it as a willow-tree.

⁶It grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots of it were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.

⁷There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him, from the beds of its plantation, that he might water it.

⁸It was planted in a good soil by many waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.

⁹Say you, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots of it, and cut off the fruit of it, that it may wither; that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? and not by a strong arm or much people can it be raised from the roots of it.

¹⁰Yes, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind touches it? it shall wither in the beds where it grew.

¹¹Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹²Say now to the rebellious house, Don't you know what these things mean? tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took the king of it, and the princes of it, and brought them to him to Babylon:

¹³and he took of the seed royal, and made a covenant with him; he also brought him under an oath, and took away the mighty of the land;

¹⁴that the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping his covenant it might stand.

¹⁵But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape who does such things? shall he break the covenant, and yet escape?

¹⁶As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die.

¹⁷Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company help him in the war, when they cast up mounds and build forts, to cut off many persons.

¹⁸For he has despised the oath by breaking the covenant; and behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done all these things; he shall not escape.

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: As I live, surely my oath that he has despised, and my covenant that he has broken, I will even bring it on his own head.

²⁰I will spread my net on him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgment with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me.

²¹All his fugitives in all his bands shall fall by the sword, and those who remain shall be scattered toward every wind: and you shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

²²Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also take of the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain:

²³in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it; and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all birds of every wing; in the shade of the branches of it shall they dwell.

²⁴All the trees of the field shall know that I, Yahweh, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish; I, Yahweh, have spoken and have done it.

18The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying,

²What do you mean, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?

³As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, you shall not have [occasion] any more to use this proverb in Israel.

⁴Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins, he shall die.

⁵But if a man is just, and does that which is lawful and right,

⁶and has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither has defiled his neighbor's wife, neither has come near to a woman in her impurity,

⁷and has not wronged any, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has taken nothing by robbery, has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment;

⁸he who has not given forth on interest, neither has taken any increase, who has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed true justice between man and man,

⁹has walked in my statutes, and has kept my ordinances, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁰If he fathers a son who is a robber, a shedder of blood, and who does any one of these things,

¹¹and who does not any of those [duties], but even has eaten on the mountains, and defiled his neighbor's wife,

¹²has wronged the poor and needy, has taken by robbery, has not restored the pledge, and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has committed abomination,

¹³has given forth on interest, and has taken increase; shall he then live? he shall not live: he has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be on him.

¹⁴Now, behold, if he fathers a son, who sees all his father's sins, which he has done, and fears, and does not such like;

¹⁵who has not eaten on the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, has not defiled his neighbor's wife,

¹⁶neither has wronged any, has not taken anything to pledge, neither has taken by robbery, but has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment;

¹⁷who has withdrawn his hand from the poor, who has not received interest nor increase, has executed my ordinances, has walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live.

¹⁸As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother, and did that which is not good among his people, behold, he shall die in his iniquity.

¹⁹Yet say you, Why does not the son bear the iniquity of the father? when the son has done that which is lawful and right, and has kept all my statutes, and has done them, he shall surely live.

²⁰The soul who sins, he shall die: the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him.

²¹But if the wicked turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

²²None of his transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him: in his righteousness that he has done he shall live.

²³Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord Yahweh; and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?

²⁴But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered: in his trespass that he has trespassed, and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die.

²⁵Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not equal? Aren't your ways unequal?

²⁶When the righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and dies therein; in his iniquity that he has done shall he die.

²⁷Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.

²⁸Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

²⁹Yet says the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal?

³⁰Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, says the Lord Yahweh. Return you, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

³¹Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, house of Israel?

³²For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the Lord Yahweh: why turn yourselves, and live.

19Moreover, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,

²and say, What was your mother? A lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her whelps.

³She brought up one of her whelps: he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.

⁴The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit; and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt.

⁵Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.

⁶He went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men.

⁷He knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fullness of it, because of the noise of his roaring.

⁸Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces; and they spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit.

⁹They put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into strongholds, that his voice should no more be heard on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁰Your mother was like a vine, in your blood, planted by the waters: it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.

¹¹It had strong rods for the scepters of those who bore rule, and their stature was exalted among the thick boughs, and they were seen in their height with the multitude of their branches.

¹²But it was plucked up in fury, it was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit: its strong rods were broken off and withered; the fire consumed them.

¹³Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.

¹⁴Fire is gone out of the rods of its branches, it has devoured its fruit, so that there is in it no strong rod to be a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.

20It happened in the seventh year, in the fifth [month], the tenth [day] of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of Yahweh, and sat before me.

²The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

³Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Is it to inquire of me that you have come? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be inquired of by you.

⁴Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers;

⁵and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day when I chose Israel, and swore to the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I swore to them, saying, I am Yahweh your God;

⁶in that day I swore to them, to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands.

⁷I said to them, Cast you away every man the abominations of his eyes, and don't defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.

⁸But they rebelled against me, and would not listen to me; they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.

⁹But I worked for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among which they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁰So I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness.

¹¹I gave them my statutes, and showed them my ordinances, which if a man do, he shall live in them.

¹²Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.

¹³But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they didn't walk in my statutes, and they rejected my ordinances, which if a man keep, he shall live in them; and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them in the wilderness, to consume them.

¹⁴But I worked for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them out.

¹⁵Moreover also I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands;

¹⁶because they rejected my ordinances, and didn't walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.

¹⁷Nevertheless my eye spared them, and I didn't destroy them, neither did I make a full end of them in the wilderness.

¹⁸I said to their children in the wilderness, Don't you walk in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their ordinances, nor defile yourselves with their idols.

¹⁹I am Yahweh your God: walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them;

²⁰and make my Sabbaths holy; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am Yahweh your God.

²¹But the children rebelled against me; they didn't walk in my statutes, neither kept my ordinances to do them, which if a man do, he shall live in them; they profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.

²²Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and worked for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I brought them forth.

²³Moreover I swore to them in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the nations, and disperse them through the countries;

²⁴because they had not executed my ordinances, but had rejected my statutes, and had profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols.

²⁵Moreover also I gave them statutes that were not good, and ordinances in which they should not live;

²⁶and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through [the fire] all that opens the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am Yahweh.

²⁷Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In this moreover have your fathers blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.

²⁸For when I had brought them into the land, which I swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill, and every thick tree, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering; there also they made their sweet savor, and they poured out there their drink-offerings.

²⁹Then I said to them, What means the high place whereunto you go? So the name of it is called Bamah to this day.

³⁰Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Do you pollute yourselves after the manner of your fathers? and play you the prostitute after their abominations?

³¹and when you offer your gifts, when you make your sons to pass through the fire, do you pollute yourselves with all your idols to this day? and shall I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be inquired of by you;

³²and that which comes into your mind shall not be at all, in that you say, We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.

³³As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, will I be king over you:

³⁴and I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries in which you are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out;

³⁵and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face.

³⁶Like as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you, says the Lord Yahweh.

³⁷I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant;

³⁸and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and those who disobey against me; I will bring them forth out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

³⁹As for you, house of Israel, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Go you, serve everyone his idols, and hereafter also, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name shall you no more profane with your gifts, and with your idols.

⁴⁰For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them, serve me in the land: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first-fruits of your offerings, with all your holy things.

⁴¹As a sweet savor will I accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples, and gather you out of the countries in which you have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations.

⁴²You shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country which I swore to give to your fathers.

⁴³There shall you remember your ways, and all your doings, in which you have polluted yourselves; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed.

⁴⁴You shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have dealt with you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, you house of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁴⁵The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

⁴⁶Son of man, set your face toward the south, and drop [your word] toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the field in the South;

⁴⁷and tell the forest of the South, Hear the word of Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burnt thereby.

⁴⁸All flesh shall see that I, Yahweh, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.

⁴⁹Then said I, Ah Lord Yahweh! they say of me, Isn't he a speaker of parables?

21The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop [your word] toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel;

³and tell the land of Israel, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.

⁴Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:

⁵and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more.

⁶Sigh therefore, you son of man; with the breaking of your loins and with bitterness shall you sigh before their eyes.

⁷It shall be, when they tell you, Why do you sigh? that you shall say, Because of the news, for it comes; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁸The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

⁹Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh: Say, A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished;

¹⁰it is sharpened that it may make a slaughter; it is furbished that it may be as lightning: shall we then make mirth? the rod of my son, it condemns every tree.

¹¹It is given to be furbished, that it may be handled: the sword, it is sharpened, yes, it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the killer.

¹²Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people, it is on all the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with my people; strike therefore on your thigh.

¹³For there is a trial; and what if even the rod that condemns shall be no more? says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁴You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the deadly wounded: it is the sword of the great one who is deadly wounded, which enters into their chambers.

¹⁵I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied: ah! it is made as lightning, it is pointed for slaughter.

¹⁶Gather you together, go to the right, set yourself in array, go to the left, wherever your face is set.

¹⁷I will also strike my hands together, and I will cause my wrath to rest: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

¹⁸The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying,

¹⁹Also, you son of man, appoint two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; they both shall come forth out of one land: and mark out a place, mark it out at the head of the way to the city.

²⁰You shall appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.

²¹For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shook the arrows back and forth, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver.

²²In his right hand was the divination [for] Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts.

²³It shall be to them as a false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to memory, that they may be taken.

²⁴Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because you have come to memory, you shall be taken with the hand.

²⁵You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,

²⁶thus says the Lord Yahweh: Remove the mitre, and take off the crown; this [shall be] no more the same; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high.

²⁷I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it [him].

²⁸You, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and say you, A sword, a sword is drawn, for the slaughter it is furbished, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning;

²⁹while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies to you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are deadly wounded, whose day is come in the time of the iniquity of the end.

³⁰Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, will I judge you.

³¹I will pour out my indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath; and I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.

³²You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be no more remembered: for I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

22Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²You, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? then cause her to know all her abominations.

³You shall say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: A city that sheds blood in the midst of her, that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to defile her!

⁴You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed, and are defiled in your idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and are come even to your years: therefore have I made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries.

⁵Those who are near, and those who are far from you, shall mock you, you infamous one [and] full of tumult.

⁶Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood.

⁷In you have they set light by father and mother; in the midst of you have they dealt by oppression with the sojourner; in you have they wronged the fatherless and the widow.

⁸You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths.

⁹Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood; and in you they have eaten on the mountains: in the midst of you they have committed lewdness.

¹⁰In you have they uncovered their fathers' nakedness; in you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity.

¹¹One has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in you has humbled his sister, his father's daughter.

¹²In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹³Behold, therefore, I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been in the midst of you.

¹⁴Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it.

¹⁵I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries; and I will consume your filthiness out of you.

¹⁶You shall be profaned in yourself, in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

¹⁷The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹⁸Son of man, the house of Israel is become dross to me: all of them are brass and tin and iron and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver.

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you are all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

²⁰As they gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire on it, to melt it; so will I gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there, and melt you.

²¹Yes, I will gather you, and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it.

²²As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst of it; and you shall know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my wrath on you.

²³The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²⁴Son of man, tell her, You are a land that is not cleansed, nor rained on in the day of indignation.

²⁵There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst of it, like a roaring lion ravening the prey: they have devoured souls; they take treasure and precious things; they have made her widows many in the midst of it.

²⁶Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

²⁷Her princes in the midst of it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, [and] to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.

²⁸Her prophets have daubed for them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, when Yahweh has not spoken.

²⁹The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yes, they have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the sojourner wrongfully.

³⁰I sought for a man among them, who should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.

³¹Therefore have I poured out my indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I brought on their heads, says the Lord Yahweh.

23The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,

²Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:

³and they played the prostitute in Egypt; they played the prostitute in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity.

⁴The names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

⁵Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians [her] neighbors,

⁶who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.

⁷She bestowed her prostitution on them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself.

⁸Neither has she left her prostitution since [the days of] Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their prostitution on her.

⁹Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted.

¹⁰These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they killed with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her.

¹¹Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her prostitution which were more than the prostitution of her sister.

¹²She doted on the Assyrians, governors and rulers, [her] neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

¹³I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way.

¹⁴She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

¹⁵girded with girdles on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them princes to look on, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.

¹⁶As soon as she saw them she doted on them, and sent messengers to them into Chaldea.

¹⁷The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them.

¹⁸So she uncovered her prostitution, and uncovered her nakedness: then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister.

¹⁹Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt.

²⁰She doted on their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

²¹Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the handling of your bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of your youth.

²²Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side:

²³the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, [and] all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and rulers all of them, princes and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.

²⁴They shall come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against you with buckler and shield and helmet round about; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments.

²⁵I will set my jealousy against you, and they shall deal with you in fury; they shall take away your nose and your ears; and your residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take your sons and your daughters; and your residue shall be devoured by the fire.

²⁶They shall also strip you of your clothes, and take away your beautiful jewels.

²⁷Thus will I make your lewdness to cease from you, and your prostitution [brought] from the land of Egypt; so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.

²⁸For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated;

²⁹and they shall deal with you in hatred, and shall take away all your labor, and shall leave you naked and bare; and the nakedness of your prostitution shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution.

³⁰These things shall be done to you, because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols.

³¹You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore will I give her cup into your hand.

³²Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You shall drink of your sister's cup, which is deep and large; you shall be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it contains much.

³³You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria.

³⁴You shall even drink it and drain it out, and you shall gnaw the broken pieces of it, and shall tear your breasts; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.

³⁵Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore bear you also your lewdness and your prostitution.

³⁶Yahweh said moreover to me: Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? then declare to them their abominations.

³⁷For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery; and they have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through [the fire] to them to be devoured.

³⁸Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths.

³⁹For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, behold, thus have they done in the midst of my house.

⁴⁰Furthermore you have sent for men who come from far, to whom a messenger was sent, and, behold, they came; for whom you did wash yourself, paint your eyes, and deck yourself with ornaments,

⁴¹and sit on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon you did set my incense and my oil.

⁴²The voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on the hands of them [twain], and beautiful crowns on their heads.

⁴³Then said I of her who was old in adulteries, Now will they play the prostitute with her, and she [with them].

⁴⁴They went in to her, as they go in to a prostitute: so went they in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.

⁴⁵Righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women who shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

⁴⁶For thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will bring up a company against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed.

⁴⁷The company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.

⁴⁸Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.

⁴⁹They shall recompense your lewdness on you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols; and you shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.

24Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth [day] of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, write you the name of the day, [even] of this same day: the king of Babylon drew close to Jerusalem this same day.

³Utter a parable to the rebellious house, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Set on the caldron, set it on, and also pour water into it:

⁴gather the pieces of it into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones.

⁵Take the choice of the flock, and also a pile [of wood] for the bones under [the caldron]; make it boil well; yes, let the bones of it be boiled in the midst of it.

⁶Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the bloody city, to the caldron whose rust is therein, and whose rust is not gone out of it! take out of it piece after piece; No lot is fallen on it.

⁷For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it on the bare rock; she didn't pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust.

⁸That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood on the bare rock, that it should not be covered.

⁹Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great.

¹⁰Heap on the wood, make the fire hot, boil well the flesh, and make thick the broth, and let the bones be burned.

¹¹Then set it empty on the coals of it, that it may be hot, and the brass of it may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the rust of it may be consumed.

¹²She has wearied [herself] with toil; yet her great rust doesn't go forth out of her; her rust doesn't [go forth] by fire.

¹³In your filthiness is lewdness: because I have cleansed you and you weren't cleansed, you shall not be cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have caused my wrath toward you to rest.

¹⁴I, Yahweh, have spoken it: it shall happen, and I will do it: I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to your ways, and according to your doings, shall they judge you, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁵Also the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹⁶Son of man, behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke: yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears run down.

¹⁷Sigh, but not aloud, make no mourning for the dead; bind your headdress on you, and put your shoes on your feet, and don't cover your lips, and don't eat men's bread.

¹⁸So I spoke to the people in the morning; and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.

¹⁹The people said to me, Won't you tell us what these things are to us, that you do so?

²⁰Then I said to them, The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²¹Speak to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind shall fall by the sword.

²²You shall do as I have done: you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.

²³Your tires shall be on your heads, and your shoes on your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.

²⁴Thus shall Ezekiel be to you a sign; according to all that he has done shall you do: when this comes, then shall you know that I am the Lord Yahweh.

²⁵You, son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their heart, their sons and their daughters,

²⁶that in that day he who escapes shall come to you, to cause you to hear it with your ears?

²⁷In that day shall your mouth be opened to him who is escaped, and you shall speak, and be no more mute: so shall you be a sign to them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

25The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, set your face toward the children of Ammon, and prophesy against them:

³and tell the children of Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Because you said, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was made desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity:

⁴therefore, behold, I will deliver you to the children of the east for a possession, and they shall set their encampments in you, and make their dwellings in you; they shall eat your fruit, and they shall drink your milk.

⁵I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the children of Ammon a couching-place for flocks: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

⁶For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have clapped your hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced with all the despite of your soul against the land of Israel;

⁷therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand on you, and will deliver you for a spoil to the nations; and I will cut you off from the peoples, and I will cause you to perish out of the countries: I will destroy you; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

⁸Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because Moab and Seir say, Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations;

⁹therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim,

¹⁰to the children of the east, [to go] against the children of Ammon; and I will give them for a possession, that the children of Ammon may not be remembered among the nations.

¹¹and I will execute judgments on Moab; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

¹²Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because Edom has dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and has greatly offended, and revenged himself on them;

¹³therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, I will stretch out my hand on Edom, and will cut off man and animal from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; even to Dedan shall they fall by the sword.

¹⁴I will lay my vengeance on Edom by the hand of my people Israel; and they shall do in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath; and they shall know my vengeance, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with despite of soul to destroy with perpetual enmity;

¹⁶therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will stretch out my hand on the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast.

¹⁷I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall lay my vengeance on them.

26It happened in the eleventh year, in the first [day] of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken: the gate of the peoples; she is turned to me; I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste:

³therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I am against you, Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes its waves to come up.

⁴They shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock.

⁵She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh; and she shall become a spoil to the nations.

⁶Her daughters who are in the field shall be slain with the sword: and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

⁷For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will bring on Tyre Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and a company, and much people.

⁸He shall kill with the sword your daughters in the field; and he shall make forts against you, and cast up a mound against you, and raise up the buckler against you.

⁹He shall set his battering engines against your walls, and with his axes he shall break down your towers.

¹⁰By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover you: your walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wagons, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into your gates, as men enter into a city in which is made a breach.

¹¹With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all your streets; he shall kill your people with the sword; and the pillars of your strength shall go down to the ground.

¹²They shall make a spoil of your riches, and make a prey of your merchandise; and they shall break down your walls, and destroy your pleasant houses; and they shall lay your stones and your timber and your dust in the midst of the waters.

¹³I will cause the noise of your songs to cease; and the sound of your harps shall be no more heard.

¹⁴I will make you a bare rock; you shall be a place for the spreading of nets; you shall be built no more: for I Yahweh have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord Yahweh to Tyre: shall not the isles shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in the midst of you?

¹⁶Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit on the ground, and shall tremble every moment, and be astonished at you.

¹⁷They shall take up a lamentation over you, and tell you, How are you destroyed, who were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, who was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all who lived there!

¹⁸Now shall the isles tremble in the day of your fall; yes, the isles that are in the sea shall be dismayed at your departure.

¹⁹For thus says the Lord Yahweh: When I shall make you a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep on you, and the great waters shall cover you;

²⁰then will I bring you down with those who descend into the pit, to the people of old time, and will make you to dwell in the nether parts of the earth, in the places that are desolate of old, with those who go down to the pit, that you be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living:

²¹I will make you a terror, and you shall no more have any being; though you be sought for, yet shall you never be found again, says the Lord Yahweh.

27The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,

²You, son of man, take up a lamentation over Tyre;

³and tell Tyre, you who dwell at the entry of the sea, who are the merchant of the peoples to many isles, thus says the Lord Yahweh: You, Tyre, have said, I am perfect in beauty.

⁴Your borders are in the heart of the seas; your builders have perfected your beauty.

⁵They have made all your planks of fir-trees from Senir; they have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you.

⁶Of the oaks of Bashan have they made your oars; they have made your benches of ivory inlaid in boxwood, from the isles of Kittim.

⁷Of fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt was your sail, that it might be to you for an ensign; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was your awning.

⁸The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were your rowers: your wise men, Tyre, were in you, they were your pilots.

⁹The old men of Gebal and the wise men of it were in you your repairers of ship seams: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to deal in your merchandise.

¹⁰Persia and Lud and Put were in your army, your men of war: they hanged the shield and helmet in you; they set forth your comeliness.

¹¹The men of Arvad with your army were on your walls round about, and valorous men were in your towers; they hanged their shields on your walls round about; they have perfected your beauty.

¹²Tarshish was your merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded for your wares.

¹³Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were your traffickers; they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass for your merchandise.

¹⁴They of the house of Togarmah traded for your wares with horses and war-horses and mules.

¹⁵The men of Dedan were your traffickers; many isles were the market of your hand: they brought you in exchange horns of ivory and ebony.

¹⁶Syria was your merchant by reason of the multitude of your handiworks: they traded for your wares with emeralds, purple, and embroidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and rubies.

¹⁷Judah, and the land of Israel, they were your traffickers: they traded for your merchandise wheat of Minnith, and confections, and honey, and oil, and balm.

¹⁸Damascus was your merchant for the multitude of your handiworks, by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches, with the wine of Helbon, and white wool.

¹⁹Vedan and Javan traded with yarn for your wares: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were among your merchandise.

²⁰Dedan was your trafficker in precious cloths for riding.

²¹Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they were the merchants of your hand; in lambs, and rams, and goats, in these were they your merchants.

²²The traffickers of Sheba and Raamah, they were your traffickers; they traded for your wares with the chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.

²³Haran and Canneh and Eden, the traffickers of Sheba, Asshur [and] Chilmad, were your traffickers.

²⁴These were your traffickers in choice wares, in wrappings of blue and embroidered work, and in chests of rich clothing, bound with cords and made of cedar, among your merchandise.

²⁵The ships of Tarshish were your caravans for your merchandise: and you were replenished, and made very glorious in the heart of the seas.

²⁶Your rowers have brought you into great waters: the east wind has broken you in the heart of the seas.

²⁷Your riches, and your wares, your merchandise, your mariners, and your pilots, your repairers of ship seams, and the dealers in your merchandise, and all your men of war, who are in you, with all your company which is in the midst of you, shall fall into the heart of the seas in the day of your ruin.

²⁸At the sound of the cry of your pilots the suburbs shall shake.

²⁹All who handled the oar, the mariners, [and] all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships; they shall stand on the land,

³⁰and shall cause their voice to be heard over you, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust on their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:

³¹and they shall make themselves bald for you, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for you in bitterness of soul with bitter mourning.

³²In their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for you, and lament over you, [saying], Who is there like Tyre, like her who is brought to silence in the midst of the sea?

³³When your wares went forth out of the seas, you filled many peoples; you did enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of your riches and of your merchandise.

³⁴In the time that you were broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, your merchandise and all your company did fall in the midst of you.

³⁵All the inhabitants of the isles are astonished at you, and their kings are horribly afraid; they are troubled in their face.

³⁶The merchants among the peoples hiss at you; you are become a terror, and you shall nevermore have any being.

28The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,

²Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet you are man, and not God, though you did set your heart as the heart of God;-

³behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that is hidden from you;

⁴by your wisdom and by your understanding you have gotten you riches, and have gotten gold and silver into your treasures;

⁵by your great wisdom [and] by your traffic have you increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches;-

⁶therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have set your heart as the heart of God,

⁷therefore, behold, I will bring strangers on you, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness.

⁸They shall bring you down to the pit; and you shall die the death of those who are slain, in the heart of the seas.

⁹Will you yet say before him who kills you, I am God? but you are man, and not God, in the hand of him who wounds you.

¹⁰You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹¹Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹²Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

¹³You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the emerald, and gold: the workmanship of your tambourines and of your pipes was in you; in the day that you were created they were prepared.

¹⁴You were the anointed cherub who covers: and I set you, [so that] you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

¹⁵You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you.

¹⁶By the abundance of your traffic they filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I have cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

¹⁷Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may see you.

¹⁸By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of you; it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who see you.

¹⁹All those who know you among the peoples shall be astonished at you: you are become a terror, and you shall nevermore have any being.

²⁰The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²¹Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it,

²²and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Sidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of you; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.

²³For I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall fall in the midst of her, with the sword on her on every side; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

²⁴There shall be no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are round about them, that did despite to them; and they shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.

²⁵Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which I gave to my servant Jacob.

²⁶They shall dwell securely therein; yes, they shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and shall dwell securely, when I have executed judgments on all those who do them despite round about them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh their God.

29In the tenth year, in the tenth [month], in the twelfth [day] of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt;

³speak, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers, that has said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself.

⁴I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales; and I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers, with all the fish of your rivers which stick to your scales.

⁵I will cast you forth into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers: you shall fall on the open field; you shall not be brought together, nor gathered; I have given you for food to the animals of the earth and to the birds of the sky.

⁶All the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am Yahweh, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel.

⁷When they took hold of you by your hand, you did break, and did tear all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke, and mad all their loins to be at a stand.

⁸Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will bring a sword on you, and will cut off from you man and animal.

⁹The land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste; and they shall know that I am Yahweh. Because he has said, The river is mine, and I have made it;

¹⁰therefore, behold, I am against you, and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from the tower of Seveneh even to the border of Ethiopia.

¹¹No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of animal shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years.

¹²I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be a desolation forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

¹³For thus says the Lord Yahweh: At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered;

¹⁴and I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their birth; and they shall be there a base kingdom.

¹⁵It shall be the base of the kingdoms; neither shall it any more lift itself up above the nations: and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.

¹⁶It shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to memory, when they turn to look after them: and they shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁷It came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first [month], in the first [day] of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹⁸Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was worn; yet had he no wages, nor his army, from Tyre, for the service that he had served against it.

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army.

²⁰I have given him the land of Egypt as his recompense for which he served, because they worked for me, says the Lord Yahweh.

²¹In that day will I cause a horn to bud forth to the house of Israel, and I will give you the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

30The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,

²Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Wail you, Alas for the day!

³For the day is near, even the day of Yahweh is near; it shall be a day of clouds, a time of the nations.

⁴A sword shall come on Egypt, and anguish shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt; and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down.

⁵Ethiopia, and Put, and Lud, and all the mingled people, and Cub, and the children of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.

⁶Thus says Yahweh: They also who uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Seveneh shall they fall in it by the sword, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁷They shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted.

⁸They shall know at I am Yahweh, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers are destroyed.

⁹In that day shall messengers go forth from before me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid; and there shall be anguish on them, as in the day of Egypt; for, behold, it comes.

¹⁰Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease, by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.

¹¹He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought in to destroy the land; and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain.

¹²I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men; and I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

¹³Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Memphis; and there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt.

¹⁴I will make Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments on No.

¹⁵I will pour my wrath on Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No.

¹⁶I will set a fire in Egypt: Sin shall be in great anguish, and No shall be broken up; and Memphis [shall have] adversaries in the day-time.

¹⁷The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword; and these [cities] shall go into captivity.

¹⁸At Tehaphnehes also the day shall withdraw itself, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her power shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.

¹⁹Thus will I execute judgments on Egypt; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

²⁰It happened in the eleventh year, in the first [month], in the seventh [day] of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²¹Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, behold, it has not been bound up, to apply [healing] medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it be strong to hold the sword.

²²Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong [arm], and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand.

²³I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.

²⁴I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man.

²⁵I will hold up the arms of the king of Babylon; and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out on the land of Egypt.

²⁶I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

31It happened in the eleventh year, in the third [month], in the first [day] of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom are you like in your greatness?

³Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs.

⁴The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: the rivers of it ran round about its plantation; and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.

⁵Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it shot [them] forth.

⁶All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches did all the animals of the field bring forth their young; and under its shadow lived all great nations.

⁷Thus was it beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.

⁸The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir-trees were not like its boughs, and the plane-trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty.

⁹I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.

¹⁰Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;

¹¹I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness.

¹²Strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.

¹³On his ruin all the birds of the sky shall dwell, and all the animals of the field shall be on his branches;

¹⁴to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up on their height, [even] all who drink water: for they are all delivered to death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the rivers of it; and the great waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him.

¹⁶I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the nether parts of the earth.

¹⁷They also went down into Sheol with him to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were his arm, [that] lived under his shadow in the midst of the nations.

¹⁸To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shall you be brought down with the trees of Eden to the nether parts of the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.

32It happened in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first [day] of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and tell him, You were likened to a young lion of the nations: yet are you as a monster in the seas; and you did break forth with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers.

³Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will spread out my net on you with a company of many peoples; and they shall bring you up in my net.

⁴I will leave you on the land, I will cast you forth on the open field, and will cause all the birds of the sky to settle on you, and I will satisfy the animals of the whole earth with you.

⁵I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height.

⁶I will also water with your blood the land in which you swim, even to the mountains; and the watercourses shall be full of you.

⁷When I shall extinguish you, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars of it dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.

⁸All the bright lights of the sky will I make dark over you, and set darkness on your land, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁹I will also vex the hearts of many peoples, when I shall bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known.

¹⁰Yes, I will make many peoples amazed at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for you, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.

¹¹For thus says the Lord Yahweh: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come on you.

¹²By the swords of the mighty will I cause your multitude to fall; the terrible of the nations are they all: and they shall bring to nothing the pride of Egypt, and all the multitude of it shall be destroyed.

¹³I will destroy also all the animals of it from beside many waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of animals trouble them.

¹⁴Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁵When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate and waste, a land destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall strike all those who dwell therein, then shall they know that I am Yahweh.

¹⁶This is the lamentation with which they shall lament; the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they lament therewith, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁷It happened also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth [day] of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹⁸Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, to the nether parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit.

¹⁹Whom do you pass in beauty? go down, and be you laid with the uncircumcised.

²⁰They shall fall in the midst of those who are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword; draw her away and all her multitudes.

²¹The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol with those who help him: they are gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

²²Asshur is there and all her company; her graves are round about her; all of them slain, fallen by the sword;

²³whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is round about her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living.

²⁴There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit.

²⁵They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude; her graves are round about her; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of those who are slain.

²⁶There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude; their graves are round about them; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the living.

²⁷They shall not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities are on their bones; for [they were] the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

²⁸But you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shall lie with those who are slain by the sword.

²⁹There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who in their might are laid with those who are slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with those who go down to the pit.

³⁰There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who are gone down with the slain; in the terror which they caused by their might they are put to shame; and they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.

³¹Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, says the Lord Yahweh.

³²For I have put his terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.

33The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and tell them, When I bring the sword on a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman;

³if, when he sees the sword come on the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;

⁴then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and doesn't take warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be on his own head.

⁵He heard the sound of the trumpet, and didn't take warning; his blood shall be on him; whereas if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul.

⁶But if the watchman sees the sword come, and doesn't blow the trumpet, and the people aren't warned, and the sword comes, and take any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.

⁷So you, son of man, I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

⁸When I tell the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you don't speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand.

⁹Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he doesn't turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul.

¹⁰You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: Thus you speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?

¹¹Tell them, As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn you, turn you from your evil ways; for why will you die, house of Israel?

¹²You, son of man, tell the children of your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his disobedience; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his wickedness; neither shall he who is righteous be able to live thereby in the day that he sins.

¹³When I tell the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his iniquity that he has committed, therein shall he die.

¹⁴Again, when I say to the wicked, You shall surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;

¹⁵if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that which he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.

¹⁶None of his sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him: he has done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

¹⁷Yet the children of your people say, The way of the Lord is not equal: but as for them, their way is not equal.

¹⁸When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall even die therein.

¹⁹When the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.

²⁰Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not equal. House of Israel, I will judge you everyone after his ways.

²¹It happened in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth [month], in the fifth [day] of the month, that one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city has been struck.

²²Now the hand of Yahweh had been on me in the evening, before he who was escaped came; and he had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more mute.

²³The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²⁴Son of man, they who inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.

²⁵Therefore tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land?

²⁶You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and you defile everyone his neighbor's wife: and shall you possess the land?

²⁷Thus shall you tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him who is in the open field will I give to the animals to be devoured; and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.

²⁸I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through.

²⁹Then shall they know that I am Yahweh, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment, because of all their abominations which they have committed.

³⁰As for you, son of man, the children of your people talk of you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, everyone to his brother, saying, Please come and hear what is the word that comes forth from Yahweh.

³¹They come to you as the people comes, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don't do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.

³²Behold, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they don't do them.

³³When this comes to pass, (behold, it comes,) then shall they know that a prophet has been among them.

34The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and tell them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn't the shepherds feed the sheep?

³You eat the fat, and you clothe you with the wool, you kill the fatlings; but you don't feed the sheep.

⁴You haven't strengthened the diseased, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought back that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost; but with force and with rigor have you ruled over them.

⁵They were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered.

⁶My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill: yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth; and there was none who searched or sought.

⁷Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh:

⁸As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn't fed my sheep;

⁹therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh:

¹⁰Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.

¹¹For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.

¹²As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

¹³I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

¹⁴I will feed them with good pasture; and on the mountains of the height of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie down in a good fold; and on fat pasture shall they feed on the mountains of Israel.

¹⁵I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁶I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but the fat and the strong I will destroy; I will feed them in justice.

¹⁷As for you, O my flock, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the male goats.

¹⁸Seems it a small thing to you to have fed on the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture? and to have drunk of the clear waters, but you must foul the residue with your feet?

¹⁹As for my sheep, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet.

²⁰Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh to them: Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

²¹Because you thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the diseased with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad;

²²therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

²³I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.

²⁴I, Yahweh, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them; I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

²⁵I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil animals to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell securely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.

²⁶I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing.

²⁷The tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have broken the bars of their yoke, and have delivered them out of the hand of those who made slaves of them.

²⁸They shall no more be a prey to the nations, neither shall the animals of the earth devour them; but they shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid.

²⁹I will raise up to them a plantation for renown, and they shall be no more consumed with famine in the land, neither bear the shame of the nations any more.

³⁰They shall know that I, Yahweh, their God am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord Yahweh.

³¹You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, says the Lord Yahweh.

35Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it,

³and tell it, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and an astonishment.

⁴I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

⁵Because you have had a perpetual enmity, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end;

⁶therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will prepare you to blood, and blood shall pursue you: since you have not hated blood, therefore blood shall pursue you.

⁷Thus will I make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation; and I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns.

⁸I will fill its mountains with its slain: in your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses shall they fall who are slain with the sword.

⁹I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

¹⁰Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas Yahweh was there:

¹¹therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have showed out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I shall judge you.

¹²You shall know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to devour.

¹³You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard it.

¹⁴Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate.

¹⁵As you did rejoice over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do to you: you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

36You, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yahweh.

²Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because the enemy has said against you, Aha! and, The ancient high places are ours in possession;

³therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession to the residue of the nations, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people;

⁴therefore, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: Thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which are become a prey and derision to the residue of the nations that are round about;

⁵therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, that have appointed my land to themselves for a possession with the joy of all their heart, with despite of soul, to cast it out for a prey.

⁶Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and tell the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my wrath, because you have borne the shame of the nations:

⁷therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: I have sworn, [saying], Surely the nations that are round about you, they shall bear their shame.

⁸But you, mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come.

⁹For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn into you, and you shall be tilled and sown;

¹⁰and I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built;

¹¹and I will multiply on you man and animal; and they shall increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited after your former estate, and will do better [to you] than at your beginnings: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

¹²Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no more henceforth bereave them of children.

¹³Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because they say to you, You [land] are a devourer of men, and have been a bereaver of your nation;

¹⁴therefore you shall devour men no more, neither bereave your nation any more, says the Lord Yahweh;

¹⁵neither will I let you hear any more the shame of the nations, neither shall you bear the reproach of the peoples any more, neither shall you cause your nation to stumble any more, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁶Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹⁷Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their way and by their doings: their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity.

¹⁸Therefore I poured out my wrath on them for the blood which they had poured out on the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols;

¹⁹and I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

²⁰When they came to the nations, where they went, they profaned my holy name; in that men said of them, These are the people of Yahweh, and are gone forth out of his land.

²¹But I had regard for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations, where they went.

²²Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I don't do [this] for your sake, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations, where you went.

²³I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, says the Lord Yahweh, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

²⁴For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.

²⁵I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

²⁶A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

²⁷I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.

²⁸You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

²⁹I will save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you.

³⁰I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that you may receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations.

³¹Then shall you remember your evil ways, and your doings that were not good; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

³²Nor for your sake do I [this], says the Lord Yahweh, be it known to you: be ashamed and confounded for your ways, house of Israel.

³³Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built.

³⁴The land that was desolate shall be tilled, whereas it was a desolation in the sight of all who passed by.

³⁵They shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.

³⁶Then the nations that are left round about you shall know that I, Yahweh, have built the ruined places, and planted that which was desolate: I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and I will do it.

³⁷Thus says the Lord Yahweh: For this, moreover, will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock.

³⁸As the flock for sacrifice, as the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

37The hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Yahweh, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones.

²He caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, behold, they were very dry.

³He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? I answered, Lord Yahweh, you know.

⁴Again he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, you dry bones, hear the word of Yahweh.

⁵Thus says the Lord Yahweh to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.

⁶I will lay sinews on you, and will bring up flesh on you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and, behold, an earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

⁸I saw, and, behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them.

⁹Then said he to me, Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the wind, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.

¹⁰So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceeding great army.

¹¹Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.

¹²Therefore prophesy, and tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.

¹³You shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, my people.

¹⁴I will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and you shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken it and performed it, says Yahweh.

¹⁵The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying,

¹⁶You, son of man, take one stick, and write on it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write on it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and [for] all the house of Israel his companions:

¹⁷and join them for you one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand.

¹⁸When the children of your people shall speak to you, saying, Will you not show us what you mean by these?

¹⁹tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them with it, [even] with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand.

²⁰The sticks whereon you write shall be in your hand before their eyes.

²¹Say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, where they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

²²and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all;

²³neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling-places, in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

²⁴My servant David shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my ordinances, and observe my statutes, and do them.

²⁵They shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant, in which your fathers lived; and they shall dwell therein, they, and their children, and their children's children, forever: and David my servant shall be their prince for ever.

²⁶Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore.

²⁷My tent also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

²⁸The nations shall know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore.

38The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

²Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

³and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:

⁴and I will turn you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords;

⁵Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet;

⁶Gomer, and all his hordes; the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all his hordes; even many peoples with you.

⁷Be you prepared, yes, prepare yourself, you, and all your companies who are assembled to you, and be you a guard to them.

⁸After many days you shall be visited: in the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many peoples, on the mountains of Israel, which have been a continual waste; but it is brought forth out of the peoples, and they shall dwell securely, all of them.

⁹You shall ascend, you shall come like a storm, you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you, and all your hordes, and many peoples with you.

¹⁰Thus says the Lord Yahweh: It shall happen in that day, that things shall come into your mind, and you shall devise an evil device:

¹¹and you shall say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to those who are at rest, who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates;

¹²to take the spoil and to take the prey; to turn your hand against the waste places that are [now] inhabited, and against the people who are gathered out of the nations, who have gotten cattle and goods, who dwell in the middle of the earth.

¹³Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions of it, shall tell you, Are you come to take the spoil? have you assembled your company to take the prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take great spoil?

¹⁴Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and tell Gog, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In that day when my people Israel dwells securely, shall you not know it?

¹⁵You shall come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you, and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army;

¹⁶and you shall come up against my people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land: it shall happen in the latter days, that I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when I shall be sanctified in you, Gog, before their eyes.

¹⁷Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Are you he of whom I spoke in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for [many] years that I would bring you against them?

¹⁸It shall happen in that day, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh, that my wrath shall come up into my nostrils.

¹⁹For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;

²⁰so that the fish of the sea, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the field, and all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.

²¹I will call for a sword against him to all my mountains, says the Lord Yahweh: every man's sword shall be against his brother.

²²With pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and sulfur.

²³I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

39You, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal:

²and I will turn you about, and will lead you on, and will cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north; and I will bring you on the mountains of Israel;

³and I will strike your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand.

⁴You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you, and all your hordes, and the peoples who are with you: I will give you to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the animals of the field to be devoured.

⁵You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁶I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who dwell securely in the isles; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

⁷My holy name will I make known in the midst of my people Israel; neither will I allow my holy name to be profaned any more: and the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, the Holy One in Israel.

⁸Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

⁹Those who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the war clubs, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years;

¹⁰so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall make fires of the weapons; and they shall plunder those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹¹It shall happen in that day, that I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the east of the sea; and it shall stop those who pass through: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude; and they shall call it The valley of Hamon-gog.

¹²Seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.

¹³Yes, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown in the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁴They shall set apart men of continual employment, who shall pass through the land, and, with those who pass through, those who bury those who remain on the surface of the land, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.

¹⁵Those who pass through the land shall pass through; and when any sees a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, until the undertakers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog.

¹⁶Hamonah shall also be the name of a city. Thus shall they cleanse the land.

¹⁷You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Speak to the birds of every sort, and to every animal of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood.

¹⁸You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.

¹⁹You shall eat fat until you be full, and drink blood until you be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.

²⁰You shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, says the Lord Yahweh.

²¹I will set my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them.

²²So the house of Israel shall know that I am Yahweh their God, from that day and forward.

²³The nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they trespassed against me, and I hid my face from them: so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they fell all of them by the sword.

²⁴According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions did I to them; and I hid my face from them.

²⁵Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Now will I bring back the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for my holy name.

²⁶They shall bear their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they shall dwell securely in their land, and none shall make them afraid;

²⁷when I have brought them back from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations.

²⁸They shall know that I am Yahweh their God, in that I caused them to go into captivity among the nations, and have gathered them to their own land; and I will leave none of them any more there;

²⁹neither will I hide my face any more from them; for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord Yahweh.

40In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth [day] of the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was struck, in the same day, the hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought me there.

²In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, whereon was as it were the frame of a city on the south.

³He brought me there; and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.

⁴The man said to me, Son of man, see with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart on all that I shall show you; for, to the intent that I may show them to you, are you brought here: declare all that you see to the house of Israel.

⁵Behold, a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed six cubits long, of a cubit and a handbreadth each: so he measured the thickness of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.

⁶Then came he to the gate which looks toward the east, and went up the steps of it: and he measured the threshold of the gate, one reed broad; and the other threshold, one reed broad.

⁷Every lodge was one reed long, and one reed broad; and [the space] between the lodges was five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate toward the house was one reed.

⁸He measured also the porch of the gate toward the house, one reed.

⁹Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and the posts of it, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was toward the house.

¹⁰The lodges of the gate eastward were three on this side, and three on that side; they three were of one measure: and the posts had one measure on this side and on that side.

¹¹He measured the breadth of the opening of the gate, ten cubits; and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits;

¹²and a border before the lodges, one cubit [on this side], and a border, one cubit on that side; and the lodges, six cubits on this side, and six cubits on that side.

¹³He measured the gate from the roof of the one lodge to the roof of the other, a breadth of twenty-five cubits; door against door.

¹⁴He made also posts, sixty cubits; and the court [reached] to the posts, round about the gate.

¹⁵[From] the forefront of the gate at the entrance to the forefront of the inner porch of the gate were fifty cubits.

¹⁶There were closed windows to the lodges, and to their posts within the gate round about, and likewise to the arches; and windows were round about inward; and on [each] post were palm-trees.

¹⁷Then brought he me into the outer court; and, behold, there were chambers and a pavement, made for the court round about: thirty chambers were on the pavement.

¹⁸The pavement was by the side of the gates, answerable to the length of the gates, even the lower pavement.

¹⁹Then he measured the breadth from the forefront of the lower gate to the forefront of the inner court outside, one hundred cubits, [both] on the east and on the north.

²⁰The gate of the outer court whose prospect is toward the north, he measured the length of it and the breadth of it.

²¹The lodges of it were three on this side and three on that side; and the posts of it and the arches of it were after the measure of the first gate: the length of it was fifty cubits, and the breadth twenty-five cubits.

²²The windows of it, and the arches of it, and the palm-trees of it, were after the measure of the gate whose prospect is toward the east; and they went up to it by seven steps; and the arches of it were before them.

²³There was a gate to the inner court over against the [other] gate, [both] on the north and on the east; and he measured from gate to gate one hundred cubits.

²⁴He led me toward the south; and, behold, a gate toward the south: and he measured the posts of it and the arches of it according to these measures.

²⁵There were windows in it and in the arches of it round about, like those windows: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth twenty-five cubits.

²⁶There were seven steps to go up to it, and the arches of it were before them; and it had palm-trees, one on this side, and another on that side, on the posts of it.

²⁷There was a gate to the inner court toward the south: and he measured from gate to gate toward the south a hundred cubits.

²⁸Then he brought me to the inner court by the south gate: and he measured the south gate according to these measures;

²⁹and the lodges of it, and the posts of it, and the arches of it, according to these measures: and there were windows in it and in the arches of it round about; it was fifty cubits long, and twenty-five cubits broad.

³⁰There were arches round about, twenty-five cubits long, and five cubits broad.

³¹The arches of it were toward the outer court; and palm-trees were on the posts of it: and the ascent to it had eight steps.

³²He brought me into the inner court toward the east: and he measured the gate according to these measures;

³³and the lodges of it, and the posts of it, and the arches of it, according to these measures: and there were windows therein and in the arches of it round about; it was fifty cubits long, and twenty-five cubits broad.

³⁴The arches of it were toward the outer court; and palm-trees were on the posts of it, on this side, and on that side: and the ascent to it had eight steps.

³⁵He brought me to the north gate: and he measured [it] according to these measures;

³⁶the lodges of it, the posts of it, and the arches of it: and there were windows therein round about; the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth twenty-five cubits.

³⁷The posts of it were toward the outer court; and palm-trees were on the posts of it, on this side, and on that side: and the ascent to it had eight steps.

³⁸A chamber with the door of it was by the posts at the gates; there they washed the burnt offering.

³⁹In the porch of the gate were two tables on this side, and two tables on that side, to kill thereon the burnt offering and the sin-offering and the trespass-offering.

⁴⁰On the [one] side outside, as one goes up to the entry of the gate toward the north, were two tables; and on the other side, which belonged to the porch of the gate, were two tables.

⁴¹Four tables were on this side, and four tables on that side, by the side of the gate; eight tables, whereupon they killed [the sacrifices].

⁴²There were four tables for the burnt offering, of hewn stone, a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, and one cubit high; whereupon they laid the instruments with which they killed the burnt offering and the sacrifice.

⁴³The hooks, a handbreadth long, were fastened within round about: and on the tables was the flesh of the offering.

⁴⁴Outside of the inner gate were chambers for the singers in the inner court, which was at the side of the north gate; and their prospect was toward the south; one at the side of the east gate having the prospect toward the north.

⁴⁵He said to me, This chamber, whose prospect is toward the south, is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the house;

⁴⁶and the chamber whose prospect is toward the north is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the altar: these are the sons of Zadok, who from among the sons of Levi come near to Yahweh to minister to him.

⁴⁷He measured the court, one hundred cubits long, and a hundred cubits broad, foursquare; and the altar was before the house.

⁴⁸Then he brought me to the porch of the house, and measured each post of the porch, five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side: and the breadth of the gate was three cubits on this side, and three cubits on that side.

⁴⁹The length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the breadth eleven cubits; even by the steps whereby they went up to it: and there were pillars by the posts, one on this side, and another on that side.

41He brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tent.

²The breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured the length of it, forty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits.

³Then went he inward, and measured each post of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the breadth of the entrance, seven cubits.

⁴He measured the length of it, twenty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said to me, This is the most holy place.

⁵Then he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side-chamber, four cubits, round about the house on every side.

⁶The side-chambers were in three stories, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which belonged to the house for the side-chambers round about, that they might have hold [therein], and not have hold in the wall of the house.

⁷The side-chambers were broader as they encompassed [the house] higher and higher; for the encompassing of the house went higher and higher round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house [continued] upward; and so one went up [from] the lowest [chamber] to the highest by the middle [chamber].

⁸I saw also that the house had a raised base round about: the foundations of the side-chambers were a full reed of six great cubits.

⁹The thickness of the wall, which was for the side-chambers, on the outside, was five cubits: and that which was left was the place of the side-chambers that belonged to the house.

¹⁰Between the chambers was a breadth of twenty cubits round about the house on every side.

¹¹The doors of the side-chambers were toward [the place] that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits round about.

¹²The building that was before the separate place at the side toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about, and the length of it ninety cubits.

¹³So he measured the house, one hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with the walls of it, one hundred cubits long;

¹⁴also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the east, one hundred cubits.

¹⁵He measured the length of the building before the separate place which was at the back of it, and the galleries of it on the one side and on the other side, one hundred cubits; and the inner temple, and the porches of the court;

¹⁶the thresholds, and the closed windows, and the galleries round about on their three stories, over against the threshold, with wood ceilings round about, and [from] the ground up to the windows, (now the windows were covered),

¹⁷to [the space] above the door, even to the inner house, and outside, and by all the wall round about inside and outside, by measure.

¹⁸It was made with cherubim and palm-trees; and a palm-tree was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces;

¹⁹so that there was the face of a man toward the palm-tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm-tree on the other side. [thus was it] made through all the house round about:

²⁰from the ground to above the door were cherubim and palm-trees made: thus was the wall of the temple.

²¹As for the temple, the door-posts were squared; and as for the face of the sanctuary, the appearance [of it] was as the appearance [of the temple].

²²The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and the length of it two cubits; and the corners of it, and the length of it, and the walls of it, were of wood: and he said to me, This is the table that is before Yahweh.

²³The temple and the sanctuary had two doors.

²⁴The doors had two leaves [apiece], two turning leaves: two [leaves] for the one door, and two leaves for the other.

²⁵There were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubim and palm-trees, like as were made on the walls; and there was a threshold of wood on the face of the porch outside.

²⁶There were closed windows and palm-trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch: thus were the side-chambers of the house, and the thresholds.

42Then he brought me forth into the outer court, the way toward the north: and he brought me into the chamber that was over against the separate place, and which was over against the building toward the north.

²Before the length of one hundred cubits was the north door, and the breadth was fifty cubits.

³Over against the twenty [cubits] which belonged to the inner court, and over against the pavement which belonged to the outer court, was gallery against gallery in the third story.

⁴Before the chambers was a walk of ten cubits' breadth inward, a way of one cubit; and their doors were toward the north.

⁵Now the upper chambers were shorter; for the galleries took away from these, more than from the lower and the middle, in the building.

⁶For they were in three stories, and they didn't have pillars as the pillars of the courts: therefore [the uppermost] was straitened more than the lowest and the middle from the ground.

⁷The wall that was outside by the side of the chambers, toward the outer court before the chambers, the length of it was fifty cubits.

⁸For the length of the chambers that were in the outer court was fifty cubits: and, behold, before the temple were one hundred cubits.

⁹From under these chambers was the entry on the east side, as one goes into them from the outer court.

¹⁰In the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, before the separate place, and before the building, there were chambers.

¹¹The way before them was like the appearance of [the way of] the chambers which were toward the north; according to their length so was their breadth: and all their exits were both according to their fashions, and according to their doors.

¹²According to the doors of the chambers that were toward the south was a door at the head of the way, even the way directly before the wall toward the east, as one enters into them.

¹³Then said he to me, The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, they are the holy chambers, where the priests who are near to Yahweh shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meal-offering, and the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering; for the place is holy.

¹⁴When the priests enter in, then shall they not go out of the holy place into the outer court, but there they shall lay their garments in which they minister; for they are holy: and they shall put on other garments, and shall approach to that which pertains to the people.

¹⁵Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it round about.

¹⁶He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.

¹⁷He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

¹⁸He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.

¹⁹He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.

²⁰He measured it on the four sides: it had a wall round about, the length five hundred, and the breadth five hundred, to make a separation between that which was holy and that which was common.

43Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looks toward the east.

²Behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shined with his glory.

³It was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city; and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.

⁴The glory of Yahweh came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.

⁵The Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of Yahweh filled the house.

⁶I heard one speaking to me out of the house; and a man stood by me.

⁷He said to me, Son of man, [this is] the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their prostitution, and by the dead bodies of their kings [in] their high places;

⁸in their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and their door-post beside my door-post, and there was [but] the wall between me and them; and they have defiled my holy name by their abominations which they have committed: why I have consumed them in my anger.

⁹Now let them put away their prostitution, and the dead bodies of their kings, far from me; and I will dwell in the midst of them forever.

¹⁰You, son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern.

¹¹If they be ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the form of the house, and the fashion of it, and the exits of it, and the entrances of it, and all the forms of it, and all the ordinances of it, and all the forms of it, and all the laws of it; and write it in their sight; that they may keep the whole form of it, and all the ordinances of it, and do them.

¹²This is the law of the house: on the top of the mountain the whole limit of it round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.

¹³These are the measures of the altar by cubits (the cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth): the bottom shall be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, and the border of it by the edge of it round about a span; and this shall be the base of the altar.

¹⁴From the bottom on the ground to the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the breadth one cubit; and from the lesser ledge to the greater ledge shall be four cubits, and the breadth a cubit.

¹⁵The upper altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar hearth and upward there shall be four horns.

¹⁶The altar hearth shall be twelve [cubits] long by twelve broad, square in the four sides of it.

¹⁷The ledge shall be fourteen [cubits] long by fourteen broad in the four sides of it; and the border about it shall be half a cubit; and the bottom of it shall be a cubit round about; and the steps of it shall look toward the east.

¹⁸He said to me, Son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh: These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon.

¹⁹You shall give to the priests the Levites who are of the seed of Zadok, who are near to me, to minister to me, says the Lord Yahweh, a young bull for a sin-offering.

²⁰You shall take of the blood of it, and put it on the four horns of it, and on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border round about: thus shall you cleanse it and make atonement for it.

²¹You shall also take the bull of the sin-offering, and it shall be burnt in the appointed place of the house, outside of the sanctuary.

²²On the second day you shall offer a male goat without blemish for a sin-offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they did cleanse it with the bull.

²³When you have made an end of cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish.

²⁴You shall bring them near before Yahweh, and the priests shall cast salt on them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering to Yahweh.

²⁵Seven days shall you prepare every day a goat for a sin-offering: they shall also prepare a young bull, and a ram out of the flock, without blemish.

²⁶Seven days shall they make atonement for the altar and purify it; so shall they consecrate it.

²⁷When they have accomplished the days, it shall be that on the eighth day, and forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace-offerings; and I will accept you, says the Lord Yahweh.

44Then he brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which looks toward the east; and it was shut.

²Yahweh said to me, This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, neither shall any man enter in by it; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has entered in by it; therefore it shall be shut.

³As for the prince, he shall sit therein as prince to eat bread before Yahweh; he shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.

⁴Then he brought me by the way of the north gate before the house; and I looked, and, behold, the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh: and I fell on my face.

⁵Yahweh said to me, Son of man, mark well, and see with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I tell you concerning all the ordinances of the house of Yahweh, and all the laws of it; and mark well the entrance of the house, with every exit of the sanctuary.

⁶You shall tell the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: you house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,

⁷in that you have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to profane it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant, [to add] to all your abominations.

⁸You have not kept the charge of my holy things; but you have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.

⁹Thus says the Lord Yahweh, No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any foreigners who are among the children of Israel.

¹⁰But the Levites who went far from me, when Israel went astray, who went astray from me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity.

¹¹Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house, and ministering in the house: they shall kill the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them.

¹²Because they ministered to them before their idols, and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel; therefore have I lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord Yahweh, and they shall bear their iniquity.

¹³They shall not come near to me, to execute the office of priest to me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed.

¹⁴Yet will I make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service of it, and for all that shall be done therein.

¹⁵But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister to me; and they shall stand before me to offer to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord Yahweh:

¹⁶they shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister to me, and they shall keep my charge.

¹⁷It shall be that, when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come on them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.

¹⁸They shall have linen tires on their heads, and shall have linen breeches on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with [anything that causes] sweat.

¹⁹When they go forth into the outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which they minister, and lay them in the holy chambers; and they shall put on other garments, that they not sanctify the people with their garments.

²⁰Neither shall they shave their heads, nor allow their locks to grow long; they shall only cut off the hair of their heads.

²¹Neither shall any of the priests drink wine, when they enter into the inner court.

²²Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her who is put away; but they shall take virgins of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest.

²³They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.

²⁴In a controversy they shall stand to judge; according to my ordinances shall they judge it: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all my appointed feasts; and they shall make my Sabbaths holy.

²⁵They shall go in to no dead person to defile themselves; but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister who has had no husband, they may defile themselves.

²⁶After he is cleansed, they shall reckon to him seven days.

²⁷In the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner court, to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin-offering, says the Lord Yahweh.

²⁸They shall have an inheritance: I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession.

²⁹They shall eat the meal-offering, and the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs.

³⁰The first of all the first-fruits of every thing, and every offering of everything, of all your offerings, shall be for the priest: you shall also give to the priests the first of your dough, to cause a blessing to rest on your house.

³¹The priests shall not eat of anything that dies of itself, or is torn, whether it be bird or animal.

45Moreover, when you shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, you shall offer an offering to Yahweh, a holy portion of the land; the length shall be the length of twenty-five thousand [reeds], and the breadth shall be ten thousand: it shall be holy in all the border of it round about.

²Of this there shall be for the holy place five hundred [in length] by five hundred [in breadth], square round about; and fifty cubits for the suburbs of it round about.

³Of this measure shall you measure a length of twenty-five thousand, and a breadth of ten thousand: and in it shall be the sanctuary, which is most holy.

⁴It is a holy portion of the land; it shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who come near to minister to Yahweh; and it shall be a place for their houses, and a holy place for the sanctuary.

⁵Twenty-five thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth, shall be to the Levites, the ministers of the house, for a possession to themselves, [for] twenty chambers.

⁶You shall appoint the possession of the city five thousand broad, and twenty-five thousand long, side by side with the offering of the holy portion: it shall be for the whole house of Israel.

⁷[Whatever is] for the prince [shall be] on the one side and on the other side of the holy offering and of the possession of the city, in front of the holy offering and in front of the possession of the city, on the west side westward, and on the east side eastward; and in length answerable to one of the portions, from the west border to the east border.

⁸In the land it shall be to him for a possession in Israel: and my princes shall no more oppress my people; but they shall give the land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

⁹Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Let it suffice you, princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute justice and righteousness; dispossessing my people, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁰You shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.

¹¹The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of a homer, and the ephah the tenth part of a homer: the measure of it shall be after the homer.

¹²The shekel shall be twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels shall be your mina.

¹³This is the offering that you shall offer: the sixth part of an ephah from a homer of wheat; and you shall give the sixth part of an ephah from a homer of barley;

¹⁴and the set portion of oil, of the bath of oil, the tenth part of a bath out of the cor, [which is] ten baths, even a homer; (for ten baths are a homer;)

¹⁵and one lamb of the flock, out of two hundred, from the well-watered pastures of Israel; -for a meal-offering, and for a burnt offering, and for peace-offerings, to make atonement for them, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁶All the people of the land shall give to this offering for the prince in Israel.

¹⁷It shall be the prince's part to give the burnt offerings, and the meal-offerings, and the drink-offerings, in the feasts, and on the new moons, and on the Sabbaths, in all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin-offering, and the meal-offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace-offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.

¹⁸Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the first [month], in the first [day] of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish; and you shall cleanse the sanctuary.

¹⁹The priest shall take of the blood of the sin-offering, and put it on the door-posts of the house, and on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the posts of the gate of the inner court.

²⁰So you shall do on the seventh [day] of the month for everyone who errs, and for him who is simple: so shall you make atonement for the house.

²¹In the first [month], in the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.

²²On that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bull for a sin-offering.

²³The seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to Yahweh, seven bulls and seven rams without blemish daily the seven days; and a male goat daily for a sin-offering.

²⁴He shall prepare a meal-offering, an ephah for a bull, and an ephah for a ram, and a hin of oil to an ephah.

²⁵In the seventh [month], in the fifteenth day of the month, in the feast, shall he do the like the seven days; according to the sin-offering, according to the burnt offering, and according to the meal-offering, and according to the oil.

46Thus says the Lord Yahweh: The gate of the inner court that looks toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened.

²The prince shall enter by the way of the porch of the gate outside, and shall stand by the post of the gate; and the priests shall prepare his burnt-offering and his peace-offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.

³The people of the land shall worship at the door of that gate before Yahweh on the Sabbaths and on the new moons.

⁴The burnt offering that the prince shall offer to Yahweh shall be on the Sabbath day six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish;

⁵and the meal-offering shall be an ephah for the ram, and the meal-offering for the lambs as he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah.

⁶On the day of the new moon it shall be a young bull without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram; they shall be without blemish:

⁷and he shall prepare a meal-offering, an ephah for the bull, and an ephah for the ram, and for the lambs according as he is able, and a hin of oil to an ephah.

⁸When the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the porch of the gate, and he shall go forth by the way of it.

⁹But when the people of the land shall come before Yahweh in the appointed feasts, he who enters by the way of the north gate to worship shall go forth by the way of the south gate; and he who enters by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth straight before him.

¹⁰The prince, when they go in, shall go in with of them; and when they go out, he shall go out.

¹¹In the feasts and in the solemnities the meal-offering shall be an ephah for a bull, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs as he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah.

¹²When the prince shall prepare a freewill-offering, a burnt offering or peace-offerings as a freewill-offering to Yahweh, one shall open for him the gate that looks toward the east; and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace-offerings, as he does on the Sabbath day: then he shall go forth; and after his going forth one shall shut the gate.

¹³You shall prepare a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering to Yahweh daily: morning by morning shall you prepare it.

¹⁴You shall prepare a meal-offering with it morning by morning, the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of a hin of oil, to moisten the fine flour; a meal-offering to Yahweh continually by a perpetual ordinance.

¹⁵Thus shall they prepare the lamb, and the meal-offering, and the oil, morning by morning, for a continual burnt offering.

¹⁶Thus says the Lord Yahweh: If the prince give a gift to any of his sons, it is his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons; it is their possession by inheritance.

¹⁷But if he give of his inheritance a gift to one of his servants, it shall be his to the year of liberty; then it shall return to the prince; but as for his inheritance, it shall be for his sons.

¹⁸Moreover the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance, to thrust them out of their possession; he shall give inheritance to his sons out of his own possession, that my people not be scattered every man from his possession.

¹⁹Then he brought me through the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers for the priests, which looked toward the north: and, behold, there was a place on the hinder part westward.

²⁰He said to me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass-offering and the sin-offering, [and] where they shall bake the meal-offering; that they not bring them forth into the outer court, to sanctify the people.

²¹Then he brought me forth into the outer court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and, behold, in every corner of the court there was a court.

²²In the four corners of the court there were courts enclosed, forty [cubits] long and thirty broad: these four in the corners were of one measure.

²³There was a wall round about in them, round about the four, and boiling-places were made under the walls round about.

²⁴Then said he to me, These are the boiling-houses, where the ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifice of the people.

47He brought me back to the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward; (for the forefront of the house was toward the east;) and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar.

²Then he brought me out by the way of the gate northward, and led me round by the way outside to the outer gate, by the way of [the gate] that looks toward the east; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.

³When the man went forth eastward with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles.

⁴Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees. Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through [the waters], waters that were to the loins.

⁵Afterward he measured one thousand; [and it was] a river that I could not pass through; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed through.

⁶He said to me, Son of man, have you seen [this]? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the bank of the river.

⁷Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.

⁸Then said he to me, These waters issue forth toward the eastern region, and shall go down into the Arabah; and they shall go toward the sea; into the sea [shall the waters go] which were made to issue forth; and the waters shall be healed.

⁹It shall happen, that every living creature which swarms, in every place where the rivers come, shall live; and there shall be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters are come there, and [the waters of the sea] shall be healed, and everything shall live wherever the river comes.

¹⁰It shall happen, that fishermen shall stand by it: from En-gedi even to En-eglaim shall be a place for the spreading of nets; their fish shall be after their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.

¹¹But the miry places of it, and the marshes of it, shall not be healed; they shall be given up to salt.

¹²By the river on the bank of it, on this side and on that side, shall grow every tree for food, whose leaf shall not where, neither shall the fruit of it fail: it shall bring forth new fruit every month, because the waters of it issue out of the sanctuary; and the fruit of it shall be for food, and the leaf of it for healing.

¹³Thus says the Lord Yahweh: This shall be the border, whereby you shall divide the land for inheritance according to the twelve tribes of Israel: Joseph [shall have two] portions.

¹⁴You shall inherit it, one as well as another; for I swore to give it to your fathers: and this land shall fall to you for inheritance.

¹⁵This shall be the border of the land: On the north side, from the great sea, by the way of Hethlon, to the entrance of Zedad;

¹⁶Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazer-hatticon, which is by the border of Hauran.

¹⁷The border from the sea, shall be Hazar-enon at the border of Damascus; and on the north northward is the border of Hamath. This is the north side.

¹⁸The east side, between Hauran and Damascus and Gilead, and the land of Israel, shall be the Jordan; from the [north] border to the east sea shall you measure. This is the east side.

¹⁹The south side southward shall be from Tamar as far as the waters of Meriboth-kadesh, to the brook [of Egypt], to the great sea. This is the south side southward.

²⁰The west side shall be the great sea, from the [south] border as far as over against the entrance of Hamath. This is the west side.

²¹So shall you divide this land to you according to the tribes of Israel.

²²It shall happen, that you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance to you and to the strangers who sojourn among you, who shall father children among you; and they shall be to you as the home-born among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.

²³It shall happen, that in what tribe the stranger sojourns, there shall you give him his inheritance, says the Lord Yahweh.

48Now these are the names of the tribes: From the north end, beside the way of Hethlon to the entrance of Hamath, Hazar-enan at the border of Damascus, northward beside Hamath, (and they shall have their sides east [and] west,) Dan, one [portion].

²By the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side, Asher, one [portion].

³By the border of Asher, from the east side even to the west side, Naphtali, one [portion].

⁴By the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side, Manasseh, one [portion].

⁵By the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side, Ephraim, one [portion].

⁶By the border of Ephraim, from the east side even to the west side, Reuben, one [portion].

⁷By the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side, Judah, one [portion].

⁸By the border of Judah, from the east side to the west side, shall be the offering which you shall offer, twenty-five thousand [reeds] in breadth, and in length as one of the portions, from the east side to the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.

⁹The offering that you shall offer to Yahweh shall be twenty-five thousand [reeds] in length, and ten thousand in breadth.

¹⁰For these, even for the priests, shall be the holy offering: toward the north twenty-five thousand [in length], and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south twenty-five thousand in length: and the sanctuary of Yahweh shall be in the midst of it.

¹¹[It shall be] for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have kept my charge, who didn't go astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.

¹²It shall be to them an offering from the offering of the land, a thing most holy, by the border of the Levites.

¹³Answerable to the border of the priests, the Levites shall have twenty-five thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth: all the length shall be twenty-five thousand, and the breadth ten thousand.

¹⁴They shall sell none of it, nor exchange it, nor shall the first-fruits of the land be alienated; for it is holy to Yahweh.

¹⁵The five thousand that are left in the breadth, in front of the twenty-five thousand, shall be for common use, for the city, for dwelling and for suburbs; and the city shall be in the midst of it.

¹⁶These shall be the measures of it: the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred.

¹⁷The city shall have suburbs: toward the north two hundred fifty, and toward the south two hundred fifty, and toward the east two hundred fifty, and toward the west two hundred fifty.

¹⁸The remainder in the length, answerable to the holy offering, shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward; and it shall be answerable to the holy offering; and the increase of it shall be for food to those who labor in the city.

¹⁹Those who labor in the city, out of all the tribes of Israel, shall until it.

²⁰All the offering shall be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand: you shall offer the holy offering four-square, with the possession of the city.

²¹The residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy offering and of the possession of the city; in front of the twenty-five thousand of the offering toward the east border, and westward in front of the twenty-five thousand toward the west border, answerable to the portions, it shall be for the prince: and the holy offering and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst of it.

²²Moreover from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city, being in the midst of that which is the prince's, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, it shall be for the prince.

²³As for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side, Benjamin, one [portion].

²⁴By the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side, Simeon, one [portion].

²⁵By the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side, Issachar, one [portion].

²⁶By the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west side, Zebulun, one [portion].

²⁷By the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side, Gad, one [portion].

²⁸By the border of Gad, at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the brook [of Egypt], to the great sea.

²⁹This is the land which you shall divide by lot to the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their several portions, says the Lord Yahweh.

³⁰These are the exits of the city: On the north side four thousand and five hundred [reeds] by measure;

³¹and the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel, three gates northward: the gate of Reuben, one; the gate of Judah, one; the gate of Levi, one.

³²At the east side four thousand and five hundred [reeds], and three gates: even the gate of Joseph, one; the gate of Benjamin, one; the gate of Dan, one.

³³At the south side four thousand and five hundred [reeds] by measure, and three gates: the gate of Simeon, one; the gate of Issachar, one; the gate of Zebulun, one.

³⁴At the west side four thousand and five hundred [reeds], with their three gates: the gate of Gad, one; the gate of Asher, one; the gate of Naphtali, one.

³⁵It shall be eighteen thousand [reeds] round about: and the name of the city from that day shall be, Yahweh is there.

1In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Jerusalem, and besieged it.

²The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God; and he carried them into the land of Shinar to the house of his god: and he brought the vessels into the treasure-house of his god.

³The king spoke to Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring in [certain] of the children of Israel, even of the seed royal and of the nobles;

⁴youths in whom was no blemish, but well-favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and endowed with knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability to stand in the king's palace; and that he should teach them the learning and the language of the Chaldeans.

⁵The king appointed for them a daily portion of the king's dainties, and of the wine which he drank, and that they should be nourished three years; that at the end of it they should stand before the king.

⁶Now among these were, of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

⁷The prince of the eunuchs gave names to them: to Daniel he gave [the name of] Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, [of] Shadrach; and to Mishael, [of] Meshach; and to Azariah, [of] Abed-nego.

⁸But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

⁹Now God made Daniel to find kindness and compassion in the sight of the prince of the eunuchs.

¹⁰The prince of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse looking than the youths who are of your own age? so would you endanger my head with the king.

¹¹Then said Daniel to the steward whom the prince of the eunuchs had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:

¹²Prove your servants, I beg you, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.

¹³Then let our faces be looked on before you, and the face of the youths who eat of the king's dainties; and as you see, deal with your servants.

¹⁴So he listened to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.

¹⁵At the end of ten days their faces appeared fairer, and they were fatter in flesh, than all the youths who ate of the king's dainties.

¹⁶So the steward took away their dainties, and the wine that they should drink, and gave them pulse.

¹⁷Now as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

¹⁸At the end of the days which the king had appointed for bringing them in, the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.

¹⁹The king talked with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king.

²⁰In every matter of wisdom and understanding, concerning which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters who were in all his realm.

²¹Daniel continued even to the first year of king Cyrus.

2In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams; and his spirit was troubled, and his sleep went from him.

²Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the enchanters, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king.

³The king said to them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.

⁴Then spoke the Chaldeans to the king in the Syrian language, O king, live forever: tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.

⁵The king answered the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if you don't make known to me the dream and the interpretation of it, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.

⁶But if you show the dream and the interpretation of it, you shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honor: therefore show me the dream and the interpretation of it.

⁷They answered the second time and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.

⁸The king answered, I know of a certainty that you would gain time, because you see the thing is gone from me.

⁹But if you don't make known to me the dream, there is but one law for you; for you have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, until the time be changed: therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me the interpretation of it.

¹⁰The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man on the earth who can show the king's matter, because no king, lord, or ruler, has asked such a thing of any magician, or enchanter, or Chaldean.

¹¹It is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is no other who can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.

¹²For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

¹³So the decree went forth, and the wise men were to be slain; and they sought Daniel and his companions to be slain.

¹⁴Then Daniel returned answer with counsel and prudence to Arioch the captain of the king's guard, who was gone forth to kill the wise men of Babylon;

¹⁵he answered Arioch the king's captain, Why is the decree so urgent from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel.

¹⁶Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would appoint him a time, and he would show the king the interpretation.

¹⁷Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions:

¹⁸that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his companions should nor perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

¹⁹Then was the secret revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

²⁰Daniel answered, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever; for wisdom and might are his.

²¹He changes the times and the seasons; he removes kings, and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding;

²²he reveals the deep and secret things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.

²³I thank you, and praise you, you God of my fathers, who have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we desired of you; for you have made known to us the king's matter.

²⁴Therefore Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and said thus to him: Don't destroy the wise men of Babylon; bring me in before the king, and I will show to the king the interpretation.

²⁵Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus to him, I have found a man of the children of the captivity of Judah, who will make known to the king the interpretation.

²⁶The king answered Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation of it?

²⁷Daniel answered before the king, and said, The secret which the king has demanded can neither wise men, enchanters, magicians, nor soothsayers, show to the king;

²⁸but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head on your bed, are these:

²⁹as for you, O king, your thoughts came [into your mind] on your bed, what should happen hereafter; and he who reveals secrets has made known to you what shall happen.

³⁰But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but to the intent that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart.

³¹You, O king, saw, and, behold, a great image. This image, which was mighty, and whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and the aspect of it was awesome.

³²As for this image, its head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass,

³³its legs of iron, its feet part of iron, and part of clay.

³⁴You saw until a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.

³⁵Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them: and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

³⁶This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation of it before the king.

³⁷You, O king, are king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory;

³⁸and wherever the children of men dwell, the animals of the field and the birds of the sky has he given into your hand, and has made you to rule over them all: you are the head of gold.

³⁹After you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you; and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

⁴⁰The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, because iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things; and as iron that crushes all these, shall it break in pieces and crush.

⁴¹Whereas you saw the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, because you saw the iron mixed with miry clay.

⁴²As the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

⁴³Whereas you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cling to one another, even as iron does not mingle with clay.

⁴⁴In the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty of it be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

⁴⁵Because you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God has made known to the king what shall happen hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation of it sure.

⁴⁶Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an offering and sweet odors to him.

⁴⁷The king answered to Daniel, and said, Of a truth your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing you have been able to reveal this secret.

⁴⁸Then the king made Daniel great, and gave him many great gifts, and made him to rule over the whole province of Babylon, and to be chief governor over all the wise men of Babylon.

⁴⁹Daniel requested of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel was in the gate of the king.

3Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits, and the breadth of it six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.

²Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the satraps, the deputies, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

³Then the satraps, the deputies, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

⁴Then the herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, peoples, nations, and languages,

⁵that whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up;

⁶and whoever doesn't fall down and worships shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

⁷Therefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

⁸Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and brought accusation against the Jews.

⁹They answered Nebuchadnezzar the king, O king, live for ever.

¹⁰You, O king, have made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image;

¹¹and whoever doesn't fall down and worships, shall be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

¹²There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego; these men, O king, have not regarded you: they don't serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.

¹³Then Nebuchadnezzar in [his] rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Then they brought these men before the king.

¹⁴Nebuchadnezzar answered them, Is it on purpose, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, that you don't serve my god, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?

¹⁵Now if you are ready whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music to you fall down and worship the image which I have made, [well]: but if you don't worship, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands?

¹⁶Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego answered the king, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

¹⁷If it be [so], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

¹⁸But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.

¹⁹Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego: [therefore] he spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was wont to be heated.

²⁰He commanded certain mighty men who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, [and] to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

²¹Then these men were bound in their pants, their tunics, and their mantles, and their [other] garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

²²Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.

²³These three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

²⁴Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste: he spoke and said to his counselors, Didn't we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered the king, True, O king.

²⁵He answered, Look, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the aspect of the fourth is like a son of the gods.

²⁶Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace: he spoke and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, you servants of the Most High God, come forth, and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego came forth out of the midst of the fire.

²⁷The satraps, the deputies, and the governors, and the king's counselors, being gathered together, saw these men, that the fire had no power on their bodies, nor was the hair of their head singed, neither were their pants changed, nor had the smell of fire passed on them.

²⁸Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who has sent his angel, and delivered his servants who trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and have yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.

²⁹Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because there is no other god who is able to deliver after this sort.

³⁰Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in the province of Babylon.

4Nebuchadnezzar the king, to all the peoples, nations, and languages, who dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you.

²It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked toward me.

³How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.

⁴I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace.

⁵I saw a dream which made me afraid; and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.

⁶Therefore made I a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.

⁷Then came in the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers; and I told the dream before them; but they did not make known to me the interpretation of it.

⁸But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and I told the dream before him, [saying],

⁹Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and no secret troubles you, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and the interpretation of it.

¹⁰Thus were the visions of my head on my bed: I saw, and, behold, a tree in the midst of the earth; and the height of it was great.

¹¹The tree grew, and was strong, and the height of it reached to the sky, and the sight of it to the end of all the earth.

¹²The leaves of it were beautiful, and the fruit of it much, and in it was food for all: the animals of the field had shadow under it, and the birds of the sky lived in the branches of it, and all flesh was fed from it.

¹³I saw in the visions of my head on my bed, and, behold, a watcher and a holy one came down from the sky.

¹⁴He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off its branches, shake off its leaves, and scatter its fruit: let the animals get away from under it, and the fowls from its branches.

¹⁵Nevertheless leave the stump of its roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of the sky: and let his portion be with the animals in the grass of the earth:

¹⁶let his heart be changed from man's, and let a animal's heart be given to him; and let seven times pass over him.

¹⁷The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever he will, and sets up over it the lowest of men.

¹⁸This dream I, king Nebuchadnezzar, have seen; and you, Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation; but you are able; for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.

¹⁹Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was stricken mute for a while, and his thoughts troubled him. The king answered, Belteshazzar, don't let the dream, or the interpretation, trouble you. Belteshazzar answered, My lord, the dream be to those who hate you, and the interpretation of it to your adversaries.

²⁰The tree that you saw, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached to the sky, and the sight of it to all the earth;

²¹whose leaves were beautiful, and the fruit of it much, and in it was food for all; under which the animals of the field lived, and on whose branches the birds of the sky had their habitation:

²²it is you, O king, that are grown and become strong; for your greatness is grown, and reaches to the sky, and your dominion to the end of the earth.

²³Whereas the king saw a watcher and a holy one coming down from the sky, and saying, Hew down the tree, and destroy it; nevertheless leave the stump of the roots of it in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field, and let it be wet with the dew of the sky: and let his portion be with the animals of the field, until seven times pass over him;

²⁴this is the interpretation, O king, and it is the decree of the Most High, which is come on my lord the king:

²⁵that you shall be driven from men, and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass as oxen, and shall be wet with the dew of the sky, and seven times shall pass over you; until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever he will.

²⁶Whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree; your kingdom shall be sure to you, after that you shall have known that the heavens do rule.

²⁷Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if there may be a lengthening of your tranquillity.

²⁸All this came on the king Nebuchadnezzar.

²⁹At the end of twelve months he was walking in the royal palace of Babylon.

³⁰The king spoke and said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling-place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?

³¹While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from the sky, [saying], O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom is departed from you:

³²and you shall be driven from men; and they dwelling shall be with the animals of the field; you shall be made to eat grass as oxen; and seven times shall pass over you; until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever he will.

³³The same hour was the thing fulfilled on Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and ate grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of the sky, until his hair was grown like eagles' [feathers], and his nails like birds' [claws].

³⁴At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him who lives forever; for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation.

³⁵All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or tell him, What do you?

³⁶At the same time my understanding returned to me; and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and brightness returned to me; and my counselors and my lords sought to me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent greatness was added to me.

³⁷Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways justice; and those who walk in pride he is able to abase.

5Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.

²Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink therefrom.

³Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, drank from them.

⁴They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

⁵In the same hour came forth the fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

⁶Then the king's face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees struck one against another.

⁷The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whoever shall read this writing, and show me the interpretation of it, shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

⁸Then came in all the king's wise men; but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation.

⁹Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his face was changed in him, and his lords were perplexed.

¹⁰[Now] the queen by reason of the words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house: the queen spoke and said, O king, live forever; don't let your thoughts trouble you, nor let your face be changed.

¹¹There is a man in your kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him; and the king Nebuchadnezzar your father, the king, [I say], your father, made him master of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;

¹²because an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of dark sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.

¹³Then was Daniel brought in before the king. The king spoke and said to Daniel, Are you that Daniel, who are of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Judah?

¹⁴I have heard of you, that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you.

¹⁵Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known to me the interpretation of it; but they could not show the interpretation of the thing.

¹⁶But I have heard of you, that you can give interpretations, and dissolve doubts; now if you can read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation of it, you shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold about your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

¹⁷Then Daniel answered before the king, Let your gifts be to yourself, and give your rewards to another; nevertheless I will read the writing to the king, and make known to him the interpretation.

¹⁸You king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty:

¹⁹and because of the greatness that he gave him, all the peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him: whom he would he killed, and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he raised up, and whom he would he put down.

²⁰But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:

²¹and he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the animals', and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys; he was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of the sky; until he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and that he sets up over it whoever he will.

²²You his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this,

²³but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which don't see, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not glorified.

²⁴Then was the part of the hand sent from before him, and this writing was inscribed.

²⁵This is the writing that was inscribed: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

²⁶This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God has numbered your kingdom, and brought it to an end;

²⁷TEKEL; you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.

²⁸PERES; your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

²⁹Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

³⁰In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean King was slain.

³¹Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

6It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom one hundred twenty satraps, who should be throughout the whole kingdom;

²and over them three presidents, of whom Daniel was one; that these satraps might give account to them, and that the king should have no damage.

³Then this Daniel was distinguished above the presidents and the satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.

⁴Then the presidents and the satraps sought to find occasion against Daniel as touching the kingdom; but they could find no occasion nor fault, because he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.

⁵Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

⁶Then these presidents and satraps assembled together to the king, and said thus to him, King Darius, live forever.

⁷All the presidents of the kingdom, the deputies and the satraps, the counselors and the governors, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a strong interdict, that whoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for thirty days, save of you, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.

⁸Now, O king, establish the interdict, and sign the writing, that it not be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which doesn't alter.

⁹Therefore king Darius signed the writing and the interdict.

¹⁰When Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house (now his windows were open in his chamber toward Jerusalem) and he kneeled on his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did before.

¹¹Then these men assembled together, and found Daniel making petition and supplication before his God.

¹²Then they came near, and spoke before the king concerning the king's interdict: Haven't you signed an interdict, that every man who shall make petition to any god or man within thirty days, save to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which doesn't alter.

¹³Then answered they and said before the king, That Daniel, who is of the children of the captivity of Judah, doesn't regard you, O king, nor the interdict that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.

¹⁴Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he labored until the going down of the sun to rescue him.

¹⁵Then these men assembled together to the king, and said to the king, Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians, that no interdict nor statute which the king establishes may be changed.

¹⁶Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. [Now] the king spoke and said to Daniel, Your God whom you serve continually, he will deliver you.

¹⁷A stone was brought, and laid on the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.

¹⁸Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting; neither were instruments of music brought before him: and his sleep fled from him.

¹⁹Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste to the den of lions.

²⁰When he came near to the den to Daniel, he cried with a lamentable voice; the king spoke and said to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God, whom you serve continually, able to deliver you from the lions?

²¹Then said Daniel to the king, O king, live forever.

²²My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me; because as before him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, have I done no hurt.

²³Then was the king exceeding glad, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

²⁴The king commanded, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and broke all their bones in pieces, before they came to the bottom of the den.

²⁵Then king Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages, who dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you.

²⁶I make a decree, that in all the dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for he is the living God, and steadfast forever, His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed; and his dominion shall be even to the end.

²⁷He delivers and rescues, and he works signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.

²⁸So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

7In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head on his bed: then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters.

²Daniel spoke and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the sky broke forth on the great sea.

³Four great animals came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

⁴The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I saw until the wings of it were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand on two feet as a man; and a man's heart was given to it.

⁵Behold, another animal, a second, like a bear; and it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth: and they said thus to it, Arise, devour much flesh.

⁶After this I saw, and, behold, another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the animal had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.

⁷After this I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, a fourth animal, awesome and powerful, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet: and it was diverse from all the animals that were before it; and it had ten horns.

⁸I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.

⁹I saw until thrones were placed, and one who was ancient of days sat: his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, [and] the wheels of it burning fire.

¹⁰A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

¹¹I saw at that time because of the voice of the great words which the horn spoke; I saw even until the animal was slain, and its body destroyed, and it was given to be burned with fire.

¹²As for the rest of the animals, their dominion was taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

¹³I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

¹⁴There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

¹⁵As for me, Daniel, my spirit was grieved in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.

¹⁶I came near to one of those who stood by, and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.

¹⁷These great animals, which are four, are four kings, who shall arise out of the earth.

¹⁸But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.

¹⁹Then I desired to know the truth concerning the fourth animal, which was diverse from all of them, exceedingly terrible, whose teeth were of iron, and its nails of brass; which devoured, broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet;

²⁰and concerning the ten horns that were on its head, and the other [horn] which came up, and before which three fell, even that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spoke great things, whose look was more stout than its fellows.

²¹I saw, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them;

²²until the ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.

²³Thus he said, The fourth animal shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be diverse from all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

²⁴As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom shall ten kings arise: and another shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the former, and he shall put down three kings.

²⁵He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.

²⁶But the judgment shall be set, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it to the end.

²⁷The kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole the sky, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High: his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

²⁸Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts much troubled me, and my face was changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.

8In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, even to me, Daniel, after that which appeared to me at the first.

²I saw in the vision; now it was so, that when I saw, I was in Shushan the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in the vision, and I was by the river Ulai.

³Then I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.

⁴I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; and no animals could stand before him, neither was there any who could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and magnified himself.

⁵As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west over the surface of the whole earth, and didn't touch the ground: and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

⁶He came to the ram that had the two horns, which I saw standing before the river, and ran on him in the fury of his power.

⁷I saw him come close to the ram, and he was moved with anger against him, and struck the ram, and broke his two horns; and there was no power in the ram to stand before him; but he cast him down to the ground, and trampled on him; and there was none who could deliver the ram out of his hand.

⁸The male goat magnified himself exceedingly: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and instead of it there came up four notable [horns] toward the four winds of the sky.

⁹Out of one of them came forth a little horn, which grew exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the glorious [land].

¹⁰It grew great, even to the host of the sky; and some of the host and of the stars it cast down to the ground, and trampled on them.

¹¹Yes, it magnified itself, even to the prince of the host; and it took away from him the continual [burnt offering], and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.

¹²The host was given over [to it] together with the continual [burnt offering] through disobedience; and it cast down truth to the ground, and it did [its pleasure] and prospered.

¹³Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who spoke, How long shall be the vision [concerning] the continual [burnt-offering], and the disobedience that makes desolate, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?

¹⁴He said to me, To two thousand and three hundred evenings [and] mornings; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

¹⁵It happened, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, that I sought to understand it; and, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man.

¹⁶I heard a man's voice between [the banks of] the Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.

¹⁷So he came near where I stood; and when he came, I was frightened, and fell on my face: but he said to me, Understand, son of man; for the vision belongs to the time of the end.

¹⁸Now as he was speaking with me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face toward the ground; but he touched me, and set me upright.

¹⁹He said, Behold, I will make you know what shall be in the latter time of the indignation; for it belongs to the appointed time of the end.

²⁰The ram which you saw, that had the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia.

²¹The rough male goat is the king of Greece: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

²²As for that which was broken, in the place whereof four stood up, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not with his power.

²³In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce face, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

²⁴His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and do [his pleasure]; and he shall destroy the mighty ones and the holy people.

²⁵Through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and in [their] security shall he destroy many: he shall also stand up against the prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

²⁶The vision of the evenings and mornings which has been told is true: but shut you up the vision; for it belongs to many days [to come].

²⁷I, Daniel, fainted, and was sick certain days; then I rose up, and did the king's business: and I wondered at the vision, but none understood it.

9In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans,

²in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years.

³I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.

⁴I prayed to Yahweh my God, and made confession, and said, Oh, Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keeps covenant and lovingkindness with those who love him and keep his commandments,

⁵we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances;

⁶neither have we listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

⁷Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.

⁸Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you.

⁹To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him;

¹⁰neither have we obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

¹¹Yes, all Israel have transgressed your law, even turning aside, that they should not obey your voice: therefore has the curse been poured out on us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God; for we have sinned against him.

¹²He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky has not been done as has been done on Jerusalem.

¹³As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come on us: yet have we not entreated the favor of Yahweh our God, that we should turn from our iniquities, and have discernment in your truth.

¹⁴Therefore has Yahweh watched over the evil, and brought it on us; for Yahweh our God is righteous in all his works which he does, and we have not obeyed his voice.

¹⁵Now, Lord our God, who has brought your people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have gotten you renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

¹⁶Lord, according to all your righteousness, let your anger and please let your wrath be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are become a reproach to all who are round about us.

¹⁷Now therefore, our God, listen to the prayer of your servant, and to his petitions, and cause your face to shine on your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.

¹⁸My God, turn your ear, and hear; open your eyes, and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name: for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies' sake.

¹⁹Lord, hear; Lord, forgive; Lord, listen and do; don't defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.

²⁰While I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Yahweh my God for the holy mountain of my God;

²¹yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening offering.

²²He instructed me, and talked with me, and said, Daniel, I am now come forth to give you wisdom and understanding.

²³At the beginning of your petitions the commandment went forth, and I am come to tell you; for you are greatly beloved: therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision.

²⁴Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

²⁵Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: it shall be built again, with street and moat, even in troubled times.

²⁶After the sixty-two weeks the Anointed One shall be cut off, and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end of it shall be with a flood, and even to the end shall be war; desolations are determined.

²⁷He shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease; and on the wing of abominations [shall come] one who makes desolate; and even to the full end, and that determined, shall [wrath] be poured out on the desolate.

10In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed to Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, even a great warfare: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision.

²In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three whole weeks.

³I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, until three whole weeks were fulfilled.

⁴In the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel,

⁵I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and, behold, a man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with pure gold of Uphaz:

⁶his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as flaming torches, and his arms and his feet like burnished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

⁷I, Daniel, alone saw the vision; for the men who were with me didn't see the vision; but a great quaking fell on them, and they fled to hide themselves.

⁸So I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.

⁹Yet heard I the voice of his words; and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I fallen into a deep sleep on my face, with my face toward the ground.

¹⁰Behold, a hand touched me, which set me on my knees and on the palms of my hands.

¹¹He said to me, Daniel, you man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright; for to you am I now sent. When he had spoken this word to me, I stood trembling.

¹²Then said he to me, Don't be afraid, Daniel; for from the first day that you did set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard: and I am come for your words' sake.

¹³But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; but, behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me: and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

¹⁴Now I am come to make you understand what shall befall your people in the latter days; for the vision is yet for [many] days:

¹⁵and when he had spoken to me according to these words, I set my face toward the ground, and was mute.

¹⁶Behold, one in the likeness of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spoke and said to him who stood before me, my lord, by reason of the vision my sorrows are turned on me, and I retain no strength.

¹⁷For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, immediately there remained no strength in me, neither was there breath left in me.

¹⁸Then there touched me again one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me.

¹⁹He said, "Greatly beloved man, don't be afraid: peace be to you, be strong, yes, be strong." When he spoke to me, I was strengthened, and said, "Let my lord speak; for you have strengthened me."

²⁰Then he said, "Do you know why I have come to you? Now I will return to fight with the prince of Persia. When I go forth, behold, the prince of Greece shall come.

²¹But I will tell you that which is inscribed in the writing of truth: and there is none who holds with me against these, but Michael your prince."

11"As for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.

²Now will I show you the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and when he has grown strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece.

³A mighty king shall stand up, who shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.

⁴When he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of the sky, but not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion with which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others besides these.

⁵The king of the south shall be strong, and [one] of his princes; and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion; his dominion shall be a great dominion.

⁶At the end of years they shall join themselves together; and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement: but she shall not retain the strength of her arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm; but she shall be given up, and those who brought her, and he who became the father of her, and he who strengthened her in those times.

⁷But out of a shoot from her roots shall one stand up in his place, who shall come to the army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them, and shall prevail.

⁸Also their gods, with their molten images, [and] with their goodly vessels of silver and of gold, shall he carry captive into Egypt; and he shall refrain some years from the king of the north.

⁹He shall come into the realm of the king of the south, but he shall return into his own land.

¹⁰His sons shall war, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces, which shall come on, and overflow, and pass through; and they shall return and war, even to his fortress.

¹¹The king of the south shall be moved with anger, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the north; and he shall set forth a great multitude, and the multitude shall be given into his hand.

¹²The multitude shall be lifted up, and his heart shall be exalted; and he shall cast down tens of thousands, but he shall not prevail.

¹³The king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former; and he shall come on at the end of the times, [even of] years, with a great army and with much substance.

¹⁴In those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the children of the violent among your people shall lift themselves up to establish the vision; but they shall fall.

¹⁵So the king of the north shall come, and cast up a mound, and take a well-fortified city: and the forces of the south shall not stand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to stand.

¹⁶But he who comes against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him; and he shall stand in the glorious land, and in his hand shall be destruction.

¹⁷He shall set his face to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and with him equitable conditions; and he shall perform them: and he shall give him the daughter of women, to corrupt her; but she shall not stand, neither be for him.

¹⁸After this shall he turn his face to the isles, and shall take many: but a prince shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; yes, moreover, he shall cause his reproach to turn on him.

¹⁹Then he shall turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land; but he shall stumble and fall, and shall not be found.

²⁰Then shall stand up in his place one who shall cause a tax collector to pass through the kingdom to maintain its glory; but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.

²¹In his place shall stand up a contemptible person, to whom they had not given the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in time of security, and shall obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

²²The overwhelming forces shall be overwhelmed from before him, and shall be broken; yes, also the prince of the covenant.

²³After the league made with him he shall work deceitfully; for he shall come up, and shall become strong, with a small people.

²⁴In time of security shall he come even on the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them prey, and spoil, and substance: yes, he shall devise his devices against the strongholds, even for a time.

²⁵He shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall war in battle with an exceeding great and mighty army; but he shall not stand; for they shall devise devices against him.

²⁶Yes, they who eat of his dainties shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow; and many shall fall down slain.

²⁷As for both these kings, their hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table: but it shall not prosper; for yet the end shall be at the time appointed.

²⁸Then shall he return into his land with great substance; and his heart [shall be] against the holy covenant; and he shall do [his pleasure], and return to his own land.

²⁹At the time appointed he shall return, and come into the south; but it shall not be in the latter time as it was in the former.

³⁰For ships of Kittim shall come against him; therefore he shall be grieved, and shall return, and have indignation against the holy covenant, and shall do [his pleasure]: he shall even return, and have regard to those who forsake the holy covenant.

³¹Forces shall stand on his part, and they shall profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and shall take away the continual [burnt offering], and they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate.

³²Such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he pervert by flatteries; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and do [exploits].

³³Those who are wise among the people shall instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil, [many] days.

³⁴Now when they shall fall, they shall be helped with a little help; but many shall join themselves to them with flatteries.

³⁵Some of those who are wise shall fall, to refine them, and to purify, and to make them white, even to the time of the end; because it is yet for the time appointed.

³⁶The king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods; and he shall prosper until the indignation be accomplished; for that which is determined shall be done.

³⁷Neither shall he regard the gods of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all.

³⁸But in his place shall he honor the god of fortresses; and a god whom his fathers didn't know shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.

³⁹He shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god: whoever acknowledges [him] he will increase with glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for a price.

⁴⁰At the time of the end shall the king of the south contend with him; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass through.

⁴¹He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many [countries] shall be overthrown; but these shall be delivered out of his hand: Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.

⁴²He shall stretch forth his hand also on the countries; and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

⁴³But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

⁴⁴But news out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many.

⁴⁵He shall plant the tents of his palace between the sea and the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.

12"At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who shall be found written in the book.

²Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

³Those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse; and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.

⁴But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run back and forth, and knowledge shall be increased."

⁵Then I, Daniel, looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on the brink of the river on this side, and the other on the brink of the river on that side.

⁶One said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?

⁷I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

⁸I heard, but I didn't understand: then said I, my lord, what shall be the issue of these things?

⁹He said, Go your way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.

¹⁰Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but those who are wise shall understand.

¹¹From the time that the continual [burnt offering] shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred ninety days.

¹²Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred thirty-five days.

¹³But go you your way until the end be; for you shall rest, and shall stand in your lot, at the end of the days.

1The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

²Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob became the father of Judah and his brothers.

³Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron. Hezron became the father of Ram.

⁴Ram became the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon. Nahshon became the father of Salmon.

⁵Salmon became the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed by Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse.

⁶Jesse became the father of David the king. David became the father of Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.

⁷Solomon became the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam became the father of Abijah. Abijah became the father of Asa.

⁸Asa became the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat became the father of Joram. Joram became the father of Uzziah.

⁹Uzziah became the father of Jotham. Jotham became the father of Ahaz. Ahaz became the father of Hezekiah.

¹⁰Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh. Manasseh became the father of Amon. Amon became the father of Josiah.

¹¹Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the exile to Babylon.

¹²After the exile to Babylon, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel became the father of Zerubbabel.

¹³Zerubbabel became the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim. Eliakim became the father of Azor.

¹⁴Azor became the father of Sadoc. Sadoc became the father of Achim. Achim became the father of Eliud.

¹⁵Eliud became the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan. Matthan became the father of Jacob.

¹⁶Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

¹⁷So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the exile to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the carrying away to Babylon to the Christ, fourteen generations.

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this; because when his mother, Mary, had been engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁹Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly.

²⁰But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, you son of David, don't be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

²¹She shall bring forth a son. You shall call his name JESUS, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins."

²²Now all this has happened, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying,

²³"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son. They shall call his name Immanuel;" which is, being interpreted, "God with us."

²⁴Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself;

²⁵and didn't know her sexually until she had brought forth her firstborn son. He named him JESUS.

2Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod, the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying,

²"Where is he who is born King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him."

³When Herod the king heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

⁴Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ would be born.

⁵They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written through the prophet,

⁶'You Bethlehem, land of Judah, Are in no way least among the princes of Judah: For out of you shall come forth a governor, Who shall shepherd my people, Israel'".

⁷Then Herod secretly called the wise men, and learned from them exactly what time the star appeared.

⁸He sent them to Bethlehem, and said, "Go and search diligently for the young child. When you have found him, bring me word, so that I also may come and worship him."

⁹They, having heard the king, went their way; and behold, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, until it came and stood over where the young child was.

¹⁰When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.

¹¹They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Opening their treasures, they offered to him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

¹²Being warned in a dream that they shouldn't return to Herod, they went back to their own country another way.

¹³Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him."

¹⁴He arose and took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt,

¹⁵and was there until the death of Herod; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, "Out of Egypt I called my son."

¹⁶Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and sent forth, and killed all the male children who were in Bethlehem, and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under, according to the exact time which he had learned from the wise men.

¹⁷Then that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying,

¹⁸"A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; She wouldn't be comforted, because they are no more."

¹⁹But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying,

²⁰"Arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the young child's life are dead."

²¹He arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.

²²But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there. Being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee,

²³and came and lived in a city called Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

3In those days, John the Baptizer came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,

²"Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"

³For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight."

⁴Now John himself had clothing made of camel's hair, and a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

⁵Then people from Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him.

⁶They were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁷But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, "You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

⁸Therefore bring forth fruit worthy of repentance!

⁹Don't think to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father,' for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

¹⁰Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn't bring forth good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire.

¹¹I indeed baptize you in water for repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to carry. He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit.

¹²His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire."

¹³Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.

¹⁴But John would have hindered him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?"

¹⁵But Jesus, answering, said to him, "Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed him.

¹⁶Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him.

¹⁷Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

4Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

²When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.

³The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."

⁴But he answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'"

⁵Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple,

⁶and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will give his angels charge concerning you.' and, 'On their hands they will bear you up, So that you don't dash your foot against a stone.'"

⁷Jesus said to him, "Again, it is written, 'You shall not test the Lord, your God.'"

⁸Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory.

⁹He said to him, "I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me."

¹⁰Then Jesus said to him, "Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'"

¹¹Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.

¹²Now when Jesus heard that John was delivered up, he withdrew into Galilee.

¹³Leaving Nazareth, he came and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,

¹⁴that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,

¹⁵"The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, Toward the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,

¹⁶The people who sat in darkness saw a great light, To those who sat in the region and shadow of death, To them did light spring up."

¹⁷From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, "Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."

¹⁸Walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers: Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.

¹⁹He said to them, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers for men."

²⁰They immediately left their nets, and followed him.

²¹Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. He called them.

²²They immediately left the boat and their father, and followed him.

²³Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.

²⁴The report about him went forth into all Syria. They brought to him all who were sick, afflicted with various diseases and torments, possessed with demons, epileptics, and paralytics; and he healed them.

²⁵Great multitudes from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and from beyond the Jordan followed him.

5Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto a mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him.

²He opened his mouth and taught them, saying,

³"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

⁴"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

⁵"Blessed are the humble, for they shall inherit the earth.

⁶"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

⁷"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

⁸"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

⁹"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

¹⁰"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

¹¹"Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

¹²"Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

¹³You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor, what will it be salted with? It is then good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men.

¹⁴You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill can't be hid.

¹⁵Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a bushel basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house.

¹⁶Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

¹⁷Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy, but to fulfill.

¹⁸For most assuredly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished.

¹⁹Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

²⁰For I tell you, that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

²¹"You have heard that it was said to them of old time, 'You shall not murder;' and 'Whoever shall murder shall be in danger of the judgment.'

²²But I tell you, that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca,' shall be in danger of the council; and whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be in danger of the fire of Gehenna.

²³If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you,

²⁴leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

²⁵Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are with him in the way; lest perhaps the prosecutor deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be cast into prison.

²⁶Most assuredly I tell you, you shall by no means get out of there, until you have paid the last penny.

²⁷"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery;'

²⁸but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

²⁹If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you. For it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.

³⁰If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you: for it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not your whole body be cast into Gehenna.

³¹"It was also said, 'Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce,'

³²but I tell you that whoever who puts away his wife, except for the cause of sexual immorality, makes her an adulteress; and whoever shall marry her when she is put away commits adultery.

³³"Again you have heard that it was said to them of old time, 'You shall not make false vows, but shall perform to the Lord your vows,'

³⁴but I tell you, don't swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God;

³⁵nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

³⁶Neither shall you swear by your head, for you can't make one hair white or black.

³⁷But let your speech be, 'Yes, yes; No, no.' Whatever is more than these is of the evil one.

³⁸You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.'

³⁹But I tell you, don't resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.

⁴⁰If any man would go to law with you and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also.

⁴¹Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.

⁴²Give to him who asks you, and don't turn away him who desires to borrow from you.

⁴³"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.'

⁴⁴But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,

⁴⁵that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same?

⁴⁷If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don't even the tax collectors do the same?

⁴⁸Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

6"Be careful that you don't do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

²Therefore when you do merciful deeds, don't sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most assuredly, I tell you, they have received their reward.

³But when you do merciful deeds, don't let your left hand know what your right hand does,

⁴so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

⁵"When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most assuredly, I tell you, they have received their reward.

⁶But you, when you pray, enter into your inner chamber, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

⁷In praying, don't use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their much speaking.

⁸Therefore don't be like them, for your Father knows what things you need, before you ask him.

⁹Pray like this. 'Our Father, who is in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

¹⁰May your kingdom come. May your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.

¹¹Give us this day our daily bread.

¹²Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.

¹³Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen.'

¹⁴For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

¹⁵But if you don't forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

¹⁶"Moreover when you fast, don't be, as the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be fasting. Most assuredly I tell you, they have received their reward.

¹⁷But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face;

¹⁸that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

¹⁹"Don't lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal;

²⁰but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don't break through and steal;

²¹for where your treasure is, your heart will be there also.

²²The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light.

²³But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

²⁴"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You can't serve both God and Mammon.

²⁵Therefore, I tell you, don't be anxious for your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will put on. Isn't life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

²⁶See the birds of the sky, that they don't sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you of much more value than they?

²⁷Which of you, by being anxious, can add one cubit to the measure of his life?

²⁸Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don't toil, neither do they spin,

²⁹yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these.

³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, won't he much more clothe you, you of little faith?

³¹Therefore don't be anxious, saying, 'What will we eat?', 'What will we drink?' or, 'With what will we be clothed?'

³²For the Gentiles seek after all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

³³But seek first God's Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴Therefore don't be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day's own evil is sufficient.

7"Don't judge, so that you won't be judged.

²For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged: and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.

³Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but don't consider the beam that is in your own eye?

⁴Or how will you tell your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye;' and behold, the beam is in your own eye?

⁵You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.

⁶"Don't give that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

⁷"Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you.

⁸For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.

⁹Or what man is there of you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent?

¹¹If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

¹²Therefore whatever you desire for men to do to you, you shall also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

¹³Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it.

¹⁴How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it.

¹⁵"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.

¹⁶By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?

¹⁷Even so, every good tree brings forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.

¹⁸A good tree can't bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

¹⁹Every tree that doesn't grow good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.

²⁰Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.

²¹Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

²²Many will tell me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy by your name, by your name cast out demons, and by your name do many mighty works?'

²³Then I will tell them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.'

²⁴"Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock.

²⁵The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn't fall, for it was founded on the rock.

²⁶Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn't do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand.

²⁷The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell -- and great was its fall."

²⁸It happened, when Jesus had finished saying these things, that the multitudes were astonished at his teaching,

²⁹for he taught them with authority, and not like the scribes.

8When he came down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.

²Behold, a leper came to him and worshipped him, saying, "Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean."

³Jesus stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, "I want to. Be made clean." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

⁴Jesus said to him, "See that you tell nobody, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

⁵When he came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him,

⁶and saying, "Lord, my servant lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented."

⁷Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."

⁸The centurion answered, "Lord, I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

⁹For I am also a man under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

¹⁰When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to those who followed, "Most assuredly I tell you, I haven't found so great a faith, not even in Israel.

¹¹I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of Heaven,

¹²but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth."

¹³Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way. Let it be done for you as you as you have believed." His servant was healed in that hour.

¹⁴When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother lying sick of a fever.

¹⁵He touched her hand, and the fever left her. She got up and served him.

¹⁶When evening came, they brought to him many possessed with demons. He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick;

¹⁷that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He took our infirmities, and bore our diseases."

¹⁸Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave the order to depart to the other side.

¹⁹A scribe came, and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."

²⁰Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."

²¹Another of his disciples said to him, "Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father."

²²But Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."

²³When he got into a boat, his disciples followed him.

²⁴Behold, a great tempest arose in the sea, so much that the boat was covered with the waves, but he was asleep.

²⁵They came to him, and woke him up, saying, "Save us, Lord! We are dying!"

²⁶He said to them, "Why are you fearful, oh you of little faith?" Then he got up, rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm.

²⁷The men marveled, saying, "What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

²⁸When he came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two people possessed with demons met him there, coming forth out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no man could pass by that way.

²⁹Behold, they cried out, saying, "What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?"

³⁰Now there was a herd of many pigs feeding far away from them.

³¹The demons begged him, saying, "If you cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of pigs."

³²He said to them, "Go!" They came out, and went into the herd of pigs: and behold, the whole herd of pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea, and died in the water.

³³Those who fed them fled, and went away into the city, and told everything, and what happened to those who were possessed with demons.

³⁴Behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged that he would depart from their borders.

9He entered into a boat, and crossed over, and came into his own city.

²Behold, they brought to him a man who was paralyzed, lying on a bed. Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, "Son, cheer up! Your sins are forgiven you."

³Behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man blasphemes."

⁴Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?

⁵For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven;' or to say, 'Get up, and walk?'

⁶But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins..." (then he said to the paralytic), "Get up, and take up your mat, and go up to your house."

⁷He arose and departed to his house.

⁸But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.

⁹As Jesus passed by from there, he saw a man called Matthew, sitting at the tax collection office. He said to him, "Follow me." He got up and followed him.

¹⁰It happened, as he sat at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples.

¹¹When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?"

¹²When Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.

¹³But you go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

¹⁴Then John's disciples came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don't fast?"

¹⁵Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

¹⁶No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch would tear away from the garment, and a worse hole is made.

¹⁷Neither do people put new wine into old wineskins, or else the skins would burst, and the wine be spilled, and the skins ruined. No, they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved."

¹⁸While he told these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshipped him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live."

¹⁹Jesus got up and followed him, as did his disciples.

²⁰Behold, a woman, who had an issue of blood for twelve years, came behind him, and touched the tassels of his garment;

²¹for she said within herself, "If I just touch his garment, I will be made well."

²²But Jesus, turning around and seeing her, said, "Daughter, cheer up! Your faith has made you well." And the woman was made well from that hour.

²³When Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd in noisy disorder,

²⁴he said to them, "Make room, because the young lady isn't dead, but sleeping." They laughed him to scorn.

²⁵But when the crowd was put out, he entered in, took her by the hand, and the young lady arose.

²⁶The report of this went forth into all that land.

²⁷As Jesus passed by from there, two blind men followed him, calling out and saying, "Have mercy on us, son of David!"

²⁸When he had come into the house, the blind men came to him. Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They told him, "Yes, Lord."

²⁹Then he touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith be it done to you."

³⁰Their eyes were opened. Jesus strictly charged them, saying, "See that no one knows about this."

³¹But they went out and spread abroad his fame in all that land.

³²As they went forth, behold, there was brought to him a mute man who was demon possessed.

³³When the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke. The multitudes marveled, saying, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel!"

³⁴But the Pharisees said, "By the prince of the demons, he casts out demons."

³⁵Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people.

³⁶But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, as sheep without a shepherd.

³⁷Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

³⁸Pray therefore that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers into his harvest."

10He called to himself his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every sickness.

²Now the names of the twelve apostles are these. The first, Simon, who is called Peter; Andrew, his brother; James the son of Zebedee; John, his brother;

³Philip; Bartholomew; Thomas; Matthew, the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus; and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;

⁴Simon the Canaanite; and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

⁵Jesus sent these twelve forth, and charged them, saying, "Don't go among the Gentiles, and don't enter into any city of the Samaritans.

⁶Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

⁷As you go, preach, saying, 'The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.'

⁸Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Freely you received, so freely give.

⁹Don't take any gold, nor silver, nor brass in your money belts.

¹⁰Take no bag for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor staff: for the laborer is worthy of his food.

¹¹Into whatever city or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy; and stay there until you go on.

¹²As you enter into the household, greet it.

¹³If the household is worthy, let your peace come on it, but if it isn't worthy, let your peace return to you.

¹⁴Whoever doesn't receive you, nor hear your words, as you go forth out of that house or that city, shake off the dust from your feet.

¹⁵Most assuredly I tell you, It will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.

¹⁶Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

¹⁷But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you.

¹⁸Yes, and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.

¹⁹But when they deliver you up, don't be anxious how or what you will say, for it will be given you in that hour what you will say.

²⁰For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

²¹Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.

²²You will be hated by all men for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end, the same will be saved.

²³But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next, for most assuredly I tell you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man has come.

²⁴"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord.

²⁵It is enough for the disciple that he be like his teacher, and the servant like his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more them of his household!

²⁶Therefore don't be afraid of them, for there is nothing covered, that will not be revealed; and hidden, that will not be known.

²⁷What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim on the housetops.

²⁸Don't be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

²⁹"Aren't two sparrows sold for an assarion? Not one of them falls on the ground apart from your Father's will,

³⁰but the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

³¹Therefore don't be afraid, you are of more value than many sparrows.

³²Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven.

³³But whoever denies me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven.

³⁴"Don't think that I came to send peace on the earth. I didn't come to send peace, but a sword.

³⁵For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

³⁶A man's foes will be those of his own household.

³⁷He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn't worthy of me.

³⁸He who doesn't take his cross and follow after me, isn't worthy of me.

³⁹He who finds his life will lose it; and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

⁴⁰He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.

⁴¹He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward: and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward.

⁴²Whoever gives one of these little ones just a cup of cold water to drink, in the name of a disciple, most assuredly I tell you he will in no way lose his reward."

11It happened that when Jesus had finished directing his twelve disciples, he departed there to teach and preach in their cities.

²Now when John heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples

³and said to him, "Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?"

⁴Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:

⁵the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

⁶Blessed is he, whoever finds no occasion for stumbling in me."

⁷As these went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?

⁸But what did you go out to see? A man in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in king's houses.

⁹But why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet.

¹⁰For this is he, of whom it is written, 'Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.'

¹¹Most assuredly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.

¹²From the days of John the Baptizer until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

¹³For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.

¹⁴If you are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, who is to come.

¹⁵He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

¹⁶"But what will I compare this generation to? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, who call to their companions

¹⁷and say, 'We played the flute for you, and you didn't dance. We mourned for you, and you didn't lament.'

¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.'

¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom is justified by her children."

²⁰Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his mighty works were done, because they didn't repent.

²¹"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

²²But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.

²³You, Capernaum, who are exalted to Heaven, you will go down to Hades. For if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in you, it would have remained until this day.

²⁴But I tell you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the day of judgment, than for you."

²⁵At that time, Jesus answered, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants.

²⁶Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight.

²⁷All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whoever the Son wants to reveal him.

²⁸"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

²⁹Take my yoke on you, and learn from me, for I am humble and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls.

³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

12At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.

²But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, "Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath."

³But he said to them, "Haven't you read what David did, when he was hungry, and those who were with him;

⁴how he entered into the house of God, and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for those who were with him, but only for the priests?

⁵Or have you not read in the law, that on the Sabbath day, the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are guiltless?

⁶But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.

⁷But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.

⁸For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

⁹He departed there, and went into their synagogue.

¹⁰And behold there was, a man with a withered hand. They asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?" that they might accuse him.

¹¹He said to them, "What man is there among you, who has one sheep, and if this one falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not grab on to it, and lift it out?

¹²How much, then, is a man of more value than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day."

¹³Then he told the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out; and it was restored whole, just like the other.

¹⁴But the Pharisees went out, and took counsel against him, how they might destroy him.

¹⁵Jesus, perceiving that, withdrew from there. Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all,

¹⁶and charged them that they should not make him known:

¹⁷that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying,

¹⁸"Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; My beloved in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit on him, He will declare judgment to the Gentiles.

¹⁹He will not strive, nor shout; Neither will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

²⁰He won't break a bruised reed, He won't quench a smoking flax, Until he sends forth judgment to victory.

²¹In his name, the Gentiles will hope."

²²Then there was brought to him one possessed by a demon, blind and mute, and he healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw.

²³All the multitudes were amazed, and said, "Can this be the son of David?"

²⁴But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "This man does not cast out demons, except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons."

²⁵Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.

²⁶If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?

²⁷If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

²⁸But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come on you.

²⁹Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and plunder his goods, except he first bind the strong man? Then he will plunder his house.

³⁰"He who is not with me is against me, and he who doesn't gather with me, scatters.

³¹Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.

³²Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.

³³"Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit.

³⁴You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

³⁵The good man out of his good treasure brings forth good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth evil things.

³⁶I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.

³⁷For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

³⁸Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you."

³⁹But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there will no sign be given it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet.

⁴⁰For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

⁴¹The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.

⁴²The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here.

⁴³But the unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and doesn't find it.

⁴⁴Then he says, 'I will return into my house whence I came out,' and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.

⁴⁵Then he goes, and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation."

⁴⁶While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to him.

⁴⁷One said to him, "Behold, your mother and your brothers stand outside, seeking to speak to you."

⁴⁸But he answered him who told him, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?"

⁴⁹He stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, "Behold, my mother and my brothers!

⁵⁰For whoever will do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother."

13On that day Jesus went out of the house, and sat by the seaside.

²Great multitudes gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat, and sat, and all the multitude stood on the beach.

³He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, "Behold, the farmer went forth to sow.

⁴As he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and devoured them.

⁵Others fell on rocky ground, where they didn't have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they had no deepness of earth.

⁶When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away.

⁷Others fell on thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them:

⁸and others fell on good soil, and yielded fruit: some one hundred times, some sixty, and some thirty.

⁹He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

¹⁰The disciples came, and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"

¹¹He answered them, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.

¹²For whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have abundance, but whoever doesn't have, from him will be taken away even that which he has.

¹³Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don't see, and hearing, they don't hear, neither do they understand.

¹⁴In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, 'By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive:

¹⁵For this people's heart has grown callous, Their ears are dull of hearing, Their eyes they have closed; Or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their heart, And should turn again; And I would heal them.'

¹⁶"But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.

¹⁷For most assuredly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn't see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn't hear them.

¹⁸"Hear, then, the parable of the farmer.

¹⁹When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and doesn't understand it, the evil one comes, and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown by the roadside.

²⁰What was sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately with joy receives it;

²¹yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

²²What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

²³What was sown on the good ground, this is he who hears the word, and understands it, who most assuredly bears fruit, and brings forth, some one hundred times, some sixty, some thirty."

²⁴He set another parable before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,

²⁵but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel also among the wheat, and went away.

²⁶But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then the darnel appeared also.

²⁷The servants of the householder came and said to him, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where did this darnel come from?'

²⁸He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and gather them up?'

²⁹But he said, 'No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel, you root up the wheat with them.

³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, "First, gather up the darnel, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

³¹He set another parable before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field;

³²which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches."

³³He spoke another parable to them. "The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened."

³⁴Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the multitudes; and without a parable, he didn't speak to them,

³⁵that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world."

³⁶Then Jesus sent the multitudes away, and went into the house. His disciples came to him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the darnel of the field."

³⁷He answered them, "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,

³⁸the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the darnel are the sons of the evil one.

³⁹The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

⁴⁰As therefore the darnel is gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be in the end of this age.

⁴¹The Son of Man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity,

⁴²and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

⁴³Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

⁴⁴"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.

⁴⁵"Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls,

⁴⁶who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

⁴⁷"Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet, that was cast into the sea, and gathered some fish of every kind,

⁴⁸which, when it was filled, they drew up on the beach. They sat down, and gathered the good into containers, but the bad they threw away.

⁴⁹So will it be in the end of the world. The angels will come forth, and separate the wicked from among the righteous,

⁵⁰and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth."

⁵¹Jesus said to them, "Have you understood all these things?" They answered him, "Yes, Lord."

⁵²He said to them, "Therefore, every scribe who has been made a disciple to the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings forth out of his treasure new and old things."

⁵³It happened, when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed from there.

⁵⁴Coming into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, so much that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom, and these mighty works?

⁵⁵Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?

⁵⁶Aren't all of his sisters with us? Where, then did this man get all of these things?"

⁵⁷They were offended by him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and in his own house."

⁵⁸He didn't do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

14At that time, Herod, the tetrarch, heard the report concerning Jesus,

²and said to his servants, "This is John the Baptizer. He is risen from the dead. That is why these powers work in him."

³For Herod had laid hold of John, and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.

⁴For John said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."

⁵When he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.

⁶But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced in the midst, and pleased Herod.

⁷Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatever she should ask.

⁸She, being put forward by her mother, said, "Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptizer."

⁹The king was grieved, but for the sake of his oaths, and of those who sat at the table with him, he commanded it to be given,

¹⁰and he sent and beheaded John in the prison.

¹¹His head was brought on a platter, and given to the young lady: and she brought it to her mother.

¹²His disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it; and they went and told Jesus.

¹³Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat, to a desert place apart. When the multitudes heard it, they followed him on foot from the cities.

¹⁴Jesus went out, and he saw a great multitude. He had compassion on them, and healed their sick.

¹⁵When evening had come, his disciples came to him, saying, "The place is a desert, and the time is already past. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves food."

¹⁶But Jesus said to them, "They don't need to go away. You give them something to eat."

¹⁷They told him, "We only have here five loaves and two fish."

¹⁸He said, "Bring them here to me."

¹⁹He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass; and he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes.

²⁰They all ate, and were filled. They took up twelve baskets full of that which remained left over from the broken pieces.

²¹Those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

²²Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat, and to go ahead of him to the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.

²³After he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into the mountain apart to pray. When evening had come, he was there alone.

²⁴But the boat was now in the midst of the sea, distressed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

²⁵In the fourth watch of the night Jesus came to them, walking on the sea.

²⁶When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is a ghost!" and they cried out for fear.

²⁷But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying "Cheer up! I AM! Don't be afraid."

²⁸Peter answered him and said, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the waters."

²⁹He said, "Come!" Peter went down from the boat, and walked on the waters to come to Jesus.

³⁰But when he saw that the wind was strong, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!"

³¹Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and took hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

³²When they got up into the boat, the wind ceased.

³³Those who were in the boat came and worshipped him, saying, "You are truly the Son of God!"

³⁴When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret.

³⁵When the men of that place recognized him, they sent into all that region round about, and brought to him all who were sick,

³⁶and they begged him that they might only touch the fringe of his garment. As many as touched it were made whole.

15Then Pharisees and scribes come to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying,

²"Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don't wash their hands when they eat bread."

³He answered them, "Why do you also disobey the commandment of God because of your tradition?

⁴For God commanded, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.'

⁵But you say, 'Whoever will tell his father or his mother, "Whatever help you might otherwise have gotten from me is a gift devoted to God,"

⁶he will not honor his father or mother.' You have made the commandment of God void because of your tradition.

⁷You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,

⁸'These people draw near to me with their mouth, And honor me with their lips; But their heart is far from me.

⁹But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as doctrine rules made by men.'"

¹⁰He called the multitude to himself, and said to them, "Hear, and understand.

¹¹That which enters into the mouth doesn't defile the man; but that which proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man."

¹²Then the disciples came, and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended, when they heard this saying?"

¹³But he answered, "Every plant which my heavenly Father didn't plant will be uprooted.

¹⁴Let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit."

¹⁵Peter answered him, "Explain the parable to us."

¹⁶So Jesus said, "Do you also still not understand?

¹⁷Don't you understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the belly, and then out of the body?

¹⁸But the things which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of the heart, and they defile the man.

¹⁹For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.

²⁰These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands doesn't defile the man."

²¹Jesus went out from there, and withdrew into the parts of Tyre and Sidon.

²²Behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with a demon."

²³But he answered her not a word. His disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away; for she cries after us."

²⁴But he answered, "I wasn't sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

²⁵But she came and worshipped him, saying, "Lord, help me."

²⁶But he answered, "It is not appropriate to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

²⁷But she said, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters' table."

²⁸Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Be it done to you even as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that hour.

²⁹Jesus departed there, and came near to the sea of Galilee; and he went up into the mountain, and sat there.

³⁰There came to him great multitudes, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others, and they put them down at his feet. He healed them,

³¹so that the multitude wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the injured whole, lame walking, and the blind seeing -- and they glorified the God of Israel.

³²Jesus called his disciples to him, and said, "I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat. I don't want to send them away fasting, or they might faint on the way."

³³The disciples said to him, "Where should we get so many loaves in a desert place as to fill so great a multitude?"

³⁴Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven, and a few small fish."

³⁵He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground;

³⁶and he took the seven loaves and the fish. He gave thanks and broke them, and gave to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes.

³⁷They all ate, and were filled. They took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces that were left over.

³⁸Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.

³⁹He sent away the multitudes, and entered into the boat, and came into the borders of Magdala.

16The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

²But he answered them, "When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.'

³In the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but you can't discern the signs of the times.

⁴An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there will be no sign given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah." He left them, and departed.

⁵The disciples came to the other side and forgot to take bread.

⁶Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

⁷They reasoned among themselves, saying, "We took no bread."

⁸Jesus, perceiving it, said, "Why do you reason among yourselves, you of little faith, 'because you have brought no bread?'

⁹Don't you yet perceive, neither remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up?

¹⁰Nor the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up?

¹¹How is it that you don't perceive that I didn't speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

¹²Then they understood that he didn't tell them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

¹³Now when Jesus came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am ?"

¹⁴They said, "Some say John the Baptizer, some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets."

¹⁵He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

¹⁶Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

¹⁷Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

¹⁸I also tell you, that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my assembly, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

¹⁹I will give to you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you will bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you will loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

²⁰Then he charged the disciples that they should tell no man that he was the Christ.

²¹From that time, Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up.

²²Peter took him aside, and began to rebuke him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord! This will never be done to you."

²³But he turned, and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but the things of men."

²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If any man desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

²⁵For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it.

²⁶For what will it profit a man, if he will gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?

²⁷For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then will he render to every man according to his deeds.

²⁸Most assuredly I tell you, there are some standing here, who will in no way taste of death, until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

17After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves.

²He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as the light.

³Behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him.

⁴Peter answered, and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you want, let's make three tents here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

⁵While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him."

⁶When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, and were very afraid.

⁷Jesus came and touched them and said, "Get up, and don't be afraid."

⁸Lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Jesus alone.

⁹As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Don't tell anyone what you saw, until the Son of Man has risen from the dead."

¹⁰His disciples asked him, saying, "Then why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?

¹¹Jesus answered them, "Elijah indeed comes first, and will restore all things,

¹²but I tell you that Elijah has come already, and they didn't recognize him, but did to him whatever they wanted to. Even so will the Son of Man also suffer by them."

¹³Then the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptizer.

¹⁴When they came to the multitude, there came to him a man, kneeling to him, saying,

¹⁵"Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is epileptic, and suffers grievously; for he often falls into the fire, and often into the water.

¹⁶So I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him."

¹⁷Jesus answered, "Faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring him here to me."

¹⁸Jesus rebuked him, the demon went out of him, and the boy was cured from that hour.

¹⁹Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, and said, "Why couldn't we cast it out?"

²⁰He said to them, "Because of your unbelief. For most assuredly I tell you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

²¹But this kind doesn't go out except by prayer and fasting."

²²While they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be delivered up into the hands of men,

²³and they will kill him, and the third day he will be raised up." They were exceedingly sorry.

²⁴When they were come to Capernaum, those who collected the didrachmas came to Peter, and said, "Doesn't your teacher pay the didrachma?"

²⁵He said, "Yes." When he came into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth receive toll or tribute? From their sons, or from strangers?"

²⁶Peter said to him, "From strangers." Jesus said to him, "Therefore the sons are exempt.

²⁷But, lest we cause them to stumble, go to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the first fish that comes up. When you have opened his mouth, you will find a stater. Take that, and give it to them for me and you."

18In that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who then is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?"

²Jesus called a little child to himself, and set him in the midst of them,

³and said, "Most assuredly I tell you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

⁴Whoever therefore will humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

⁵Whoever will receive one such little child in my name receives me,

⁶but whoever will cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a huge millstone should be hung around his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea.

⁷Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes!

⁸If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire.

⁹If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire.

¹⁰See that you don't despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

¹¹For the Son of Man came to save that which was lost.

¹²"What do you think? If a man has one hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, doesn't he leave the ninety-nine, go to the mountains, and seek that which has gone astray?

¹³If he happens to find it, most assuredly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.

¹⁴Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

¹⁵"If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother.

¹⁶But if he doesn't listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

¹⁷If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector.

¹⁸Most assuredly I tell you, whatever things you will bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever things you will loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

¹⁹Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven.

²⁰For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them."

²¹Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?"

²²Jesus said to him, "I don't tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.

²³Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who wanted to reconcile accounts with his servants.

²⁴When he had begun to reconcile, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.

²⁵But because he couldn't pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

²⁶The servant therefore fell down and kneeled before him, saying, 'Lord, have patience with me, and I will repay you all.'

²⁷The lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.

²⁸But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants, who owed him one hundred denarii, and he laid hold on him, and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!'

²⁹So his fellow-servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will repay you.'

³⁰He would not, but went and cast him into prison, until he should pay back that which was due.

³¹So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were exceedingly sorry, and came and told to their lord all that was done.

³²Then his lord called him in, and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt, because you begged me.

³³Shouldn't you also have had mercy on your fellow-servant, even as I had mercy on you?'

³⁴His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due to him.

³⁵So will my heavenly Father also do to you, if you don't each forgive his brother from your hearts for his misdeeds."

19It happened when Jesus had finished these words, he departed from Galilee, and came into the borders of Judea beyond the Jordan.

²Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there.

³Pharisees came to him, testing him, and saying, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?"

⁴He answered, "Haven't you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female,

⁵and said, 'For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife; and the two will become one flesh?'

⁶So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don't let man tear apart."

⁷They asked him, "Why then did Moses command us to give her a bill of divorce, and divorce her?"

⁸He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so.

⁹I tell you that whoever will put away his wife, except for sexual immorality, and will marry another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is put away commits adultery."

¹⁰His disciples said to him, "If this is the case of the man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry."

¹¹But he said to them, "Not all men can receive this saying, but they to whom it is given.

¹²For there are eunuchs, who were born that way from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs, who were made eunuchs by men: and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake. He who is able to receive it, let him receive it."

¹³Then little children were brought to him, that he should lay his hands on them, and pray; and the disciples rebuked them.

¹⁴But Jesus said, "Allow the little children, and don't forbid them to come to me; for to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven."

¹⁵He laid his hands on them, and departed there.

¹⁶Behold, one came to him and said, "Good teacher, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?"

¹⁷He said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."

¹⁸He said to him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not offer false testimony.

¹⁹Honor your father and mother. And, you shall love your neighbor as yourself."

²⁰The young man said to him, "All these things I have observed from my youth. What do I still lack?"

²¹Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."

²²But when the young man heard the saying, he went away sad, for he was one who had great possessions.

²³Jesus said to his disciples, "Most assuredly I say to you, a rich man will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven with difficulty.

²⁴Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."

²⁵When the disciples heard it, they were exceedingly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?"

²⁶Looking at them, Jesus said, "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."

²⁷Then Peter answered, "Behold, we have left everything, and followed you. What then will we have?"

²⁸Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly I tell you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on the throne of his glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

²⁹Everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, will receive one hundred times, and will inherit eternal life.

³⁰But many will be last who are first; and first who are last.

20"For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

²When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

³He went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace.

⁴To them he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went their way.

⁵Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise.

⁶About the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle. He said to them, 'Why do you stand here all day idle?'

⁷They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and you will receive whatever is right.'

⁸When evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the laborers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last to the first.'

⁹When they who were hired at about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius.

¹⁰When the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise each received a denarius.

¹¹When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household,

¹²saying, 'These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!'

¹³But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn't you agree with me for a denarius?

¹⁴Take that which is yours, and go your way. It is my will to give to this last just as much as to you.

¹⁵Isn't it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?'

¹⁶So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen."

¹⁷As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them,

¹⁸"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death,

¹⁹and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day he will be raised up."

²⁰Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, kneeling and asking a certain thing of him.

²¹He said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Command that these, my two sons, may sit, one on your right hand, and one on your left hand, in your kingdom."

²²But Jesus answered, "You don't know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to him, "We are able."

²³He said to them, "You will indeed drink my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand, and on my left hand, is not mine to give; but it is for whom it has been prepared by my Father."

²⁴When the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation concerning the two brothers.

²⁵But Jesus called them to him, and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

²⁶It shall not be so among you, but whoever would become great among you will be your servant.

²⁷Whoever would be first among you will be your bondservant,

²⁸even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

²⁹As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed him.

³⁰Behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, "Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!"

³¹The multitude rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they cried out even more, "Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!"

³²Jesus stood still, and called them, and asked, "What do you want me to do for you?"

³³They told him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened."

³⁴Jesus, being moved with compassion, touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received their sight, and they followed him.

21When they drew near to Jerusalem, and came to Bethsphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,

²saying to them, "Go into the village that is opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them, and bring them to me.

³If anyone says anything to you, you will say, 'The Lord needs them,' and immediately he will send them."

⁴All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying,

⁵"Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King comes to you, Humble, and riding on a donkey, On a colt, the foal of a donkey."

⁶The disciples went, and did just as Jesus commanded them,

⁷and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their clothes on them; and he sat on them.

⁸A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees, and spread them on the road.

⁹The multitudes who went before him, and who followed, cried, "Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"

¹⁰When he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, "Who is this?"

¹¹The multitudes said, "This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee."

¹²Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money-changers' tables, and the seats of those who sold the doves.

¹³He said to them, "It is written, 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of robbers!"

¹⁴The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

¹⁵But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the son of David!" they were moved with indignation,

¹⁶and said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" Jesus said to them, "Yes. Did you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing babies you have perfected praise?'"

¹⁷He left them, and went forth out of the city to Bethany, and lodged there.

¹⁸Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry.

¹⁹Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, "Let there be no fruit from you forever!" Immediately the fig tree withered away.

²⁰When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree immediately wither away?"

²¹Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly I tell you, if you have faith, and don't doubt, you will not only do what is done to the fig tree, but even if you will tell this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it will be done.

²²All things, whatever you will ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

²³When he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?"

²⁴Jesus answered them, "I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things.

²⁵The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?" They reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we will say, 'From heaven,' he will tell us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'

²⁶But if we will say, 'From men,' we fear the multitude, for all hold John as a prophet."

²⁷They answered Jesus, and said, "We don't know." He also said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

²⁸But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, 'Son, go work today in my vineyard.'

²⁹He answered, 'I will not,' but afterward he repented himself, and went.

³⁰He came to the second, and said likewise. He answered, 'I go, sir,' but he didn't go.

³¹Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said to him, "The first." Jesus says to them, "Most assuredly I tell you, that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into the kingdom of God before you.

³²For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn't even repent afterward, that you might believe him.

³³"Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country.

³⁴When the season of the fruits drew near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive his fruits.

³⁵The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another.

³⁶Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did to them in like manner.

³⁷But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, 'They will respect my son.'

³⁸But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and seize his inheritance.'

³⁹So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

⁴⁰When therefore the lord of the vineyard will come, what will he do to those farmers?"

⁴¹They told him, "He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruits in their seasons."

⁴²Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?'

⁴³"Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation bringing forth its fruits.

⁴⁴He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whoever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust."

⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke of them.

⁴⁶When they sought to lay hold on him, they feared the multitudes, because they took him for a prophet.

22Jesus answered and spoke again in parables to them, saying,

²"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son,

³and sent forth his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast, but they would not come.

⁴Again he sent forth other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, "Behold, I have made ready my dinner. My oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the marriage feast."'

⁵But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise,

⁶and the rest grabbed his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them.

⁷But the king was angry, and he sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.

⁸Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding is ready, but they who were invited were not worthy.

⁹Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the marriage feast.'

¹⁰Those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. The wedding was filled with guests.

¹¹But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn't have on wedding-clothing,

¹²and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here not having wedding-clothing?' He was speechless.

¹³Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness; there is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.'

¹⁴For many are called, but few chosen."

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how they might entrap him in his talk.

¹⁶They sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are honest, and teach the way of God in truth, no matter who you teach, for you aren't partial to anyone.

¹⁷Tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"

¹⁸But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, "Why do you test me, you hypocrites?

¹⁹Show me the tax money." They brought to him a denarius.

²⁰He asked them, "Whose is this image and inscription?"

²¹They said to him, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

²²When they heard it, they marveled, and left him, and went away.

²³On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him,

²⁴saying, "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies, having no children, his brother will marry his wife, and raise up seed for his brother.'

²⁵Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no seed left his wife to his brother.

²⁶In like manner the second also, and the third, to the seventh.

²⁷After them all, the woman died.

²⁸In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her."

²⁹But Jesus answered them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God's angels in heaven.

³¹But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven't you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying,

³²'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?' God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."

³³When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

³⁴But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, gathered themselves together.

³⁵One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him.

³⁶"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?"

³⁷Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'

³⁸This is the first and great commandment.

³⁹A second likewise is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

⁴⁰The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,

⁴²saying, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "Of David."

⁴³He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, Until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?'

⁴⁵"If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?"

⁴⁶No one was able to answer him a word, neither dared any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

23Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples,

²saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses' seat.

³All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don't do their works; for they say, and don't do.

⁴For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them.

⁵But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,

⁶and love the chief place at feasts, the chief seats in the synagogues,

⁷the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called 'Rabbi, Rabbi' by men.

⁸But don't you be called 'Rabbi,' for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers.

⁹Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.

¹⁰Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ.

¹¹But he who is greatest among you will be your servant.

¹²Whoever will exalt himself will be humbled, and whoever will humble himself will be exalted.

¹³"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

¹⁴"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don't enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter.

¹⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of Gehenna as yourselves.

¹⁶Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.'

¹⁷You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?

¹⁸'Whoever will swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever will swear by the gift that is on it, he is a debtor.'

¹⁹You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?

²⁰He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it, and by everything on it.

²¹He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who is living in it.

²²He who swears by the heaven, swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it.

²³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law - justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

²⁴You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!

²⁵Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.

²⁶You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside of it may become clean also.

²⁷Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

²⁸Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

²⁹Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous,

³⁰and say, 'If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.'

³¹Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are sons of those who killed the prophets.

³²Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.

³³You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?

³⁴Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them will you kill and crucify; and some of them will you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city;

³⁵that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.

³⁶Most assuredly I tell you, all these things will come on this generation.

³⁷"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!

³⁸Behold, your house is left to you desolate.

³⁹For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you will say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

24Jesus went out from the temple, and was going on his way. His disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple.

²But he answered them, "Don't you see all of these things? Most assuredly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down."

³As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world?"

⁴Jesus answered them, "Be careful that no one leads you astray.

⁵For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will lead many astray.

⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren't troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet.

⁷For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places.

⁸But all these things are the beginning of birth pains.

⁹Then they will deliver you up to oppression, and will kill you. You will be hated by all of the nations for my name's sake.

¹⁰Then will many stumble, and will deliver up one another, and will hate one another.

¹¹Many false prophets will arise, and will lead many astray.

¹²Because iniquity will be multiplied, the love of many will grow cold.

¹³But he who endures to the end, the same will be saved.

¹⁴This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

¹⁵When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),

¹⁶then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

¹⁷Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take out things that are in his house.

¹⁸Let him who is in the field not return back to take his cloak.

¹⁹But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days!

²⁰Pray that your flight will not be in the winter, nor on a Sabbath,

²¹for then will be great oppression, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be.

²²Except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened.

²³Then if any man will tell you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or, 'There,' don't believe it.

²⁴For there will arise false Christs, and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

²⁵Behold, I have told you beforehand.

²⁶If therefore they tell you, 'Behold, he is in the wilderness!' don't go out; 'Behold, he is in the inner chambers,' don't believe it.

²⁷For as the lightning comes forth from the east, and is seen even to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

²⁸For wherever the carcass is, there will the vultures be gathered together.

²⁹But immediately after the oppression of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give her light, 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 the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.

³¹He will send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

³²"Now from the fig tree learn her parable. When its branch has now become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that the summer is near.

³³Even so you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

³⁴Most assuredly I tell you, this generation will not pass away, until all these things are accomplished.

³⁵Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³⁶But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

³⁷As the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

³⁸For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,

³⁹and they didn't know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

⁴⁰Then will two men be in the field: one is taken, and one is left;

⁴¹two women grinding at the mill, one is taken, and one is left.

⁴²Watch therefore, for you don't know in what hour your Lord comes.

⁴³But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

⁴⁴Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don't expect, the Son of Man will come.

⁴⁵Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season?

⁴⁶Blessed is that servant, whom his lord will find doing so when he comes.

⁴⁷Most assuredly I tell you, that he will set him over all that he has.

⁴⁸But if that evil servant should say in his heart, 'My lord is delaying his coming,'

⁴⁹and began to beat his fellow-servants, and eat and drink with the drunken,

⁵⁰the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn't expect it, and in an hour when he doesn't know it,

⁵¹and will cut him in pieces, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites; there is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.

25"Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

²Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.

³Those who were foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them,

⁴but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

⁵Now while the bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

⁶But at midnight there was a cry, 'Behold! The bridegroom is coming! Come out to meet him!'

⁷Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

⁸The foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'

⁹But the wise answered, saying, 'What if there will not be enough for us and you? You go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.'

¹⁰While they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut.

¹¹Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.'

¹²But he answered, 'Most assuredly I tell you, I don't know you.'

¹³Watch therefore, for you don't know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

¹⁴"For it is like a man, going into another country, who called his own servants, and delivered his goods to them.

¹⁵To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his own ability, and he went on his journey.

¹⁶Immediately he who received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents.

¹⁷In like manner he also who got the two gained another two.

¹⁸But he who received the one went away and dug in the earth, and hid his lord's money.

¹⁹Now after a long time the lord of those servants came, and reconciled accounts with them.

²⁰He who received the five talents came and brought another five talents, saying, 'Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Behold, I have gained another five talents besides them.'

²¹His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'

²²He also who got the two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Behold, I have gained another two talents besides them.'

²³His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'

²⁴He also who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter.

²⁵I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the earth. Behold, you have your own.'

²⁶But his lord answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I didn't sow, and gather where I didn't scatter.

²⁷You ought therefore to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received back my own with interest.

²⁸Take away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents.

²⁹For to everyone who has will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who has not, even that which he has will be taken away.

³⁰Throw out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness; there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.'

³¹"But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then will he sit on the throne of his glory.

³²Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

³³He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

³⁴Then the King will tell them on his right hand, 'Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

³⁵for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in;

³⁶naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.'

³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink?

³⁸When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you?

³⁹When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?'

⁴⁰The King will answer them, 'Most assuredly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'

⁴¹Then will he say also to them on the left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels;

⁴²for I was hungry, and you didn't give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink;

⁴³I was a stranger, and you didn't take me in; naked, and you didn't clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn't visit me.'

⁴⁴Then will they also answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not help you?'

⁴⁵Then will he answer them, saying, 'Most assuredly I tell you, inasmuch as you didn't do it to one of these least, you didn't do it to me.'

⁴⁶These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

26It happened, when Jesus had finished all these words, that he said to his disciples,

²"You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified."

³Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas.

⁴They took counsel together that they might take Jesus by deceit, and kill him.

⁵But they said, "Not during the feast, lest a riot occur among the people."

⁶Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper,

⁷a woman came to him having an alabaster jar of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table.

⁸But when his disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, "Why this waste?

⁹For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor."

¹⁰But Jesus, knowing this, said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work for me.

¹¹For you always have the poor with you; but you don't always have me.

¹²For in that she poured this ointment on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.

¹³Most assuredly I tell you, wherever this gospel will be preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of for a memorial of her."

¹⁴Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests,

¹⁵and said, "What are you willing to give me, and I will deliver him to you?" They weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver.

¹⁶From that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

¹⁷Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying to him, "Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?"

¹⁸He said, "Go into the city to a certain person, and tell him, 'The Teacher says, "My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples."'"

¹⁹The disciples did as Jesus commanded them, and they prepared the Passover.

²⁰Now when evening had come, he was reclining at the table with the twelve disciples.

²¹As they were eating, he said, "Most assuredly I tell you, that one of you will betray me."

²²They were exceedingly sorrowful, and each began to ask him, "It isn't me, is it, Lord?"

²³He answered, "He who dipped his hand with me in the dish, the same will betray me.

²⁴The Son of Man goes, even as it is written of him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had not been born."

²⁵Judas, who betrayed him, answered, "It isn't me, is it, Rabbi?" He said to him, "So you have said."

²⁶As they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks for it, and broke it. He gave to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is my body."

²⁷He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, "Drink all of it,

²⁸for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.

²⁹But I tell you that I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on, until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom."

³⁰When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

³¹Then Jesus said to them, "All of you will be offended by me tonight, for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered abroad.'

³²But after I am raised up, I will go before you into Galilee."

³³But Peter answered him, "Even if all will be offended by you, I will never be offended."

³⁴Jesus said to him, "Most assuredly I tell you, that tonight, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times."

³⁵Peter said to him, "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you." All of the disciples also said likewise.

³⁶Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I go there and pray."

³⁷He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled.

³⁸Then he said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch with me."

³⁹He went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I want, but what you want."

⁴⁰He came to the disciples, and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "What, couldn't you watch with me for one hour?

⁴¹Watch and pray, that you don't enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

⁴²Again, a second time he went away, and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cup can't pass away from me, unless I drink it, your will be done."

⁴³He came again and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.

⁴⁴He left them again, went away, and prayed a third time, saying the same words.

⁴⁵Then he came to his disciples, and said to them, "Sleep on now, and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

⁴⁶Arise, let us be going. Behold, he who betrays me is at hand."

⁴⁷While he was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and clubs, from the chief priest and elders of the people.

⁴⁸Now he who betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, "Whoever I will kiss, that is he. Take him."

⁴⁹Immediately he came to Jesus, and said, "Hail, Rabbi!" and kissed him.

⁵⁰Jesus said to him, "Friend, why are you here?" Then they came and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.

⁵¹Behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high priest, and struck off his ear.

⁵²Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place, for all those who take the sword will die by the sword.

⁵³Or do you think that I can't ask my Father, and he would even now send me more than twelve legions of angels?

⁵⁴How then would the scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so?"

⁵⁵In that hour Jesus said to the multitudes, "Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to seize me? I sat daily in the temple teaching, and you didn't arrest me.

⁵⁶But all this has happened, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled." Then all the disciples left him, and fled.

⁵⁷Those who had taken Jesus led him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together.

⁵⁸But Peter followed him from a distance, to the court of the high priest, and entered in, and sat with the officers, to see the end.

⁵⁹Now the chief priests, the elders, and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus, that they might put him to death;

⁶⁰and they found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward,

⁶¹and said, "This man said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.'"

⁶²The high priest stood up, and answered him, "Have you no answer? What is this that these testify against you?"

⁶³But Jesus held his peace. The high priest said to him, "I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God."

⁶⁴Jesus said to him, "You have said it. Nevertheless, I tell you, henceforth you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of the sky."

⁶⁵Then the high priest tore his clothing, saying, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Behold, now you have heard his blasphemy.

⁶⁶What do you think?" They answered, "He is worthy of death!"

⁶⁷Then they spit in his face and beat him with their fists, and some slapped him,

⁶⁸saying, "Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who hit you?"

⁶⁹Now Peter was sitting outside in the court, and a maid came to him, saying, "You were also with Jesus, the Galilean."

⁷⁰But he denied before them all, saying, "I don't know what you are talking about."

⁷¹When he had gone out onto the porch, someone else saw him, and said to those who were there, "This man also was with Jesus of Nazareth."

⁷²Again he denied with an oath, "I don't know the man."

⁷³After a little while those who stood by came and said to Peter, "Surely you are also one of them, for your speech makes you known."

⁷⁴Then began he to curse and to swear, "I don't know the man!" Immediately the cock crowed.

⁷⁵Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said to him, "Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times." He went out and wept bitterly.

27Now when morning had come, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:

²and they bound him, and led him away, and delivered him up to Pontius Pilate, the governor.

³Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

⁴saying, "I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood." But they said, "What is that to us? You see to it."

⁵He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself.

⁶The chief priests took the pieces of silver, and said, "It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood."

⁷They took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.

⁸Therefore that field was called "The Field of Blood" to this day.

⁹Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, "They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him who was priced, whom some of the children of Israel did price,

¹⁰and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me."

¹¹Now Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said to him, "So you say."

¹²When he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.

¹³Then Pilate said to him, "Don't you hear how many things they testify against you?"

¹⁴He gave him no answer, not even one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.

¹⁵Now at the feast the governor used to release to the multitude one prisoner, whom they wanted.

¹⁶They had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.

¹⁷When therefore they were gathered together, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus, who is called Christ?"

¹⁸For he knew that because of envy they had delivered him up.

¹⁹While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, "Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him."

²⁰Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.

²¹But the governor answered them, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" They said, "Barabbas!"

²²Pilate said to them, "What then will I do to Jesus, who is called Christ?" They all said to him, "Let him be crucified!"

²³But the governor said, "Why? What evil has he done?" But they cried out exceedingly, saying, "Let him be crucified!"

²⁴So when Pilate saw that nothing was gained, but rather that a disturbance was starting, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this righteous person. You see to it."

²⁵All the people answered, "May his blood be on us, and on our children!"

²⁶Then he released to them Barabbas, but Jesus he flogged and delivered to be crucified.

²⁷Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium, and gathered to him the whole cohort.

²⁸They stripped him, and put a scarlet robe on him.

²⁹They braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they kneeled down before him, and mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"

³⁰They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head.

³¹When they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him.

³²As they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and they compelled him to go with them, that he might carry his cross.

³³They came to a place called "Golgotha," that is to say, "The place of a skull."

³⁴They gave him sour wine to drink mixed with gall. When he had tasted it, he would not drink.

³⁵When they had crucified him, they divided his clothing among them, casting lots,

³⁶and they sat and watched him there.

³⁷They set up over his head his accusation written, "THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS."

³⁸Then there were two robbers crucified with him, one on his right hand and one on the left.

³⁹Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads,

⁴⁰and saying, "You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!"

⁴¹Likewise the chief priests also mocking, with the scribes, the Pharisees, and the elders, said,

⁴²"He saved others, but he can't save himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.

⁴³He trusts in God. Let him deliver him now, if he wants him; for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"

⁴⁴The robbers also who were crucified with him cast on him the same reproach.

⁴⁵Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

⁴⁶About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" That is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

⁴⁷Some of them who stood there, when they heard it, said, "This man calls Elijah."

⁴⁸Immediately one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him a drink.

⁴⁹The rest said, "Let him be. Let's see whether Elijah comes to save him."

⁵⁰Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit.

⁵¹Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split.

⁵²The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;

⁵³and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection, they entered into the holy city and appeared to many.

⁵⁴Now the centurion, and those who were with him watching Jesus, when they saw the earthquake, and the things that were done, feared exceedingly, saying, "Truly this was the Son of God."

⁵⁵Many women were there watching from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, serving him,

⁵⁶among whom was Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

⁵⁷When evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple.

⁵⁸This man went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given up.

⁵⁹Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,

⁶⁰and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock, and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed.

⁶¹Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the tomb.

⁶²Now on the next day, which is the day after the Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees were gathered together to Pilate,

⁶³saying, "Sir, we remember what that deceiver said while he was still alive: 'After three days I will rise again.'

⁶⁴Command therefore that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest perhaps his disciples come at night and steal him away, and tell the people, 'He is risen from the dead;' and the last deception will be worse than the first."

⁶⁵Pilate said to them, "You have a guard. Go, make it as secure as you can."

⁶⁶So they went, and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone, the guard being with them.

28Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

²Behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from the sky, and came and rolled away the stone from the door, and sat on it.

³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.

⁴For fear of him, the guards shook, and became like dead men.

⁵The angel answered the women, "Don't be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who has been crucified.

⁶He is not here, for he has risen, just like he said. Come, see the place where the Lord was lying.

⁷Go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has risen from the dead, and behold, he goes before you into Galilee; there you will see him.' Behold, I have told you."

⁸They departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring his disciples word.

⁹As they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, "Rejoice!" They came and took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.

¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, "Don't be afraid. Go tell my brothers that they may go into Galilee, and there they will see me."

¹¹Now while they were going, behold, some of the guards came into the city, and told the chief priests all the things that had happened.

¹²When they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave a large amount of silver to the soldiers,

¹³saying, "Say that his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.

¹⁴If this comes to the governor's ears, we will persuade him and make you free of worry."

¹⁵So they took the money and did as they were told. This saying was spread abroad among the Jews, and continues until this day.

¹⁶But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them.

¹⁷When they saw him, they bowed down to him, but some doubted.

¹⁸Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

¹⁹Go, 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 things which I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

1The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

²As it is written in the prophets, "Behold, I send my messenger before your face, Who will prepare your way before you.

³The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight.'"

⁴John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching the baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins.

⁵There went out to him all the country of Judea, and all those of Jerusalem. They were baptized by him in the Jordan river, confessing their sins.

⁶John was clothed with camel's hair and a leather belt around his loins. He ate locusts and wild honey.

⁷He preached, saying, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and loosen.

⁸I baptized you in water, but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit."

⁹It happened in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

¹⁰Immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting, and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.

¹¹A voice came out of the sky, "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

¹²Immediately the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness.

¹³He was there in the wilderness forty days tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals. The angels ministered to him.

¹⁴Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,

¹⁵and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand! Repent, and believe in the gospel."

¹⁶Passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea, for they were fishermen.

¹⁷Jesus said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you into fishers for men."

¹⁸Immediately they left their nets, and followed him.

¹⁹Going on a little further from there, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who also were in the boat mending the nets.

²⁰Immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him.

²¹They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught.

²²They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes.

²³Immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out,

²⁴saying, "Ha! What do we have to do with you, Jesus, you Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know you who you are: the Holy One of God."

²⁵Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!"

²⁶The unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.

²⁷They were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching? For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him."

²⁸The report of him went out immediately everywhere into all the region of Galilee and its surrounding area.

²⁹Immediately, when they had come out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

³⁰Now Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever, and immediately they told him about her.

³¹He came and took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she served them.

³²At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick, and those who were possessed with demons.

³³All the city was gathered together at the door.

³⁴He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. He didn't allow the demons to speak, because they knew him.

³⁵Early in the night, he rose up and went out, and departed into a desert place, and there prayed.

³⁶Simon and those who were with him followed after him;

³⁷and they found him, and told him, "All are seeking you."

³⁸He said to them, "Let's go elsewhere into the next towns, that I may preach there also, for to this end I came forth."

³⁹He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out demons.

⁴⁰There came to him a leper, begging him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, "If you want to, you can make me clean."

⁴¹Being moved with compassion, he stretched forth his hand, and touched him, and said to him, "I want to. Be made clean."

⁴²When he had said this, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was made clean.

⁴³He strictly charged him, and immediately sent him out,

⁴⁴and said to him, "See you say nothing to anybody, but go show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing the things which Moses commanded, for a testimony to them."

⁴⁵But he went out, and began to proclaim it much, and to spread about the matter, so that Jesus could no more openly enter into a city, but was outside in desert places: and they came to him from everywhere.

2When he entered again into Capernaum after some days, it was heard that he was in the house.

²Immediately many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even around the door; and he spoke the word to them.

³Four people came, carrying a paralytic to him.

⁴When they could not come near to him for the crowd, they removed the roof where he was. When they had broken it up, they let down the mat that the paralytic was laying on.

⁵Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you."

⁶But there were some of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,

⁷"Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? He blasphemes! Who can forgive sins but one - God?"

⁸Immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said to them, "Why do you reason these things in your hearts?

⁹Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven;' or to say, 'Arise, and take up your bed, and walk?'

¹⁰But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" -- he said to the paralytic,

¹¹"I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house."

¹²He arose, and immediately took up the mat, and went out in front of them all; so that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"

¹³He went out again by the seaside. All the multitude came to him, and he taught them.

¹⁴As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the place of toll, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he arose and followed him.

¹⁵It happened, that he was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him.

¹⁶The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?"

¹⁷When Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

¹⁸John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don't fast?"

¹⁹Jesus said to them, "Can the sons of the bride chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can't fast.

²⁰But the days will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then will they fast in that day.

²¹No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the patch shrinks and the new tears away from the old, and a worse hole is made.

²²No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and the wine pours out, and the skins will be destroyed; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins."

²³It happened, that he was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain.

²⁴The Pharisees said to him, "Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?"

²⁵He said to them, "Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry, he, and they who were with him?

²⁶How he entered into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the show bread, which it is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?"

²⁷He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

²⁸Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."

3He entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had his hand withered.

²They watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him.

³He said to the man who had his hand withered, "Stand up."

⁴He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?" But they were silent.

⁵When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as healthy as the other.

⁶The Pharisees went out, and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

⁷Jesus withdrew to the sea with his disciples, and a great multitude followed him from Galilee, from Judea,

⁸from Jerusalem, from Idumaea, beyond the Jordan, and those from around Tyre and Sidon. A great multitude, hearing what great things he did, came to him.

⁹He spoke to his disciples, that a little boat should stay near him because of the crowd, so that they wouldn't press on him.

¹⁰For he had healed many, so that as many as had diseases pressed on him that they might touch him.

¹¹The unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, "You are the Son of God!"

¹²He sternly warned them that they should not make him known.

¹³He went up into the mountain, and called to himself whom he wanted, and they went to him.

¹⁴He appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach,

¹⁵and to have authority to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons:

¹⁶Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter;

¹⁷James the son of Zebedee; John, the brother of James, and them he surnamed Boanerges, which is, Sons of thunder;

¹⁸Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot;

¹⁹and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. He came into a house.

²⁰The multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.

²¹When his friends heard it, they went out to lay hold on him: for they said, "He is insane."

²²The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul," and, "By the prince of the demons he casts out the demons."

²³He called them to him, and said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan?

²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

²⁵If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

²⁶If Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he can't stand, but has an end.

²⁷But no one can enter into the house of the strong man to plunder, unless he first binds the strong man; and then he will plunder his house.

²⁸Most assuredly I tell you, all their sins will be forgiven to the sons of men, and their blasphemies with which they may blaspheme;

²⁹but whoever may blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"

³⁰-- because they said, "He has an unclean spirit."

³¹His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent to him, calling him.

³²A multitude was sitting around him, and they told him, "Behold, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside looking for you."

³³He answered them, "Who are my mother and my brothers?"

³⁴Looking around at those who sat around him, he said, "Behold, my mother and my brothers!

³⁵For whoever may do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother."

4Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea, and sat down. All the multitude were on the land by the sea.

²He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching,

³"Listen! Behold, the farmer went forth to sow,

⁴and it happened, as he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds came and devoured it.

⁵Others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil.

⁶When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

⁷Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

⁸Others fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing. Some brought forth thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times as much."

⁹He said, "Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."

¹⁰When he was alone, those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.

¹¹He said to them, "To you is given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables,

¹²that 'seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.'"

¹³He said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables?

¹⁴The farmer sows the word.

¹⁵These are they by the road, where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes, and takes away the word which has been sown in them.

¹⁶These in like manner are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy.

¹⁷They have no root in themselves, but endure for a while, then, when oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble.

¹⁸Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word,

¹⁹and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

²⁰These are those who were sown on the good ground: such as hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit, some thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times."

²¹He said to them, "Is the lamp brought to be put under a basket or under the bed? Isn't it put on the lampstand?

²²For there is nothing hidden, except that it should be made known; neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light.

²³If any man has ears to hear, let him hear."

²⁴He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you who hear.

²⁵For whoever has, to him will more be given, and he who has not, from him will be taken away even that which he has."

²⁶He said, "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed on the earth,

²⁷and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he doesn't know how.

²⁸For the earth bears fruit: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

²⁹But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts forth the sickle, because the harvest has come."

³⁰He said, "How will we liken the kingdom of God? Or by what parable will we compare it?

³¹It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth,

³²yet when it is sown, grows up, and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow."

³³With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.

³⁴Without a parable he didn't speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained all things.

³⁵On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let's go over to the other side."

³⁶Leaving the multitude, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. Other small boats were also with him.

³⁷There arose a great wind storm, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled.

³⁸He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up, and told him, "Teacher, don't you care that we are dying?"

³⁹He awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace. Be still." The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

⁴⁰He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?"

⁴¹They were greatly afraid, and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

5They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

²When he had come out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

³who had his dwelling in the tombs. Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains,

⁴because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Nobody had the strength to tame him.

⁵Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones.

⁶When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and bowed down to him,

⁷and crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have I to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don't torment me."

⁸For he said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"

⁹He asked him, "What is your name?" He said to him, "My name is Legion, for we are many."

¹⁰He begged him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

¹¹Now there was there on the mountainside a great herd of pigs feeding.

¹²All the demons begged him, saying, "Send us into the pigs, that we may enter into them."

¹³At once Jesus gave them permission. The unclean spirits came out, and entered into the pigs. The herd of about two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they were drowned in the sea.

¹⁴Those who fed them fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. The people came to see what it was that had happened.

¹⁵They came to Jesus, and saw him who was possessed by demons sitting, clothed and in his right mind, even him who had the legion; and they were afraid.

¹⁶Those who saw it declared to them how it happened to him who was possessed by demons, and about the pigs.

¹⁷They began to beg him to depart from their borders.

¹⁸As he was entering into the boat, he who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him.

¹⁹He didn't allow him, but said to him, "Go to your house, to your friends, and tell them how the Lord has done great things for you, and how he had mercy on you."

²⁰He went his way, and began to proclaim in Decapolis how Jesus had done great things for him, and everyone marveled.

²¹When Jesus had crossed back over in the boat to the other side, a great multitude was gathered to him; and he was by the sea.

²²Behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, came; and seeing him, he fell at his feet,

²³and begged him much, saying, "My little daughter is at the point of death. Please come and lay your hands on her, that she may be made healthy, and live."

²⁴He went with him, and a great multitude followed him, and they pressed upon him on all sides.

²⁵A certain woman, who had an issue of blood for twelve years,

²⁶and had suffered many things by many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse,

²⁷having heard the things concerning Jesus, came up behind him in the crowd, and touched his clothes.

²⁸For she said, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be made well."

²⁹Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her plague.

³⁰Immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power had gone forth from him, turned around in the crowd, and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

³¹His disciples said to him, "You see the multitude pressing against you, and you say, 'Who touched me?'"

³²He looked around to see her who had done this thing.

³³But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had been done to her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

³⁴He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be cured of your disease."

³⁵While he was still speaking, they came from the synagogue ruler's house saying, "Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?"

³⁶But Jesus, not heeding the word spoken, immediately said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Don't be afraid, only believe."

³⁷He allowed no one to follow him, except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.

³⁸He came to the synagogue ruler's house, and he saw an uproar, weeping, and great wailing.

³⁹When he had entered in, he said to them, "Why do you make an uproar and weep? The child is not dead, but is asleep."

⁴⁰They laughed him to scorn. But he, having put them all out, took the father of the child and her mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was lying.

⁴¹Taking the child by the hand, he said to her, "Talitha cumi;" which means, being interpreted, "Young lady, I tell you, get up."

⁴²Immediately the young lady rose up, and walked, for she was twelve years old. They were amazed with great amazement.

⁴³He charged them much that no one should know this. He commanded that something should be given to her to eat.

6He went out from there. He came into his own country, and his disciples followed him.

²When the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things?" and, "What is the wisdom that is given to this man, that such mighty works come about by his hands?

³Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" They were offended by him.

⁴Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own relatives, and in his own house."

⁵He could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick folk, and healed them.

⁶He marveled because of their unbelief. He went around the villages teaching.

⁷He called to himself the twelve, and began to send them out two by two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

⁸He charged them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a staff only: no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse,

⁹but to wear sandals, and not put on two tunics.

¹⁰He said to them, "Wherever you enter into a house, stay there until you depart from there.

¹¹Whoever will not receive you nor hear you, as you depart from there, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony against them. Assuredly, I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!"

¹²They went out, and preached that people should repent.

¹³They cast out many demons, and anointed many with oil who were sick, and healed them.

¹⁴King Herod heard this, for his name had become known, and he said, "John the Baptizer has risen from the dead, and therefore these powers work in him."

¹⁵But others said, "It is Elijah." Others said, "It is the Prophet, or like one of the prophets."

¹⁶But Herod, when he heard this, said, "This is John, whom I beheaded. He has risen from the dead."

¹⁷For Herod himself had sent out and laid hold on John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, for he had married her.

¹⁸For John said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife."

¹⁹Herodias set herself against him, and desired to kill him, but she couldn't,

²⁰for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he did many things, and he heard him gladly.

²¹When a convenient day had come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper for his lords, and the high captains, and the chief men of Galilee;

²²and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and those reclining with him. The king said to the young lady, "Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you."

²³He swore to her, "Whatever you shall ask of me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom."

²⁴She went out, and said to her mother, "What shall I ask?" She said, "The head of John the Baptizer."

²⁵She came in immediately with haste to the king, and asked, "I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptizer on a platter."

²⁶The king was exceedingly sorry, but for the sake of his oaths, and of his dinner guests, he didn't wish to refuse her.

²⁷Immediately the king sent forth a soldier of his guard, and commanded to bring John's head, and he went and beheaded him in the prison,

²⁸and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the young lady; and the young lady gave it to her mother.

²⁹When his disciples heard this, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.

³⁰The apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus, and they told him all things, whatever they had done, and whatever they had taught.

³¹He said to them, "You come apart into a desert place, and rest awhile." For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.

³²They went away in the boat to a desert place by themselves.

³³They saw them going, and many recognized him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him.

³⁴Jesus came out, saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.

³⁵When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him, and said, "This place is a desert, and it is late in the day.

³⁶Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages, and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat."

³⁷But he answered them, "You give them something to eat." They asked him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give them something to eat?"

³⁸He said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go see." When they knew, they said, "Five, and two fish."

³⁹He commanded those that all should sit down by companies on the green grass.

⁴⁰They sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties.

⁴¹He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and broke the loaves, and he gave to his disciples to set before them, and he divided the two fish among them all.

⁴²They all ate, and were filled.

⁴³They took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and also of the fish.

⁴⁴Those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

⁴⁵Immediately he made his disciples enter into the boat, and to go ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he himself sent the multitude away.

⁴⁶After he had taken leave of them, he departed into the mountain to pray.

⁴⁷When evening had come, the boat was in the midst of the sea, and he was alone on the land.

⁴⁸Seeing them distressed in rowing, for the wind was contrary to them; and about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea, and he would have passed by them,

⁴⁹but they, when they saw him walking on the sea, supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out;

⁵⁰for they all saw him, and were troubled. But he immediately spoke with them, and said to them, "Cheer up! It is I! Don't be afraid."

⁵¹He went up to them into the boat; and the wind ceased, and they were very amazed among themselves, and marveled.

⁵²for they hadn't understood about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

⁵³When they had crossed over, they came to the land to Gennesaret, and moored to the shore.

⁵⁴When they had come out of the boat, immediately the people recognized him,

⁵⁵and ran around that whole region, and began to carry around those who were sick, on their mats, to where they heard he was.

⁵⁶Wherever he entered, into villages, or into cities, or into the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch just the fringe of his garment; and as many as touched him were made well.

7Then the Pharisees, and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem.

²Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is, unwashed, hands, they found fault.

³(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, don't eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders.

⁴They don't eat when they come from the marketplace, unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things, which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.)

⁵The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why don't your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?"

⁶He answered them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, But their heart is far from me.

⁷But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'

⁸"For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men -- the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things."

⁹He said to them, "Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.

¹⁰For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother;' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.'

¹¹But you say, 'If a man will tell his father or his mother, "Whatever you might have been profited by me is Corban, that is to say, given to God;"'

¹²and you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother,

¹³making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. You do many things like this."

¹⁴He called all the multitude to himself, and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand.

¹⁵There is nothing from outside of the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.

¹⁶If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!"

¹⁷When he had entered into the house from the multitude, his disciples asked him about the parable.

¹⁸He said to them, "Are you so without understanding also? Don't you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can't defile him,

¹⁹because it doesn't go into his heart, but into his belly, and into the latrine, thus making all foods clean?"

²⁰He said, "That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man.

²¹For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,

²²covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.

²³All these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man."

²⁴From there he arose, and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. He entered into a house, and wanted no one to know it, but he couldn't escape detection.

²⁵For a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet.

²⁶Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. She begged him that he would cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not appropriate to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

²⁸But she answered him, "Yes, Lord. For even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

²⁹He said to her, "For this saying, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter."

³⁰She went away to her house, and found the child laying on the bed, with the demon gone out.

³¹Again he departed from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and came to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the borders of Decapolis.

³²They brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. They begged him to lay his hand on him.

³³He took him aside from the multitude, privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue.

³⁴Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!"

³⁵Immediately his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke clearly.

³⁶He charged them that they should tell no one, but the more he charged them, so much the more widely they proclaimed it.

³⁷They were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear, and the mute speak!"

8In those days, when there was a very great multitude, and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to himself, and said to them,

²"I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat.

³If I send them away fasting to their home, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come a long way."

⁴His disciples answered him, "From where will one be able to fill these men with bread here in a desert place?"

⁵He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven."

⁶He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves. Having given thanks, he broke them, and gave them to his disciples to serve, and they served the multitude.

⁷They had a few small fish. Having blessed them, he said to serve these also.

⁸They ate, and were filled. They took up seven baskets of broken pieces that were left over.

⁹Those who had eaten were about four thousand. Then he sent them away.

¹⁰Immediately he entered into the boat with his disciples, and came into the region of Dalmanutha.

¹¹The Pharisees came out and began to question him, seeking a sign from heaven from him, and tempting him.

¹²He sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Most assuredly I tell you, there will no sign be given to this generation."

¹³He left them, and again entering into the boat, departed to the other side.

¹⁴They forgot to take bread; and they didn't have more than one loaf in the boat with them.

¹⁵He charged them, saying, "Take heed: beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod."

¹⁶They reasoned with one another, saying, "It's because we have no bread."

¹⁷Jesus, perceiving it, said to them, "Why do you reason that it's because you have no bread? Don't you perceive yet, neither understand? Is your heart still hardened?

¹⁸Having eyes, don't you see? Having ears, don't you hear? Don't you remember?

¹⁹When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They told him, "Twelve."

²⁰"When the seven loaves fed the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They told him, "Seven."

²¹He asked them, "Don't you understand, yet?"

²²He came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to him, and begged him to touch him.

²³He took hold of the blind man by the hand, and brought him out of the village. When he had spit on his eyes, and laid his hands on him, he asked him if he saw anything.

²⁴He looked up, and said, "I see men; for I see them like trees walking."

²⁵Then again he laid his hands on his eyes. He looked intently, and was restored, and saw everyone clearly.

²⁶He sent him away to his house, saying, "Don't enter into the village, nor tell anyone in the village."

²⁷Jesus went forth, with his disciples, into the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that I am?"

²⁸They told him, "John the Baptizer, and others, Elijah, but others, one of the prophets."

²⁹He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ."

³⁰He charged them that they should tell no one about him.

³¹He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

³²He spoke to them openly. Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.

³³But he, turning around, and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter, and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you have in mind not the things of God, but the things of men."

³⁴He called the multitude to himself with his disciples, and said to them, "Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

³⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

³⁶For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?

³⁷For what should a man give in exchange for his life?

³⁸For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

9He said to them, "Most assuredly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste death, until they see the kingdom of God come with power."

²After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, and brought them up onto a high mountain privately by themselves, and he was changed into another form in front of them.

³His clothing became glistening, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.

⁴Elijah and Moses appeared to them, and they were talking with Jesus.

⁵Peter answered Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let's make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

⁶For he didn't know what to say, for they were very afraid.

⁷A cloud came, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."

⁸Suddenly looking around, they saw no one with them any more, except Jesus only.

⁹As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no one what things they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen again from the dead.

¹⁰They kept the saying, questioning among themselves what the rising again from the dead should mean.

¹¹They asked him, saying, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"

¹²He said to them, "Elijah indeed comes first, and restores all things. How is it written about the Son of Man, that he should suffer many things and be despised?

¹³But I tell you, that Elijah has come, and they have also done to him whatever they wanted to, even as it is written about him."

¹⁴Coming to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them, and scribes questioning them.

¹⁵Immediately all the multitude, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and running to him greeted him.

¹⁶He asked the scribes, "What are you asking them?"

¹⁷One of the multitude answered, "Teacher, I brought to you my son, who has a mute spirit;

¹⁸and wherever it seizes him, it dashes him down, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and wastes away. I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they weren't able."

¹⁹He answered them, "Unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring him to me."

²⁰They brought him to him, and when he saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground, wallowing and foaming at the mouth.

²¹He asked his father, "How long has it been since this has come to him?" He said, "From childhood.

²²Often it has cast him both into the fire and into the water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us."

²³Jesus said to him, "If you can believe? All things are possible to him who believes."

²⁴Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, "I believe. Help my unbelief!"

²⁵When Jesus saw that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, "You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter no more into him!"

²⁶Having cried out, and convulsed him greatly, it came out. The boy became like one dead; so much that most of them said, "He is dead."

²⁷But Jesus took him by the hand, and raised him up; and he arose.

²⁸When he had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we cast it out?"

²⁹He said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing, except by prayer and fasting."

³⁰They went forth from there, and passed through Galilee. He didn't want anyone to know it.

³¹For he taught his disciples, and said to them, "The Son of Man is delivered up into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, on the third day he will rise again."

³²But they didn't understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

³³He came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing among yourselves on the way?"

³⁴But they were silent, for they had disputed one with another on the way about who was the greatest.

³⁵He sat down, and called the twelve; and he said to them, "If any man wants to be first, he will be last of all, and servant of all."

³⁶He took a little child, and set him in the midst of them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them,

³⁷"Whoever receives one such little child in my name, receives me, and whoever receives me, doesn't receive me, but him who sent me."

³⁸John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone who doesn't follow us casting out demons in your name; and we forbade him, because he doesn't follow us."

³⁹But Jesus said, "Don't forbid him, for there is no one who will do a mighty work in my name, and be able quickly to speak evil of me.

⁴⁰For whoever is not against us is on our side.

⁴¹For whoever will give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you are Christ's, most assuredly I tell you, he will in no way lose his reward.

⁴²Whoever will cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.

⁴³If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire,

⁴⁴'where their worm doesn't die, and the fire is not quenched.'

⁴⁵If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast into Gehenna, into the fire that will never be quenched --

⁴⁶'where their worm doesn't die, and the fire is not quenched.'

⁴⁷If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire,

⁴⁸'where their worm doesn't die, and the fire is not quenched.'

⁴⁹For everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.

⁵⁰Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

10He arose from there and came into the borders of Judea and beyond the Jordan. Multitudes came together to him again. As he usually did, he taught them again.

²There came to him Pharisees testing him, and asked him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"

³He answered, "What did Moses command you?"

⁴They said, "Moses allowed a bill of divorce to be written, and to divorce her."

⁵But Jesus said to them, "For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.

⁶But from the beginning of the creation, 'God made them male and female.

⁷For this cause will a man leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife,

⁸and the two will become one flesh,' so that they are no longer two, but one flesh.

⁹What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

¹⁰In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter.

¹¹He said to them, "Whoever will divorce his wife, and marry another, commits adultery against her.

¹²If a woman herself divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery."

¹³They were bringing to him little children, that he should touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who were bringing them.

¹⁴But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation, and said to them, "Allow the little children to come to me! Don't forbid them, for to such belong the kingdom of God.

¹⁵Most assuredly I tell you, whoever will not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he will in no way enter therein."

¹⁶He took them in his arms, and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

¹⁷As he was going forth into the way, one ran to him, kneeled to him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?"

¹⁸Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except one -- God.

¹⁹You know the commandments: 'Do not murder,' 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not give false testimony,' 'Do not defraud,' 'Honor your father and mother.'"

²⁰He said to him, "Teacher, all these things have I observed from my youth."

²¹Jesus looking at him loved him, and said to him, "One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, taking up the cross."

²²But his face fell at that saying, and he went away sorrowful, for he was one who had great possessions.

²³Jesus looked around, and said to his disciples, "How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter into the kingdom of God!"

²⁴The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answered again, "Children, how hard is it for those who trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!

²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."

²⁶They were exceedingly astonished, saying to him, "Then who can be saved?"

²⁷Jesus, looking at them, said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God."

²⁸Peter began to tell him, "Behold, we have left all, and have followed you."

²⁹Jesus said, "Most assuredly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or land, for my sake, and for the gospel's sake,

³⁰but he will receive one hundred times now in this time, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land, with persecutions; and in the age to come eternal life.

³¹But many who are first will be last; and the last first."

³²They were on the way, going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus was going in front of them, and they were amazed; and those who followed were afraid. He again took the twelve, and began to tell them the things that were going to happen to him.

³³"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death, and will deliver him to the Gentiles.

³⁴They will mock him, spit on him, scourge him, and kill him. On the third day he will rise again."

³⁵James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came near to him, saying, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we will ask."

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

³⁷They said to him, "Grant to us that we may sit, one at your right hand, and one at your left hand, in your glory."

³⁸But Jesus said to them, "You don't know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"

³⁹They said to him, "We are able." Jesus said to them, "You shall indeed drink the cup that I drink, and you shall be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with;

⁴⁰but to sit at my right hand and at my left hand is not mine to give, but for whom it has been prepared."

⁴¹When the ten heard it, they began to be moved with indignation towards James and John.

⁴²Jesus called them to him, and said to them, "You know that they who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.

⁴³But it shall not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you, will be your servant.

⁴⁴Whoever of you wants to become first among you, shall be servant of all.

⁴⁵For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

⁴⁶They came to Jericho. As he went out from Jericho, with his disciples and a great multitude, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road.

⁴⁷When he heard that it was Jesus, the Nazarene, he began to cry out, and say, "Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!"

⁴⁸Many rebuked him, that he should be quiet, but he cried out the more a great deal, "You son of David, have mercy on me!"

⁴⁹Jesus stood still, and said, "Call him." They called the blind man, saying to him, "Cheer up! Get up. He is calling you."

⁵⁰He, casting away his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.

⁵¹Jesus answered him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to him, "Rhabboni, that I may see again."

⁵²Jesus said to him, "Go your way. Your faith has made you well." Immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

11When they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethsphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,

²and said to them, "Go your way into the village that is opposite you. Immediately as you enter into it, you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Untie him, and bring him.

³If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord needs him;' and immediately he will send him back here."

⁴They went away, and found a colt tied at the door outside in the open street, and they untied him.

⁵Some of those who stood there asked them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?"

⁶They said to them just as Jesus had said, and they let them go.

⁷They brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on him, and Jesus sat on him.

⁸Many spread their garments on the way, and others were cutting down branches from the trees, and spreading them on the road.

⁹Those who went in front, and those who followed, cried, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

¹⁰Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"

¹¹Jesus entered into the temple in Jerusalem. When he had looked around at everything, it being now evening, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

¹²The next day, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry.

¹³Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came to see if perhaps he might find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

¹⁴Jesus told it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again!" and his disciples heard it.

¹⁵They came to Jerusalem, and Jesus entered into the temple, and began to throw out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of those who sold the doves.

¹⁶He would not allow anyone to carry a container through the temple.

¹⁷He taught, saying to them, "Isn't it written, 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations?' But you have made it a den of robbers!"

¹⁸The chief priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared him, for all the multitude was astonished at his teaching.

¹⁹When evening came, he went forth out of the city.

²⁰As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots.

²¹Peter, remembering, said to him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away."

²²Jesus answering said to them, "Have faith in God.

²³For most assuredly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and doesn't doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says happens; he shall have whatever he says.

²⁴Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.

²⁵Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father, who is in heaven, may also forgive you your transgressions.

²⁶But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your transgressions."

²⁷They came again to Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders came to him,

²⁸and they were asking him, "By what authority do you these things? Or who gave you this authority to do these things?"

²⁹Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

³⁰The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men? Answer me."

³¹They reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we should say, 'From heaven;' he will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'

³²If we should say, 'From men'"--they feared the people, for all held John to really be a prophet.

³³They answered Jesus, "We don't know." Jesus said to them, "Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things."

12He began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, set a hedge around it, dug a pit for the winepress, built a tower, rented it out to a farmer, and went into another country.

²When it was time, he sent a servant to the farmer to get from the farmer his share of the fruit of the vineyard.

³They took him, beat him, and sent him away empty.

⁴Again, he sent another servant to them; and they threw stones at him, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.

⁵Again he sent another; and they killed him; and many others, beating some, and killing some.

⁶Therefore he had yet one, a beloved son, he sent him last to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'

⁷But those farmers said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'

⁸They took him, killed him, and cast him forth out of the vineyard.

⁹What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.

¹⁰Haven't you even read this scripture: 'The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner.

¹¹This was from the Lord, It is marvelous in our eyes'?"

¹²They tried to seize him, but they feared the multitude; for they perceived that he spoke the parable against them. They left him, and went away.

¹³They sent some of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to him, that they might catch him in words.

¹⁴When they had come, they asked him, "Teacher, we know that you are honest, and don't defer to anyone; for you aren't partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?

¹⁵Shall we give, or shall we not give?" But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why do you test me? Bring me a denarius, that I may see it."

¹⁶They brought it. He said to them, "Whose is this image and inscription?" They said to him, "Caesar's."

¹⁷Jesus answered them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." They marveled greatly at him.

¹⁸There came to him Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection. They asked him, saying,

¹⁹"Teacher, Moses wrote to us, 'If a man's brother dies, and leaves a wife behind him, and leaves no child, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up children to his brother.'

²⁰There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and dying left no children.

²¹The second took her, and died, leaving no children behind him. The third likewise;

²²and the seven took her and left no children. Last of all the woman also died.

²³In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be of them? For the seven had her as a wife."

²⁴Jesus answered them, "Isn't this because you are mistaken, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God?

²⁵For when they will rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

²⁶But about the dead, that they are raised; haven't you read in the book of Moses, at the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?'

²⁷He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are therefore badly mistaken."

²⁸One of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together. Knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, "What commandment is the greatest of all?"

²⁹Jesus answered, "The greatest is, 'Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one:

³⁰you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the primary commandment.

³¹The second is like this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

³²The scribe said to him, "Truly, teacher, you have said well that he is one, and there is none other but he,

³³and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."

³⁴When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." No one dared ask him any question after that.

³⁵Jesus responded, as he taught in the temple, "How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David?

³⁶For David himself said in the Holy Spirit, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, Until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.'

³⁷Therefore David himself calls him Lord, so how can he be his son?" The common people heard him gladly.

³⁸In his teaching he said to them, "Beware of the scribes, who desire to walk in long robes, and to get greetings in the marketplaces,

³⁹and chief seats in the synagogues, and chief places at feasts:

⁴⁰those who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation."

⁴¹Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and saw how the multitude cast money into the treasury. Many who were rich cast in much.

⁴²There came a poor widow, and she cast in two lepta, which make a quadrans.

⁴³He called his disciples to himself, and said to them, "Most assuredly I tell you, this poor widow gave more than all those who are giving into the treasury,

⁴⁴for they all gave out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, gave all that she had to live on."

13As he went forth out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Teacher, see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings!"

²Jesus said to him, "Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone on another, which will not be thrown down."

³As he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately,

⁴"Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign that these things are all about to be accomplished?"

⁵Jesus, answering, began to tell them, "Be careful that no one leads you astray.

⁶For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he!' and will lead many astray.

⁷When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don't be troubled. For those must happen, but the end is not yet.

⁸For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines and troubles. These things are the beginning of birth pains.

⁹But watch yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils. You will be beaten in synagogues. Before governors and kings will you stand for my sake, for a testimony to them.

¹⁰The gospel must first be preached to all the nations.

¹¹When they lead you away and deliver you up, don't be anxious beforehand, or premeditate what you will say, but say whatever will be given you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.

¹²"Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.

¹³You will be hated by all men for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end, the same will be saved.

¹⁴But when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains,

¹⁵and let him who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter in, to take anything out of his house.

¹⁶Let him who is in the field not return back to take his cloak.

¹⁷But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babies in those days!

¹⁸Pray that your flight won't be in the winter.

¹⁹For in those days there will be oppression, such as there has not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be.

²⁰Unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved; but for the elect's sake, whom he chose, he shortened the days.

²¹Then if anyone tells you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, there!' don't believe it.

²²For there will arise false christs and false prophets, and will show signs and wonders, that they may lead astray, if possible, also the elect.

²³But you watch. "Behold, I have told you all things beforehand.

²⁴But in those days, after that oppression, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give her light,

²⁵the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken.

²⁶Then will they see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.

²⁷Then will he send forth his angels, and will gather together his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the sky.

²⁸"Now from the fig tree, learn this parable. When the branch has now become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that the summer is near;

²⁹even so you also, when you see these things coming to pass, know that it is near, at the doors.

³⁰Most assuredly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things are accomplished.

³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³²But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but only the Father.

³³Watch, keep alert, and pray; for you don't know when the time is.

³⁴"It is like a man, traveling to another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and also commanded the doorkeeper to keep watch.

³⁵Watch therefore, for you don't know when the lord of the house is coming, whether at evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning;

³⁶lest coming suddenly he might find you sleeping.

³⁷What I tell you, I tell all: Watch."

14It was now two days before the feast of the Passover and the unleavened bread, and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might sieze him by deception, and kill him.

²For they said, "Not during the feast, because there might be a riot of the people."

³While he was at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, there came a woman having an alabaster jar of ointment of pure nard -- very costly. She broke the jar, and poured it over his head.

⁴But there were some who had indignation among themselves, saying, "Why has this ointment been wasted?

⁵For this might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and given to the poor." They grumbled against her.

⁶But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for me.

⁷For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want to, you can do them good; but you will not always have me.

⁸She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for the burying.

⁹Most assuredly I tell you, wherever this gospel may be preached throughout the whole world, that also which this woman has done will be spoken of for a memorial of her."

¹⁰Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went away to the chief priests, that he might deliver him to them.

¹¹They, when they heard it, were glad, and promised to give him money. He sought how he might conveniently deliver him.

¹²On the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover, his disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and make ready that you may eat the Passover?"

¹³He sent two of his disciples, and said to them, "Go into the city, and there you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him,

¹⁴and wherever he enters in, tell the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'

¹⁵He will himself show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make ready for us there."

¹⁶His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found things as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.

¹⁷When it was evening he came with the twelve.

¹⁸As they sat and were eating, Jesus said, "Most assuredly I tell you, one of you will betray me -- he who eats with me."

¹⁹They began to be sorrowful, and to ask him one by one, "Surely not I?" And another said, "Surely not I?"

²⁰He answered them, "It is one of the twelve, he who dips with me in the dish.

²¹For the Son of Man goes, even as it is written about him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had not been born."

²²As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had blessed, he broke it, and gave to them, and said, "Take, eat. This is my body."

²³He took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave to them. They all drank of it.

²⁴He said to them, "This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many.

²⁵Most assuredly I tell you, I will no more drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God."

²⁶When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

²⁷Jesus said to them, "All of you will be made to stumble because of me tonight, for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.'

²⁸However, after I am raised up, I will go before you into Galilee."

²⁹But Peter said to him, "Although all will be offended, yet I will not."

³⁰Jesus said to him, "Most assuredly I tell you, that you today, even this night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times."

³¹But he spoke all the more, "If I must die with you, I will not deny you." Likewise, they all said so.

³²They came to a place which was named Gethsemane. He said to his disciples, "Sit here, while I pray."

³³He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly alarmed and distressed.

³⁴He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch."

³⁵He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass away from him.

³⁶He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Please remove this cup from me. However, not what I want, but what you want."

³⁷He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn't you watch one hour?

³⁸Watch and pray, that you not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

³⁹Again he went away, and prayed, saying the same words.

⁴⁰Again he returned, and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they didn't know what to answer him.

⁴¹He came the third time, and said to them, "Sleep on now, and take your rest. It is enough. The hour has come. Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

⁴²Arise, let us be going. Behold, he who betrays me is at hand."

⁴³Immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, came -- and with him a multitude with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders.

⁴⁴Now he who betrayed him had given them a sign, saying, "Whoever I will kiss, that is he. Take him, and lead him away safely."

⁴⁵When he had come, immediately he came to him, and said, "Rabbi! Rabbi!" and kissed him.

⁴⁶They laid their hands on him, and took him.

⁴⁷But a certain one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.

⁴⁸Jesus answered them, "Have you come out, as against a robber, with swords and clubs to seize me?

⁴⁹I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and you didn't arrest me. But this is so that the scriptures might be fulfilled."

⁵⁰They all left him, and fled.

⁵¹A certain young man followed with him, having a linen cloth thrown around him, over his naked body. The young men grabbed him,

⁵²but he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.

⁵³They led Jesus away to the high priest. There came together with him all the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes.

⁵⁴Peter had followed him afar off, until he came into the court of the high priest. He was sitting with the officers, and warming himself in the light of the fire.

⁵⁵Now the chief priests and the whole council sought witnesses against Jesus to put him to death, and found none.

⁵⁶For many gave false testimony against him, and their testimony didn't agree with each other.

⁵⁷Some stood up, and gave false testimony against him, saying,

⁵⁸"We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.'"

⁵⁹Even so their testimony did not agree.

⁶⁰The high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, "Have you no answer? What is it which these testify against you?"

⁶¹But he stayed quiet, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?"

⁶²Jesus said, "I AM. You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of the sky."

⁶³The high priest tore his clothes, and said, "What further need have we of witnesses?

⁶⁴You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?" They all condemned him to be worthy of death.

⁶⁵Some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to beat him with fists, and to tell him, "Prophesy!" The officers struck him with the palms of their hands.

⁶⁶As Peter was beneath in the court, one of the maids of the high priest came,

⁶⁷and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him, and said, "You were also with the Nazarene, Jesus."

⁶⁸But he denied it, saying, "I neither know, nor understand what you are saying." He went out into the porch, and the cock crowed.

⁶⁹The maid saw him, and began again to tell those who stood by, "This is one of them."

⁷⁰But he again denied it. After a little while again those who stood by said to Peter, "You truly are one of them, for you are a Galilean, and your speech shows it."

⁷¹But he began to curse, and to swear, "I don't know this man of whom you speak!"

⁷²The cock crowed the second time. Peter remembered the word, how that Jesus said to him, "Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." When he thought about that, he wept.

15Immediately in the morning the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the whole council, held a consultation, and bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him up to Pilate.

²Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" He answered, "So you say."

³The chief priests accused him of many things.

⁴Pilate again asked him, "Have you no answer? See how many things they testify against you!"

⁵But Jesus made no further answer, so Pilate marveled.

⁶Now at the feast he used to release to them one prisoner, whom they asked of him.

⁷There was one called Barabbas, bound with those who had made insurrection, men who in the insurrection had committed murder.

⁸The multitude, crying aloud, began to ask him to do as he always did for them.

⁹Pilate answered them, saying, "Do you you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?"

¹⁰For he perceived that for envy the chief priests had delivered him up.

¹¹But the chief priests stirred up the multitude, that he should release Barabbas to them instead.

¹²Pilate again asked them, "What then should I do to him whom you call the King of the Jews?"

¹³They cried out again, "Crucify him!"

¹⁴Pilate said to them, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they cried out exceedingly, "Crucify him!"

¹⁵Pilate, wishing to please the multitude, released Barabbas to them, and delivered Jesus, when he had flogged him, to be crucified.

¹⁶The soldiers led him away within the court, which is the Praetorium; and they called together the whole cohort.

¹⁷They clothed him with purple, and weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on him.

¹⁸They began to salute him, "Hail, King of the Jews!"

¹⁹They struck his head with a reed, and spat on him, and bowing their knees, did homage to him.

²⁰When they had mocked him, they took the purple off of him, and put his own garments on him. They led him out to crucify him.

²¹They compelled one passing by, coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them, that he might bear his cross.

²²They brought him to the place called Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, "The place of a skull."

²³They offered him wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he didn't take it.

²⁴Crucifying him, they parted his garments among them, casting lots on them, what each should take.

²⁵It was the third hour, and they crucified him.

²⁶The superscription of his accusation was written over him, "THE KING OF THE JEWS."

²⁷With him they crucified two robbers; one on his right hand, and one on his left.

²⁸The scripture was fulfilled, which says, "He was numbered with transgressors."

²⁹Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying, "Ha! You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days,

³⁰save yourself, and come down from the cross!"

³¹Likewise, also the chief priests mocking among themselves with the scribes said, "He saved others. He can't save himself.

³²Let the Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, that we may see and believe him." Those who were crucified with him reproached him.

³³When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

³⁴At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is, being interpreted, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

³⁵Some of those who stood by, when they heard it, said, "Behold, he calls Elijah."

³⁶One ran, and filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Let him be. Let's see whether Elijah comes to take him down."

³⁷Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and gave up the spirit.

³⁸The veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom.

³⁹When the centurion, who stood by opposite him, saw that he cried out like this and breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!"

⁴⁰There were also women watching from afar, among whom were both Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome;

⁴¹who, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and served him; and many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

⁴²When evening had now come, because it was the Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath,

⁴³Joseph of Arimathaea, a member of the council of honorable estate, who also himself was looking for the kingdom of God, came. He boldly went in to Pilate, and asked for Jesus' body.

⁴⁴Pilate marveled if he were already dead: and calling to him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead for a while.

⁴⁵When he learned it from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.

⁴⁶He bought a linen cloth, and taking him down, wound him in the linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb which had been cut out of a rock. He rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.

⁴⁷Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, saw where he was laid.

16When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him.

²Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.

³They were saying among themselves, "Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?"

⁴for it was very big. Looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back

⁵Entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were amazed.

⁶He said to them, "Don't be amazed. You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Behold, the place where they laid him!

⁷But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He goes before you into Galilee. There you will see him, as he said to you.'"

⁸They went out, and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come on them. They said nothing to anyone; for they were afraid.

⁹Now when he had risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.

¹⁰She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept.

¹¹When they heard that he was alive, and had been seen by her, they disbelieved.

¹²After these things he was revealed in another form to two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country.

¹³They went away and told it to the rest. They didn't believe them, either.

¹⁴Afterward he was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at the table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they didn't believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

¹⁵He said to them, "Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation.

¹⁶He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned.

¹⁷These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages;

¹⁸they will take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

¹⁹So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.

²⁰They went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.

1Because many have undertaken to draw up a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled among us,

²even as they delivered them to us, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word,

³it seemed good to me also, having traced the course of all things accurately from the first, to write to you in order, most excellent Theophilus;

⁴that you might know the certainty concerning the things in which you were instructed.

⁵There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the priestly division of Abijah. He had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

⁶They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.

⁷But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they both were well advanced in years.

⁸Now it happened, while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his division,

⁹according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to enter into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

¹⁰The whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.

¹¹An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

¹²Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell on him.

¹³But the angel said to him, "Don't be afraid, Zacharias, because your request has been heard, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.

¹⁴You will have joy and gladness; and many will rejoice at his birth.

¹⁵For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.

¹⁶He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord, their God.

¹⁷He will go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah, 'to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

¹⁸Zacharias said to the angel, "How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years."

¹⁹The angel answered him, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God. I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news.

²⁰Behold, you will be silent and not able to speak, until the day that these things will happen, because you didn't believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time."

²¹The people were waiting for Zacharias, and they marveled while he delayed in the temple.

²²When he came out, he could not speak to them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple. He continued making signs to them, and remained mute.

²³It happened, when the days of his service were fulfilled, he departed to his house.

²⁴After these days Elizabeth, his wife, conceived, and she hid herself five months, saying,

²⁵"Thus has the Lord done to me in the days in which he looked at me, to take away my reproach among men."

²⁶Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,

²⁷to a virgin pledged to be married to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary.

²⁸Having come in to her, the angel said, "Rejoice, you highly favored one! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women!"

²⁹But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered what kind of salutation this might be.

³⁰The angel said to her, "Don't be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

³¹Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and will call his name JESUS.

³²He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David,

³³and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end of his kingdom."

³⁴Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, seeing I am a virgin?"

³⁵The angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one which is born from you will be called the Son of God.

³⁶Behold, Elizabeth, your relative, also has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

³⁷For no word from God will be void of power."

³⁸Mary said, "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it to me according to your word." The angel departed from her.

³⁹Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Judah,

⁴⁰and entered into the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.

⁴¹It happened, when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

⁴²She called out with a loud voice, and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

⁴³Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

⁴⁴For behold, when the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy!

⁴⁵Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord!"

⁴⁶Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord.

⁴⁷My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,

⁴⁸For he has looked at the humble state of his handmaid. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.

⁴⁹For he who is mighty has done to me great things; Holy is his name.

⁵⁰His mercy is for generations of generations on those who fear him.

⁵¹He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart.

⁵²He has put down princes from their thrones. Has exalted the lowly.

⁵³He has filled the hungry with good things. He has sent the rich away empty.

⁵⁴He has given help to Israel, his servant, that he might remember mercy

⁵⁵(As he spoke to our fathers) Toward Abraham and his seed forever."

⁵⁶Mary stayed with her about three months, and returned to her house.

⁵⁷Now the time that Elizabeth should give birth was fulfilled, and she brought forth a son.

⁵⁸Her neighbors and her relatives heard that the Lord had magnified his mercy towards her; and they rejoiced with her.

⁵⁹It happened on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him Zacharias, after the name of the father.

⁶⁰His mother answered, "Not so; but he will be called John."

⁶¹They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name."

⁶²They made signs to his father, what he would have him called.

⁶³He asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, "His name is John." They all marveled.

⁶⁴His mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue freed, and he spoke, blessing God.

⁶⁵Fear came on all who lived around them, and all these sayings were talked about throughout all the hill country of Judea.

⁶⁶All who heard them laid them up in their heart, saying, "What then will this child be?" The hand of the Lord was with him.

⁶⁷His father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying,

⁶⁸"Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, For he has visited and worked redemption for his people;

⁶⁹Has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David

⁷⁰(As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been from of old),

⁷¹Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us;

⁷²To show mercy towards our fathers, To remember his holy covenant,

⁷³The oath which he spoke to Abraham, our father,

⁷⁴To grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, should serve him without fear,

⁷⁵In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.

⁷⁶And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, For you will go before the face of the Lord to make ready his ways,

⁷⁷To give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins,

⁷⁸Because of the tender mercy of our God, Whereby the dawn from on high will visit us,

⁷⁹To shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; To guide our feet into the way of peace."

⁸⁰The child grew, and grew strong in spirit, and was in the desert until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

2Now it happened in those days, that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled.

²This was the first enrollment made when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

³All went to enroll themselves, everyone to his own city.

⁴Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David;

⁵to enroll himself with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him as wife, being great with child.

⁶It happened, while they were there, that the day had come that she should give birth.

⁷She brought forth her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the inn.

⁸There were shepherds in the same country staying in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock.

⁹Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

¹⁰The angel said to them, "Don't be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people.

¹¹For there is born to you, this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

¹²This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough."

¹³Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

¹⁴"Glory to God in the highest, On earth peace, good will toward men."

¹⁵It happened, when the angels went away from them into the sky, that the shepherds said one to another, "Let's go to Bethlehem, now, and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us."

¹⁶They came with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the feeding trough.

¹⁷When they saw it, they publicized widely the saying which was spoken to them about this child.

¹⁸All who heard it wondered at the things which were spoken to them by the shepherds.

¹⁹But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.

²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, even as it was spoken to them.

²¹When eight days were fulfilled for the circumcision of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

²²When the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were fulfilled, they brought him up to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord

²³(as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord"),

²⁴and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, "A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."

²⁵Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.

²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

²⁷He came in the Spirit into the temple. When the parents brought in the child, Jesus, that they might do concerning him according to the custom of the law,

²⁸then he received him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,

²⁹"Now let you your servant depart, Lord, According to your word, in peace;

³⁰For my eyes have seen your salvation,

³¹Which you have prepared before the face of all peoples;

³²A light for revelation to the Gentiles, The glory of your people Israel."

³³Joseph and his mother were marveling at the things which were spoken concerning him,

³⁴and Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary, his mother, "Behold, this child is set for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which is spoken against.

³⁵Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul, that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed."

³⁶There was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher (she was of a great age, having lived with a husband seven years from her virginity,

³⁷and she had been a widow for about eighty-four years), who didn't depart from the temple, worshipping with fastings and petitions night and day.

³⁸Coming up at that very hour, she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of him to all those who were looking for redemption in Jerusalem.

³⁹When they had accomplished all things that were according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth.

⁴⁰The child grew, and grew strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

⁴¹His parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover.

⁴²When he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast,

⁴³and when they had fulfilled the days, as they were returning, the boy, Jesus, stayed behind in Jerusalem. Joseph and his mother didn't know it,

⁴⁴but supposing him to be in the company, they went a day's journey, and they looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances.

⁴⁵When they didn't find him, they returned to Jerusalem, looking for him.

⁴⁶It happened, after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions.

⁴⁷All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

⁴⁸When they saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I were anxiously looking for you."

⁴⁹He said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I must be in my Father's house?"

⁵⁰They didn't understand the saying which he spoke to them.

⁵¹He went down with them, and came to Nazareth. He was subject to them, and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

⁵²Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

3Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

²in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.

³He came into all the region around the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance to remission of sins.

⁴As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.

⁵Every valley will be filled. Every mountain and hill will be brought low. The crooked will become straight, And the rough ways smooth.

⁶All flesh will see God's salvation.'"

⁷He said therefore to the multitudes who went out to be baptized by him, "You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

⁸Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and don't begin to say among yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father;' for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones!

⁹Even now the ax also lies at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doesn't bring forth good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire."

¹⁰The multitudes asked him, "What then must we do?"

¹¹He answered them, "He who has two coats, let him give to him who has none. He who has food, let him do likewise."

¹²Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Teacher, what must we do?"

¹³He said to them, "Extort no more than that which is appointed you."

¹⁴Soldiers also asked him, saying, "What about us? What must we do?" He said to them, "Extort from no one by violence, neither accuse anyone wrongfully. Be content with your wages."

¹⁵As the people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he was the Christ,

¹⁶John answered them all, "I indeed baptize you with water, but he comes who is mightier than I, the latchet of whose sandals I am not worthy to loosen. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire,

¹⁷whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, and will gather the wheat into his barn; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

¹⁸Then with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people,

¹⁹but Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things which Herod had done,

²⁰added this also to them all, that he shut up John in prison.

²¹Now it happened, when all the people were baptized, that, Jesus also having been baptized, and praying, the sky was opened,

²²and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, on him, and a voice came out of the sky, saying "You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased."

²³Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years old, being the son (as was supposed) 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 Joseph, the son of Judah,

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 Elmodam, the son of Er,

²⁹the son of Josa, 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 Jonan, the son of Eliakim,

³¹the son of Melea, the son of Menan, 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 Salmon, the son of Nahshon,

³³the son of Amminadab, the son of Aram, the son of Joram, 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.

4Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness

²for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry.

³The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."

⁴Jesus answered him, saying,"It is written, 'Man will not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'"

⁵The devil, leading him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited world in a moment of time.

⁶The devil said to him, "I will give you all this authority, and their glory, for it has been delivered to me; and I give it to whomever I want.

⁷If you therefore will worship before me, it will all be yours."

⁸Jesus answered him, "Get behind me Satan! For it is written, 'You will worship the Lord your God, and him only will you serve.'"

⁹He led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here,

¹⁰for it is written, 'He will give his angels charge concerning you, to guard you;'

¹¹and, 'On their hands they will bear you up, Lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.'"

¹²Jesus answering, said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.'"

¹³When the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from him for awhile.

¹⁴Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news about him spread through all the surrounding area.

¹⁵He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

¹⁶He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. He entered, as was his custom, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.

¹⁷The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened the book, and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, Because he anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim release to the captives, Recovering of sight to the blind, To deliver those who are crushed,

¹⁹And to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

²⁰He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him.

²¹He began to tell them, "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

²²All testified about him, and wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, "Isn't this Joseph's son?"

²³He said to them, "Doubtless you will tell me this parable, 'Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in your hometown.'"

²⁴He said, "Most assuredly I tell you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

²⁵But truly I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the the sky was shut up three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land.

²⁶Elijah was sent to none of them, except only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

²⁷There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, except Naaman, the Syrian."

²⁸They were all filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things;

²⁹and they rose up, and threw him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill that their city was built on, that they might throw him off the cliff.

³⁰But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way.

³¹He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. He was teaching them on the Sabbath day,

³²and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority.

³³In the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice,

³⁴saying, "Ah! what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know you who you are: the Holy One of God!"

³⁵Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" When the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.

³⁶Amazement came on all, and they spoke together, one with another, saying, "What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!"

³⁷News about him went forth into every place of the surrounding region.

³⁸He rose up from the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. Simon's mother-in-law was afflicted with a great fever, and they begged him for her.

³⁹He stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her. Immediately she rose up and ministered to them.

⁴⁰When the sun was setting, all those who had any sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.

⁴¹Demons also came out from many, crying out, and saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of God!" Rebuking them, he didn't allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.

⁴²When it was day, he came out and went into an uninhabited place, and the multitudes looked for him, and came to him, and held on to him, so that he wouldn't go away from them.

⁴³But he said to them, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for this reason I have been sent."

⁴⁴He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.

5Now it happened, while the multitude pressed on him and heard the word of God, that he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.

²He saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them, and were washing their nets.

³He entered into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes out of the boat.

⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch."

⁵Simon answered him, "Master, we worked all night, and took nothing; but at your word I will let down the net."

⁶When they had done this, they caught a great multitude of fish, and their net was breaking.

⁷They beckoned to their partners in the other boat, that they should come and help them. They came, and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.

⁸But Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord."

⁹For he was amazed, and all who were with him, at the catch of fish which they had caught;

¹⁰and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid. From now on you will catch men alive."

¹¹When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything, and followed him.

¹²It happened, while he was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man full of leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face, and begged him, saying, "Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean."

¹³He stretched forth his hand, and touched him, saying, "I want to. Be made clean." Immediately the leprosy departed from him.

¹⁴He charged him to tell no one, "But go your way, and show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing, according to what Moses commanded, for a testimony to them."

¹⁵But the report concerning him spread much more, and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.

¹⁶But he withdrew himself into the desert, and prayed.

¹⁷It happened on one of those days, that he was teaching; and there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every village of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was with him to heal them.

¹⁸Behold, men brought a paralyzed man on a cot, and they sought to bring him in to lay before him.

¹⁹Not finding a way to bring him in because of the multitude, they went up to the housetop, and let him down through the tiles with his cot into the midst before Jesus.

²⁰Seeing their faith, he said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."

²¹The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?"

²²But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, answered them, "Why are you reasoning so in your hearts?

²³Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you;' or to say, 'Arise and walk?'

²⁴But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (he said to the paralyzed man), "I tell you, arise, and take up your cot, and go to your house."

²⁵Immediately he rose up before them, and took up that which he was laying on, and departed to his house, glorifying God.

²⁶Amazement took hold on all, and they glorified God. They were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen strange things today."

²⁷After these things he went out, and saw a tax collector, named Levi, sitting at the tax office, and said to him, "Follow me."

²⁸He left everything, and rose up and followed him.

²⁹Levi made him a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them.

³⁰Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?"

³¹Jesus answered them, "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.

³²I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

³³They said to him, "Why do John's disciples often fast and pray, likewise also the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink?"

³⁴He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast, while the bridegroom is with them?

³⁵But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then will they fast in those days."

³⁶He also told a parable to them. "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old garment, or else he will tear the new, and also the piece from the new will not match the old.

³⁷No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed.

³⁸But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.

³⁹No man having drunk old wine immediately desires new, for he says, 'The old is better.'"

6Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first, that he was going through the grain fields, and his disciples plucked the heads of grain, and ate, rubbing them in their hands.

²But some of the Pharisees said to them, "Why do you do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day?"

³Jesus, answering them, said, "Haven't you read this, what David did, when he was hungry, he, and those who were with him;

⁴how he entered into the house of God, and took and ate the show bread, and gave also to those who were with him, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?"

⁵He said to them, "The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath."

⁶It also happened on another Sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught. There was a man there, and his right hand was withered.

⁷The scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against him.

⁸But he knew their thoughts; and he said to the man who had the withered hand, "Rise up, and stand in the middle." He arose and stood.

⁹Then Jesus said to them, "I will ask you something: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?"

¹⁰He looked around at them all, and said to him, "Stretch out your hand." He did, and his hand was restored as sound as the other.

¹¹But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.

¹²It happened in these days, that he went out into the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God.

¹³When it was day, he called his disciples, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles:

¹⁴Simon, whom he also named Peter; Andrew, his brother; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew;

¹⁵Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called the Zealot;

¹⁶Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor.

¹⁷He came down with them, and stood on a level place, with a crowd of his disciples, and a great number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases;

¹⁸also those who were troubled with unclean spirits, and they were being healed.

¹⁹All the multitude sought to touch him, for power came forth from him, and healed them all.

²⁰He lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said, "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

²¹"Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

²²"Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from them and reproach you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake.

²³Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets.

²⁴"But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.

²⁵"Woe to you, you who are full now! For you will be hungry. "Woe to you, you who laugh now! For you will mourn and weep.

²⁶"Woe, when men will speak well of you! For their fathers did the same thing to the false prophets.

²⁷But I tell you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

²⁸bless them who curse you, and pray for those who insult you.

²⁹To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer also the other; and from him who takes away your cloak, don't withhold your coat also.

³⁰Give to everyone who asks you, and don't ask him who takes away your goods to give them back again.

³¹"As you desire that men should do to you, likewise do to them also.

³²If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

³³If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

³⁴If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive back as much.

³⁵But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.

³⁶Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful.

³⁷Don't judge, and you will not be judged. Don't condemn, and you will not be condemned. Set free, and you will be set free.

³⁸Give, and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will they give into your bosom. For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you."

³⁹He spoke a parable to them. "Can the blind guide the blind? Won't they both fall into a pit?

⁴⁰A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

⁴¹Why do you see the speck of chaff that is in your brother's eye, but don't consider the beam that is in your own eye?

⁴²Or how can you tell your brother, 'Brother, let me remove the speck of chaff that is in your eye,' when you yourself don't see the beam that is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck of chaff that is in your brother's eye.

⁴³For there is no good tree that brings forth rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that brings forth good fruit.

⁴⁴For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don't gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush.

⁴⁵The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

⁴⁶Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and don't do the things which I say?

⁴⁷Everyone who comes to me, and hears my words, and does them, I will show you who he is like.

⁴⁸He is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock. When a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it was founded on the rock.

⁴⁹But he who hears, and doesn't do, is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."

7After he had finished speaking in the hearing of the people, he entered into Capernaum.

²A certain centurion's servant, who was dear to him, was sick and at the point of death.

³When he heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and save his servant.

⁴When they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy for you to do this for him,

⁵for he loves our nation, and he built our synagogue for us."

⁶Jesus went with them. When he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying to him, "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I am not worthy for you to come under my roof.

⁷Therefore I didn't even think myself worthy to come to you; but say the word, and my servant will be healed.

⁸For I also am a man placed under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, 'Go!' and he goes; and to another, 'Come!' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."

⁹When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turned and said to the multitude who followed him, "I tell you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."

¹⁰Those who were sent, returning to the house, found that the servant who had been sick was well.

¹¹It happened soon afterwards, that he went to a city called Nain. Many of his disciples went with him, along with a great multitude.

¹²Now when he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, one who was dead was carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. Many people of the city were with her.

¹³When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, "Don't cry."

¹⁴He came near and touched the coffin, and the bearers stood still. He said, "Young man, I tell you, arise!"

¹⁵He who was dead sat up, and began to speak. He gave him to his mother.

¹⁶Fear took hold on all, and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has arisen among us," and, "God has visited his people."

¹⁷This report went out concerning him in the whole of Judea, and in all the surrounding region.

¹⁸The disciples of John told him about all these things.

¹⁹John, calling to himself two of his disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, "Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?"

²⁰When the men had come to him, they said, "John the Baptizer has sent us to you, saying, 'Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?'"

²¹In that hour he cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits; and to many who were blind he gave sight.

²²Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John the things which you have seen and heard: that the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.

²³Blessed is he who is not offended by me."

²⁴When John's messengers had departed, he began to tell the multitudes about John, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?

²⁵But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are gorgeously dressed, and live delicately, are in kings' courts.

²⁶But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet.

²⁷This is he of whom it is written, 'Behold, I send my messenger before your face, Who will prepare your way before you.'

²⁸"For I tell you, among those who are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptizer, yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."

²⁹When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they justified God, being baptized with John's baptism.

³⁰But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God, not being baptized by him themselves.

³¹The Lord said, "To what then will I liken the men of this generation? What are they like?

³²They are like children who sit in the marketplace, and call one to another, saying, 'We piped to you, and you didn't dance. We mourned, and you didn't weep.'

³³For John the Baptizer came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.'

³⁴The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man, and a drunkard; a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'

³⁵Wisdom is justified by all her children."

³⁶One of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He entered into the Pharisee's house, and sat at the table.

³⁷Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that he was reclining in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of ointment.

³⁸Standing behind at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

³⁹Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner."

⁴⁰Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." He said, "Teacher, say on."

⁴¹"A certain lender had two debtors. The one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

⁴²When they couldn't pay, he forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him most?"

⁴³Simon answered, "He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most." He said to him, "You have judged correctly."

⁴⁴Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head.

⁴⁵You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet.

⁴⁶You didn't anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.

⁴⁷Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."

⁴⁸He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

⁴⁹Those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"

⁵⁰He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."

8It happened soon afterwards, that he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God, and with him the twelve,

²and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out;

³and Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod's steward, Susanna; and many others; who ministered to them from their possessions.

⁴When a great multitude came together, and people from every city were coming to him, he spoke by a parable.

⁵"The farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell by the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the sky devoured it.

⁶Other seed fell on the rock, and as soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture.

⁷Other fell amid the thorns, and the thorns grew with it, and choked it.

⁸Other fell into the good ground, and grew, and brought forth fruit one hundred times." As he said these things, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

⁹Then his disciples asked him, "What does this parable mean?"

¹⁰He said, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables; that 'seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'

¹¹Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

¹²Those by the road are those who hear, then the devil comes, and takes away the word from their heart, that they may not believe and be saved.

¹³Those on the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; but these have no root, who believe for a while, and fall away in time of temptation.

¹⁴That which fell among the thorns, these are those who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.

¹⁵That in the good ground, these are such as in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it tightly, and bring forth fruit with patience.

¹⁶"No one, when he has lit a lamp, covers it with a container, or puts it under a bed; but puts it on a stand, that those who enter in may see the light.

¹⁷For nothing is hidden, that will not be revealed; nor anything secret, that will not be known and come to light.

¹⁸Be careful therefore how you hear. For whoever has, to him will be given; and whoever doesn't have, from him will be taken away even that which he thinks he has."

¹⁹His mother and brothers came to him, and they could not come near him for the crowd.

²⁰It was told him by some saying, "Your mother and your brothers stand outside, desiring to see you."

²¹But he answered them, "My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God, and do it."

²²Now it happened on one of those days, that he entered into a boat, himself and his disciples, and he said to them, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they launched out.

²³But as they sailed, he fell asleep. A wind storm came down on the lake, and they were taking on dangerous amounts of water.

²⁴They came to him, and awoke him, saying, "Master, master, we are dying!" He awoke, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and it was calm.

²⁵He said to them, "Where is your faith?" Being afraid they marveled, saying one to another, "Who is this, then, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?"

²⁶They arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.

²⁷When Jesus stepped ashore, a certain man out of the city met him, who had demons for a long time. He wore no clothes, and didn't live in a house, but in the tombs.

²⁸When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, "What do I have to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don't torment me!"

²⁹For Jesus was commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For the unclean spirit had often seized the man. He was kept under guard, and bound with chains and fetters. Breaking the bands apart, he was driven by the demon into the desert.

³⁰Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion," for many demons had entered into him.

³¹They begged him who he would not command them to go into the abyss.

³²Now there was there a herd of many pigs feeding on the mountain, and they begged him that he would allow them to enter into those. He allowed them.

³³The demons came out from the man, and entered into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned.

³⁴When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country.

³⁵People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons were gone out, sitting, clothed and in his right mind, at the feet of Jesus; and they were afraid.

³⁶Those who saw it told them how he who was possessed with demons was healed.

³⁷All the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them, for they were very much afraid. He entered into the boat, and returned.

³⁸But the man from whom the demons had gone out begged him that he might go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,

³⁹"Return to your house, and declare what great things God has done for you." He went his way, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.

⁴⁰It happened, as Jesus returned, the multitude welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him.

⁴¹Behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. He fell down at Jesus' feet, and begged him to come into his house,

⁴²for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. But as he went, the multitudes thronged him.

⁴³A woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed by any,

⁴⁴came behind him, and touched the fringe of his cloak, and immediately the flow of her blood stopped.

⁴⁵Jesus said, "Who touched me?" When all denied, Peter and those with him said, "Master, the multitudes press and jostle you, and you say, 'Who touched me?'"

⁴⁶But Jesus said, "Someone did touch me, for I perceived that power has gone out of me."

⁴⁷When the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared to him in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.

⁴⁸He said to her, "Daughter, cheer up. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace."

⁴⁹While he still spoke, one from the ruler of the synagogue's house came, saying to him, "Your daughter is dead. Don't trouble the Teacher."

⁵⁰But Jesus hearing it, answered him, "Don't be afraid. Only believe, and she will be healed."

⁵¹When he came to the house, he didn't allow anyone to enter in, except Peter, John, James, the father of the girl, and her mother.

⁵²All were weeping, and mourning her, but he said, "Don't weep. She isn't dead, but sleeping."

⁵³They laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.

⁵⁴But he put them all outside, and taking her by the hand, he called, saying, "Little girl, arise!"

⁵⁵Her spirit returned, and she rose up immediately. He commanded that something be given to her to eat.

⁵⁶Her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had been done.

9He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.

²He sent them forth to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

³He said to them, "Take nothing for your journey -- neither staffs, nor wallet, nor bread, nor money; neither have two coats apiece.

⁴Into whatever house you enter, stay there, and depart from there.

⁵As many as don't receive you, when you depart from that city, shake off even the dust from your feet for a testimony against them."

⁶They departed, and went throughout the villages, preaching the gospel, and healing everywhere.

⁷Now Herod, the tetrarch, heard of all that was done by him; and he was very perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead,

⁸and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again.

⁹Herod said, "John I beheaded, but who is this, about whom I hear such things?" He sought to see him.

¹⁰The apostles, when they had returned, told him what things they had done. He took them, and withdrew apart to a deserted place of a city called Bethsaida.

¹¹But the multitudes, perceiving it, followed him. He welcomed them, and spoke to them of the kingdom of God, and he cured those who needed healing.

¹²The day began to wear away; and the twelve came, and said to him, "Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and farms, and lodge, and get provisions, for we are here in a desert place."

¹³But he said to them, "You give them something to eat." They said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we should go and buy food for all these people."

¹⁴For they were about five thousand men. He said to his disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each."

¹⁵They did so, and made them all sit down.

¹⁶He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to the sky, he blessed them, and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.

¹⁷They ate, and were all filled. They gathered up twelve baskets of broken pieces that were left over.

¹⁸It happened, as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him, and he asked them, "Who do the multitudes say that I am?"

¹⁹They answered, "'John the Baptizer,' but others say, 'Elijah,' and others, that one of the old prophets is risen again."

²⁰He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "The Christ of God."

²¹But he warned them, and commanded them to tell this to no one,

²²saying, "The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up."

²³He said to all, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

²⁴For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever will lose his life for my sake, the same will save it.

²⁵For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits his own self?

²⁶For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of himself, of the Father, and of the holy angels.

²⁷But I tell you the truth: There are some of those who stand here, who will in no way taste of death, until they see the kingdom of God."

²⁸It happened about eight days after these sayings, that he took with him Peter, John, and James, and went up onto the mountain to pray.

²⁹As he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became white and dazzling.

³⁰Behold, two men talked with him, who were Moses and Elijah,

³¹who appeared in glory, and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

³²Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they were fully awake, they saw his glory, and the two men who stood with him.

³³It happened, as they were parting from him, that Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let's make three tents: one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah," not knowing what he said.

³⁴While he said these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered into the cloud.

³⁵A voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!"

³⁶When the voice came, Jesus was found alone. They were silent, and told no one in those days any of the things which they had seen.

³⁷It happened on the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, that a great multitude met him.

³⁸Behold, a man from the crowd called out, saying, "Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child.

³⁹Behold, a spirit takes him, he suddenly cries out, and it convulses him so that he foams, and it hardly departs from him, bruising him severely.

⁴⁰I begged your disciples to cast it out, and they couldn't."

⁴¹Jesus answered, "Faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here."

⁴²While he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him violently. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.

⁴³They were all astonished at the majesty of God. But while all were marveling at all the things which Jesus did, he said to his disciples,

⁴⁴"Let these words sink into your ears, for the Son of Man will be delivered up into the hands of men."

⁴⁵But they didn't understand this saying. It was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

⁴⁶There arose an argument among them about which of them was the greatest.

⁴⁷Jesus, perceiving the reasoning of their heart, took a little child, and set him by his side,

⁴⁸and said to them, "Whoever receives this little child in my name receives me. Whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For whoever is least among you all, this one will be great."

⁴⁹John answered, "Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he doesn't follow with us."

⁵⁰Jesus said to him, "Don't forbid him, for he who is not against us is for us."

⁵¹It came to pass, when the days were near that he should be taken up, he intently set his face to go to Jerusalem,

⁵²and sent messengers before his face. They went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, so as to prepare for him.

⁵³They didn't receive him, because he was traveling with his face set towards Jerusalem.

⁵⁴When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and destroy them, just as Elijah did?"

⁵⁵But he turned and rebuked them, "You don't know what kind of spirit you are of.

⁵⁶For the Son of Man didn't come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." They went to another village.

⁵⁷As they went on the way, a certain man said to him, "I want to follow you wherever you go, Lord."

⁵⁸Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

⁵⁹He said to another, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father."

⁶⁰But Jesus said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but you go and announce the kingdom of God."

⁶¹Another also said, "I want to follow you, Lord, but first allow me to bid farewell to those who are at my house."

⁶²But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

10Now after these things the Lord also appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place, where he himself was about to come.

²Then he said to them, "The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out laborers into his harvest.

³Go your ways. Behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

⁴Carry no purse, nor wallet, nor sandals. Greet no one on the way.

⁵Into whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace be to this house.'

⁶If a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.

⁷Remain in that same house, eating and drinking the things they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Don't go from house to house.

⁸Into whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat the things that are set before you.

⁹Heal the sick who are therein, and tell them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'

¹⁰But into whatever city you enter, and they don't receive you, go out into the streets of it and say,

¹¹'Even the dust from your city that clings to us, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near to you.'

¹²I tell you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.

¹³"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

¹⁴But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you.

¹⁵You, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades.

¹⁶Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me. Whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me."

¹⁷The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name."

¹⁸He said to them, "I saw Satan having fall like lightning from heaven.

¹⁹Behold, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will in any way hurt you.

²⁰Nevertheless, don't rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

²¹In that same hour Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, "I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight."

²²Turning to the disciples, he said, "All things have been delivered to me from my Father. No one knows who the Son is, except the Father, and who the Father is, except the Son, and he to whoever the Son desires to reveal him."

²³Turning to the disciples, he said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see,

²⁴for I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which you see, and didn't see them, and to hear the things which you hear, and didn't hear them."

²⁵Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, "Teacher, what will I do to inherit eternal life?"

²⁶He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"

²⁷He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

²⁸He said to him, "You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live."

²⁹But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"

³⁰Jesus answered, "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

³¹By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

³²In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side.

³³But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion,

³⁴came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

³⁵On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host, and said to him, 'Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.'

³⁶Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers?"

³⁷He said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

³⁸It happened as they went on their way, he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.

⁴⁰But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came up to him, and said, "Lord, don't you care that my sister left me to serve alone? Ask her therefore to help me."

⁴¹Jesus answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,

⁴²but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her."

11It happened, that when he finished praying in a certain place, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples."

²He said to them, "When you pray, say, 'Our Father in heaven, May your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come. May your desire be done on Earth, as it is in heaven.

³Give us day by day our daily bread.

⁴Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'"

⁵He said to them, "Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight, and tell him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,

⁶for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him,'

⁷and he from within will answer and say, 'Don't bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give it to you'?

⁸I tell you, although he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs.

⁹I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.

¹⁰For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.

¹¹Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won't give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

¹²Or if he asks for an egg, he won't give him a scorpion, will he?

¹³If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

¹⁴He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. It happened, when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke; and the multitudes marveled.

¹⁵But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons."

¹⁶Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven.

¹⁷But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. A house divided against itself falls.

¹⁸If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.

¹⁹But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore will they be your judges.

²⁰But if I by the finger of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come to you.

²¹When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe.

²²But when someone stronger comes on him, and overcomes him, he takes from him his whole armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

²³He that is not with me is against me. He who doesn't gather with me scatters.

²⁴The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, he says, 'I will turn back to my house whence I came out.'

²⁵When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order.

²⁶Then he goes, and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first."

²⁷It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!"

²⁸But he said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it."

²⁹When the multitudes were gathering together to him, he began to say, "This is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. No sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet.

³⁰For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will also the Son of Man be to this generation.

³¹The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and will condemn them: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, one greater than Solomon is here.

³²The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, one greater than Jonah is here.

³³No man, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a cellar, nor under a basket, but on the stand, that they which enter in may see the light.

³⁴The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness.

³⁵Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn't darkness.

³⁶If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light."

³⁷Now as he spoke, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in, and sat at the table.

³⁸When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner.

³⁹The Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.

⁴⁰You foolish ones, didn't he who made the outside make the inside also?

⁴¹But give for alms those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.

⁴²But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and bypass justice and the love of God. You ought to have done these, and not to leave the other undone.

⁴³Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces.

⁴⁴Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don't know it."

⁴⁵One of the lawyers answered him, "Teacher, in saying this you insult us also."

⁴⁶He said, "Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won't even lift one finger to help carry those burdens.

⁴⁷Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

⁴⁸So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs.

⁴⁹Therefore also the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute,

⁵⁰that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;

⁵¹from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.' Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

⁵²Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn't enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered."

⁵³As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry, and to draw many things out of him;

⁵⁴laying in wait for him, and seeking to catch him in something he might say, that they might accuse him.

12Meanwhile, when a multitude of many thousands had gathered together, so much so that they trampled on each other, he began to tell his disciples first of all, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

²But there is nothing covered up, that will not be revealed, nor hidden, that will not be known.

³Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light. What you have spoken in the ear in the inner chambers will be proclaimed on the housetops.

⁴I tell you, my friends, don't be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

⁵But I will warn you whom you shall fear. Fear him, who after he has killed, has power to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

⁶Aren't five sparrows sold for two assaria? Not one of them is forgotten by God.

⁷But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore don't be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.

⁸I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, him will the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God;

⁹but he who denies me in the presence of men will be denied in the presence of the angels of God.

¹⁰Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

¹¹When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, don't be anxious how or what you will answer, or what you will say;

¹²for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that same hour what you must say."

¹³One of the multitude said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."

¹⁴But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?"

¹⁵He said to them, "Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man's life doesn't consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses."

¹⁶He spoke a parable to them, saying, "The ground of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly.

¹⁷He reasoned within himself, saying, 'What will I do, because I don't have room to store my crops?'

¹⁸He said, 'This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

¹⁹I will tell my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry."'

²⁰But God said to him, 'You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared -- whose will they be?'

²¹So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

²²He said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, don't be anxious for your life, what you will eat, nor yet for your body, what you will wear.

²³Life is more than food, and the body than clothing.

²⁴Consider the ravens: they don't sow, they don't reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds!

²⁵Which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his height?

²⁶If then you aren't able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest?

²⁷Consider the lilies, how they grow. They don't toil, neither do they spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

²⁸But if this is how God clothes the grass in the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith?

²⁹Don't seek what you will eat or what you will drink; neither be anxious.

³⁰For the nations of the world seek after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need these things.

³¹Yet seek God's kingdom, and all these things will be added to you.

³²Don't be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

³³Sell that which you have, and give alms. Make for yourselves purses which don't grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn't fail, where no thief approaches, neither moth destroys.

³⁴For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

³⁵Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning.

³⁶Be like men looking for their lord, when he will return from the marriage feast; that, when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him.

³⁷Blessed are those servants, whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most assuredly I tell you, that he will gird himself, and make them recline, and will come and serve them.

³⁸They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch, and finds them so.

³⁹But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not allowed his house to be broken into.

⁴⁰Therefore be ready also, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don't expect him."

⁴¹Peter said to him, "Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everybody?"

⁴²The Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the right times?

⁴³Blessed is that servant whom his lord will find doing so when he comes.

⁴⁴Truly I tell you, that he will set him over all that he has.

⁴⁵But if that servant says in his heart, 'My lord delays his coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken,

⁴⁶then the lord of that servant will come in a day when he isn't expecting him, and in an hour that he doesn't know, and will cut him apart, and place his portion with the unfaithful.

⁴⁷That servant, who knew his lord's will, and didn't prepare, nor do what he wanted, will be beaten with many stripes,

⁴⁸but he who didn't know, and did things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few stripes. To whoever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom they deposit much, of him will they ask more.

⁴⁹"I came to throw fire on the earth, I wish it were already kindled.

⁵⁰But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!

⁵¹Do you think that I have come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.

⁵²For from now on, there will be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.

⁵³They will be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother; mother in law against her daughter in law, and daughter in law against her mother in law."

⁵⁴He said to the multitudes also, "When you see a cloud rising from the west, immediately you say, 'A shower is coming,' and so it happens.

⁵⁵When a south wind blows, you say, 'There will be a scorching heat,' and it happens.

⁵⁶You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how is it that you don't interpret this time?

⁵⁷Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right?

⁵⁸For as you are going with your adversary before the magistrate, try diligently on the way to be freed from him, lest perhaps he drag you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.

⁵⁹I tell you, you will by no means get out of there, until you have paid the very last lepton."

13Now there were some present at the same time who told him about the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

²Jesus answered them, "Do you think that these Galilaeans were worse sinners than all the other Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?

³I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way.

⁴Or those eighteen, on whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them; do you think that they were worse offenders than all the men who dwell in Jerusalem?

⁵I tell you, no, but, unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way."

⁶He spoke this parable. "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none.

⁷He said to the vine dresser, 'Behold, these three years I came seeking fruit on this fig tree, and found none. Cut it down. Why does it waste the soil?'

⁸He answered, 'Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it, and fertilize it.

⁹If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down.'"

¹⁰He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day.

¹¹Behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bent over, and could in no way lift herself up.

¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her, and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your infirmity."

¹³He laid his hands on her, and immediately she stood up straight, and glorified God.

¹⁴The ruler of the synagogue, being moved with indignation because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, answered to the multitude, "There are six days in which men ought to work. Therefore come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day!"

¹⁵Therefore the Lord answered him, "You hypocrites! Doesn't each one of you free his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath, and lead him away to water?

¹⁶Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound eighteen long years, to have been freed from this bondage on the Sabbath day?"

¹⁷As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.

¹⁸He said, "To what is the kingdom of God like? To what shall I compare it?

¹⁹It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and threw into his own garden. It grew, and became a large tree, and the birds of the sky lodged in the branches of it."

²⁰Again he said, "What shall I compare to the kingdom of God?

²¹It is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three sata of flour, until it was all leavened."

²²He went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and traveling on to Jerusalem.

²³One said to him, "Lord, are they few who are saved?" He said to them,

²⁴"Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in, and will not be able.

²⁵When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside, and to knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us!' then he will answer and tell you, 'I don't know you or where you come from.'

²⁶Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drink in your presence, and you taught in our streets.'

²⁷He will say, 'I tell you, I don't know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.'

²⁸There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and yourselves being thrown outside.

²⁹They will come from the east, west, north, and south, and will sit down in the kingdom of God.

³⁰Behold, there are some who are last who will be first, and there are some who are first who will be last."

³¹On that same day, some Pharisees came, saying to him, "Get out of here, and go away, for Herod wants to kill you."

³²He said to them, "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I complete my mission.

³³Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the next day, for it can't be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.'

³⁴"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused!

³⁵Behold, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!'"

14It happened, when he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching him.

²Behold, a certain man who had dropsy was in front of him.

³Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

⁴But they were silent. He took him, and healed him, and let him go.

⁵He answered them, "Which of you, if your son or an ox fell into a well, wouldn't immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?"

⁶They couldn't answer him regarding these things.

⁷He spoke a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the best seats, and said to them,

⁸"When you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, don't sit in the best seat, since perhaps a more honorable man than you might be invited by him,

⁹and he who invited both of you would come and tell you, 'Make room for this man.' Then you would begin, with shame, to take the lowest place.

¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may tell you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will have glory in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.

¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

¹²He also said to the one who had invited him, "When you make a dinner or a supper, don't call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors, or perhaps they might also return the favor, and pay you back.

¹³But when you make a feast, ask the poor, the maimed, the lame, or the blind;

¹⁴and you will be blessed, because they don't have the resources to repay you. For you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous."

¹⁵When one of those who sat at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, "Blessed is he who will feast in the kingdom of God!"

¹⁶But he said to him, "A certain man made a great supper, and he invited many people.

¹⁷He sent out his servant at supper time to tell those who were invited, 'Come, for everything is ready now.'

¹⁸They all as one began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please have me excused.'

¹⁹Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go try them out. Please have me excused.'

²⁰Another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I can't come.'

²¹That servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.'

²²The servant said, 'Lord, it is done as you commanded, and there is still room.'

²³The lord said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

²⁴For I tell you that none of those men who were invited will taste of my supper.'"

²⁵Now great multitudes went with him. He turned and said to them,

²⁶"If any man comes to me, and doesn't hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can't be my disciple.

²⁷Whoever doesn't bear his own cross, and come after me, can't be my disciple.

²⁸For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn't first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?

²⁹Or perhaps, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him,

³⁰saying, 'This man began to build, and wasn't able to finish.'

³¹Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

³²Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an envoy, and asks for conditions of peace.

³³So therefore whoever of you who doesn't renounce all that he has, he can't be my disciple.

³⁴Salt is good, but if the salt becomes flat and tasteless, with what do you season it?

³⁵It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

15Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him.

²The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them."

³He told them this parable.

⁴"Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn't leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it?

⁵When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

⁶When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!'

⁷I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

⁸Or what woman, if she had ten drachma coins, if she lost one drachma, wouldn't light a lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until she found it?

⁹When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost.'

¹⁰Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting."

¹¹He said, "A certain man had two sons.

¹²The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of your property.' He divided his living to them.

¹³Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and took his journey into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.

¹⁴When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.

¹⁵He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.

¹⁶He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.

¹⁷But when he came to himself he said, 'How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I'm dying with hunger!

¹⁸I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.

¹⁹I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants."'

²⁰He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

²¹The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son.'

²²But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.

²³Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate;

²⁴for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.' They began to be merry.

²⁵Now his elder son was in the field. As he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.

²⁶He called one of the servants to him, and asked what was going on.

²⁷He said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him safe and sound.'

²⁸But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out, and begged him.

²⁹But he answered his father, 'Behold, these many years I served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, and you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.

³⁰But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.'

³¹He said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

³²But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.'"

16He said also to his disciples, "There was a certain rich man, who had a manager. The same was accused to him of wasting his possessions.

²He called him, and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.'

³The steward said within himself, 'What will I do, seeing that my lord is taking away the management position from me? I don't have strength to dig. I am ashamed to beg.

⁴I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from management, they may receive me into their houses.'

⁵Calling each one of his lord's debtors to him, he said to the first, 'How much do you owe to my lord?'

⁶He said, 'A hundred batos of oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'

⁷Then said he to another, 'How much do you owe?' He said, 'A hundred cors of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'

⁸His lord commended the unrighteous steward because he had done wisely, for the sons of this world are, in their own generation, wiser than the sons of the light.

⁹I tell you, make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tents.

¹⁰He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is unrighteous in a very little is also unrighteous in much.

¹¹If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

¹²If you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?

¹³No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You aren't able to serve God and mammon."

¹⁴The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they scoffed at him.

¹⁵He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

¹⁶The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

¹⁷But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tiny stroke of a pen in the law to fall.

¹⁸Everyone who divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery. He who marries one who is put away from a husband commits adultery.

¹⁹"Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day.

²⁰A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was laid at his gate, full of sores,

²¹and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores.

²²It happened that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried.

²³In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom.

²⁴He cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.'

²⁵But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in like manner, bad things. But now here he is comforted and you are in anguish.

²⁶Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that none may cross over from there to us.'

²⁷He said, 'I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house;

²⁸for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'

²⁹But Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.'

³⁰He said, 'No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'

³¹He said to him, 'If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.'"

17He said to the disciples, "It is impossible that occasions of stumbling should not come, but woe to him through whom they come!

²It would be better for him if a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble.

³Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him.

⁴If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven times turns again, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him."

⁵The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."

⁶The Lord said, "If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you would tell this sycamore tree, 'Be uprooted, and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

⁷But who is there of you, having a servant plowing or keeping sheep, that will say, when he comes in from the field, 'Come immediately and sit down at the table,'

⁸and will not rather tell him, 'Prepare my supper, clothe yourself properly, and serve me, while I eat and drink. Afterward you will eat and drink?'

⁹Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded? I think not.

¹⁰Even so you also, when you have done all the things that are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy servants. We have done our duty.'"

¹¹It happened, as he was on his way to Jerusalem, that he was passing along the borders of Samaria and Galilee.

¹²As he entered into a certain village, ten men who were lepers met him, who stood far away.

¹³They lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!"

¹⁴When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." It happened, as they went, they were cleansed.

¹⁵One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice.

¹⁶He fell on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. He was a Samaritan.

¹⁷Jesus answered, "Weren't the ten cleansed? But where are the nine?

¹⁸Were there none found who returned to give glory to God, except this stranger?"

¹⁹He said to him, "Get up, and go your way. Your faith has healed you."

²⁰Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, "The kingdom of God doesn't come with observation;

²¹neither will they say, 'Look, here!' or, 'Look, there!' for behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

²²He said to the disciples, "The days will come, when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.

²³They will tell you, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Don't go away, nor follow after them,

²⁴for as the lightning, when it flashes out of the one part under the sky, shines to the other part under the sky; so will the Son of Man be in his day.

²⁵But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

²⁶As it happened in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man.

²⁷They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

²⁸Likewise, even as it happened in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built;

²⁹but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky, and destroyed them all.

³⁰It will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed.

³¹In that day, he who will be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away. Let him who is in the field likewise not turn back.

³²Remember Lot's wife!

³³Whoever seeks to gain his life loses it, but whoever loses his life preserves it.

³⁴I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed. The one will be taken, and the other will be left.

³⁵There will be two women grinding together. The one will be taken, and the other will be left."

³⁷They answering, asked him, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the body is, there will the vultures also be gathered together."

18He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray, and not give up,

²saying, "A certain judge was in a city, who didn't fear God, and didn't respect man.

³A widow was in that city, and she came often to him, saying, 'Defend me from my adversary!'

⁴He wouldn't for a while, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I don't fear God, nor respect man,

⁵yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.'"

⁶The Lord said, "Listen to what the unrighteous judge says.

⁷Won't God avenge his elect, who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?

⁸I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

⁹He spoke also this parable to certain people who were convinced of their own righteousness, and who despised all others.

¹⁰"Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.

¹¹The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: 'God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

¹²I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I get.'

¹³But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn't even lift up as his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'

¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

¹⁵They were also bringing their babies to him, that he might touch them. But when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.

¹⁶Jesus called them near, saying, "Allow the little children to come to me, and don't hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to ones like these.

¹⁷Most assuredly, I tell you, whoever doesn't receive the kingdom of God like a little child, he will in no way enter into it."

¹⁸A certain ruler asked him, saying, "Good Teacher, what do I do to inherit eternal life?"

¹⁹Jesus asked him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good, except one -- God.

²⁰You know the commandments: 'Don't commit adultery,' 'Don't murder,' 'Don't steal,' 'Don't give false testimony,' 'Honor your father and your mother.'"

²¹He said, "I have observed all these things from my youth up."

²²When Jesus heard these things, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me."

²³But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was very rich.

²⁴Jesus, seeing that he became very sad, said, "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter into the kingdom of God!

²⁵For it is easier for a camel to enter in through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."

²⁶Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?"

²⁷But he said, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God."

²⁸Peter said, "Look, we have left everything, and followed you."

²⁹He said to them, "Most assuredly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or wife, or brothers, or parents, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake,

³⁰who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the world to come, eternal life."

³¹He took the twelve aside, and said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written through the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be completed.

³²For he will be delivered up to the Gentiles, will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit on.

³³They will scourge and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again."

³⁴They understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they didn't understand the things that were said.

³⁵It happened, as he came near Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the road, begging.

³⁶Hearing a multitude going by, he asked what this meant.

³⁷They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.

³⁸He cried out, "Jesus, you son of David, have mercy on me!"

³⁹Those who led the way rebuked him, that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more, "You son of David, have mercy on me!"

⁴⁰Jesus, standing, commanded him to be brought to him. When he had come near, he asked him,

⁴¹"What do you want me to do?" He said, "Lord, that I may see again."

⁴²Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight. Your faith has healed you."

⁴³Immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God. All the people, when they saw it, praised God.

19He entered and was passing through Jericho.

²There was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.

³He was trying to see who Jesus was, and couldn't because of the crowd, because he was short.

⁴He ran on ahead, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way.

⁵When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him, and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house."

⁶He hurried, came down, and received him joyfully.

⁷When they saw it, they all murmured, saying, "He has gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner."

⁸Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much."

⁹Jesus said to him, "Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham.

¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost."

¹¹As they heard these things, he went on and told a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God would be revealed immediately.

¹²He said therefore, "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.

¹³He called ten servants of his, and gave them ten minas, and told them, 'Conduct business until I come.'

¹⁴But his citizens hated him, and sent an envoy after him, saying, 'We don't want this man to reign over us.'

¹⁵It happened, when he had come back again, having received the kingdom, that he commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by conducting business.

¹⁶The first came before him, saying, 'Lord, your mina has made ten more minas.'

¹⁷He said to him, 'Well done, you good servant! Because you were found faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.'

¹⁸The second came, saying, 'Your mina, Lord, has made five minas.'

¹⁹He said to him also, 'You also are to be over five cities.'

²⁰Another came, saying, 'Lord, behold, your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief,

²¹for I feared you, because you are an exacting man. You take up that which didn't lay down, and reap that which you didn't sow.'

²²He said to him, 'Out of your own mouth will I judge you, you wicked servant! You knew that I am an exacting man, taking up that which I didn't lay down, and reaping that which I didn't sow.

²³Then why didn't you deposit my money in the bank, and I at my coming might have earned interest on it?'

²⁴He said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina away from him, and give it to him who has the ten minas.'

²⁵They said to him, 'Lord, he has ten minas!'

²⁶'For I tell you that to everyone who has, will more be given; but from him who doesn't have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.

²⁷But bring those enemies of mine who didn't want me to reign over them here, and kill them before me.'"

²⁸When he had thus spoken, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

²⁹It happened, when he drew near to Bethsphage and Bethany, at the mountain that is called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples,

³⁰saying, "Go your way into the village on the other side, in which, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, whereon no man ever yet sat. Untie him, and bring him.

³¹If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' say to him: 'The Lord needs it.'"

³²Those who were sent went away, and found things just as he had told them.

³³As they were untying the colt, the owners of it said to them, 'Why are you untying the colt?'

³⁴They said, 'The Lord needs it.'

³⁵They brought it to Jesus. They threw their cloaks on the colt, and set Jesus on them.

³⁶As he went, they spread their cloaks in the way.

³⁷As he was now getting near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen,

³⁸saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!"

³⁹Some of the Pharisees from the multitude said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"

⁴⁰He answered them, "I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out."

⁴¹When he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it,

⁴²saying, "If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes.

⁴³For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side,

⁴⁴and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn't know the time of your visitation."

⁴⁵He entered into the temple, and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it,

⁴⁶saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of robbers'!"

⁴⁷He was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people sought to destroy him.

⁴⁸They couldn't find what they might do, for all the people hung on to every word that he said.

20It happened on one of those days, as he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, that the chief priests and scribes came to him with the elders.

²They asked him, "Tell us: by what authority do you do these things? Or who is giving you this authority?"

³He answered them, "I also will ask you one question. Tell me:

⁴the baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men?"

⁵They reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Why didn't you believe him?'

⁶But if we say, 'From men,' all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet."

⁷They answered that they didn't know where it was from.

⁸Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

⁹He began to tell the people this parable. "A man planted a vineyard, and rented it out to some farmers, and went into another country for a long time.

¹⁰At the proper season, he sent a servant to the farmers to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him, and sent him away empty.

¹¹He sent yet another servant, and they also beat him, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty.

¹²He sent yet a third, and they also wounded him, and threw him out.

¹³The lord of the vineyard said, 'What will I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be that seeing him, they will respect him.'

¹⁴But when the farmers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.'

¹⁵They threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do to them?

¹⁶He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others." When they heard it, they said, "God forbid!"

¹⁷But he looked at them, and said, "Then what is this that is written, 'The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the chief cornerstone?'

¹⁸"Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but it will crush whoever it falls on to dust."

¹⁹The chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on Him that very hour, but they feared the people -- for they knew He had spoken this parable against them.

²⁰They watched him, and sent out spies, who pretended to be righteous, that they might trap him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the rule and to the authority of the governor.

²¹They asked him, "Teacher, we know that you say and teach what is right, and aren't partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God.

²²Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"

²³But he perceived their slyness, and said to them, "Why do you test me?

²⁴Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?" They answered, "Caesar's."

²⁵He said to them, "Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

²⁶They weren't able to trap him in his words before the people. They marveled at his answer, and were silent.

²⁷Some of the Sadducees came to him, those who deny that there is a resurrection.

²⁸They asked him, "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should take the wife, and raise up children for his brother.

²⁹There were therefore seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died childless.

³⁰The second took her as wife, and he died childless.

³¹The third took her, and likewise the seven all left no children, and died.

³²Afterward the woman also died.

³³Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them will she be? For the seven had her as a wife."

³⁴Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry, and are given in marriage.

³⁵But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage.

³⁶For neither can they die any more, for they are like the angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

³⁷But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord 'The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'

³⁸Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him."

³⁹Some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you speak well."

⁴⁰They didn't dare to ask him any more questions.

⁴¹He said to them, "Why do they say that the Christ is David's son?

⁴²David himself says in the book of Psalms, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand,

⁴³Until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet."'

⁴⁴"David therefore calls him Lord, so how is he his son?"

⁴⁵In the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples,

⁴⁶"Beware of the scribes, who desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts;

⁴⁷who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers: these will receive greater condemnation."

21He looked up, and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the treasury.

²He saw a certain poor widow casting in two lepta.

³He said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow put in more than all of them,

⁴for all these put in gifts for God from their abundance, but she, out of her lack, put in all that she had to live on."

⁵As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said,

⁶"As for these things which you see, the days will come, in which there will not be left here one stone on another that will not be thrown down."

⁷They asked him, "Teacher, when therefore will these things be? What is the sign that these things are about to happen?"

⁸He said, "Watch out that you don't get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I AM,' and, 'The time is at hand.' Therefore don't follow them.

⁹When you hear of wars and disturbances, don't be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won't come immediately."

¹⁰Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

¹¹There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven.

¹²But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name's sake.

¹³It will turn out as a testimony to you.

¹⁴Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer,

¹⁵for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict.

¹⁶But you will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. Some of you will they cause to be put to death.

¹⁷You will be hated by all men for my name's sake.

¹⁸Not a hair of your head will perish.

¹⁹By your endurance you will win your souls.

²⁰"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.

²¹Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let them who are in the midst of her depart. Don't let those who are in the country enter therein.

²²For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

²³Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people.

²⁴They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

²⁵There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves;

²⁶men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

²⁷Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

²⁸But when these things begin to happen, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near."

²⁹He told them a parable. "See the fig tree, and all the trees.

³⁰When they are already budding, you see it and know by your own selves that the summer is already near.

³¹Even so you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.

³²Most assuredly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things are accomplished.

³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.

³⁴"So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.

³⁵For it will come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth.

³⁶Therefore be watchful all the time, asking that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man."

³⁷Every day Jesus was teaching in the temple, and every night he went out, and spent the night on the mountain that is called Olivet.

³⁸All the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, to hear him.

22Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover.

²The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might put him to death, for they feared the people.

³Satan entered into Judas, who was called Iscariot, being numbered with the twelve.

⁴He went away, and talked with the chief priests and captains about how he might deliver him to them.

⁵They were glad, and agreed to give him money.

⁶He consented, and sought an opportunity to deliver him to them in the absence of the multitude.

⁷The day of unleavened bread came, on which the Passover must be sacrificed.

⁸He sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat."

⁹They said to him, "Where do you want us to prepare?"

¹⁰He said to them, "Behold, when you have entered into the city, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him into the house which he enters.

¹¹Tell 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, furnished upper room. Make preparations there."

¹³They went, found things as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

¹⁴When the hour had come, he sat down with the twelve apostles.

¹⁵He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer,

¹⁶for I tell you, I will no longer by any means eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."

¹⁷He received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, "Take this, and share it among yourselves,

¹⁸for I tell you, I will not drink at all again from the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God comes."

¹⁹He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me."

²⁰He took the cup in like manner after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, that which is poured out for you.

²¹But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table.

²²The Son of Man indeed goes, as it has been determined, but woe to that man through whom he is betrayed!"

²³They began to question among themselves, which of them it was that would do this thing.

²⁴There arose also a contention among them, which of them was considered to be greatest.

²⁵He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are called 'benefactors.'

²⁶But not so with you. But one who is the greater among you, let him become as the lesser, and one who is governing, as one who serves.

²⁷For who is greater, one who sits at the table, or one who serves? Isn't it he who sits at the table? But I am in the midst of you as one who serves.

²⁸But you are those who have continued with me in my temptations.

²⁹I appoint to you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed to me,

³⁰that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. You will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

³¹The Lord said, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat,

³²but I prayed for you, that your faith wouldn't fail. You, when once you have turned again, establish your brothers."

³³He said to him, "Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death!"

³⁴He said, "I tell you, Peter, the rooster will by no means crow today, before you deny that you know me three times."

³⁵He said to them, "When I sent you out without purse, and wallet, and shoes, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing."

³⁶Then he said to them, "But now, whoever has a purse, let him take it, and likewise a wallet. Whoever has none, let him sell his cloak, and buy a sword.

³⁷For I tell you that this which is written must still be fulfilled in me: 'He was counted with the lawless.' For that which concerns me has an end."

³⁸They said, "Lord, behold, here are two swords." He said to them, "That is enough."

³⁹He came out, and went, as his custom was, to the Mount of Olives. His disciples also followed him.

⁴⁰When he was at the place, he said to them, "Pray that you don't enter into temptation."

⁴¹He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and he knelt down and prayed,

⁴²saying, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done."

⁴³An angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him.

⁴⁴Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.

⁴⁵When he rose up from his prayer, he came to the disciples, and found them sleeping because of grief,

⁴⁶and said to them, "Why do you sleep? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation."

⁴⁷While he was still speaking, behold, a multitude, and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went in front of them. He came near to Jesus to kiss him.

⁴⁸But Jesus said to him, "Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?"

⁴⁹When those who were around him saw what was about to happen, they said, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?"

⁵⁰A certain one of them struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.

⁵¹But Jesus answered, "Let me at least do this" -- and he touched his ear, and healed him.

⁵²Jesus said to the chief priests, captains of the temple, and elders, who had come against him, "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs?

⁵³When I was with you in the temple daily, you didn't stretch out your hands against me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness."

⁵⁴They seized him, and led him away, and brought him into the high priest's house. But Peter followed from a distance.

⁵⁵When they had kindled a fire in the midst of the court, and had sat down together, Peter sat in the midst of them.

⁵⁶A certain servant girl saw him as he sat in the light, and looking intently at him, said, "This man also was with him."

⁵⁷He denied Jesus, saying, "Woman, I don't know him."

⁵⁸After a little while someone else saw him, and said, "You also are one of them!" But Peter answered, "Man, I am not!"

⁵⁹After about one hour passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, "Truly this man also was with him, for he is a Galilean!"

⁶⁰But Peter said, "Man, I don't know what you are talking about!" Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.

⁶¹The Lord turned, and looked at Peter. Peter remembered the Lord's word, how he said to him, "Before the rooster crows you will deny me three times."

⁶²He went out, and wept bitterly.

⁶³The men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him.

⁶⁴Having blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, "Prophesy! Who is the one who struck you?"

⁶⁵They spoke many other things against him, insulting him.

⁶⁶As soon as it was day, the assembly of the elders of the people was gathered together, both chief priests and scribes, and they led him away into their council, saying,

⁶⁷"If you are the Christ, tell us." But he said to them, "If I tell you, you won't believe,

⁶⁸and if I ask, you will in no way answer me or let me go.

⁶⁹From now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God."

⁷⁰They all said, "Are you then the Son of God?" He said to them, "You say it, because I AM."

⁷¹They said, "Why do we need any more witness? For we ourselves have heard from his own mouth!"

23The whole company of them rose up and brought him before Pilate.

²They began to accuse him, saying, "We found this man perverting the nation, forbidding paying taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king."

³Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" He answered him, "So you say."

⁴Pilate said to the chief priests and the multitudes, "I find no basis for a charge against this man."

⁵But they insisted, saying, "He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee even to this place."

⁶But when Pilate heard Galilee mentioned, he asked if the man was a Galilean.

⁷When he found out that he was in Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem in those days.

⁸Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he had wanted to see him for a long time, because he had heard many things about him. He hoped to see some miracle done by him.

⁹He questioned him with many words, but he gave no answers.

¹⁰The chief priests and the scribes stood, vehemently accusing him.

¹¹Herod with his soldiers humiliated him and mocked him. Dressing him in luxurious clothing, they sent him back to Pilate.

¹²Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before that they were enemies with each other.

¹³Pilate called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people,

¹⁴and said to them, "You brought this man to me as one that perverts the people, and see, I have examined him before you, and found no basis for a charge against this man concerning those things of which you accuse him.

¹⁵Neither has Herod, for I sent you to him, and see, nothing worthy of death has been done by him.

¹⁶I will therefore chastise him and release him."

¹⁷Now he had to release one prisoner to them at the feast.

¹⁸But they all cried out together, saying, "Away with this man! Release to us Barabbas!" --

¹⁹one who was thrown into prison for a certain revolt in the city, and for murder.

²⁰Pilate spoke to them again, desiring to release Jesus,

²¹but they shouted, saying, "Crucify! Crucify him!"

²²He said to them the third time, "Why? What evil has this man done? I have found no capital crime in him. I will therefore chastise him and release him."

²³But they were urgent with loud voices, asking that he might be crucified. Their voices and the voices of the chief priests prevailed.

²⁴Pilate adjudged that what they asked for should be done.

²⁵He released him who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus up to their will.

²⁶When they led him away, they grabbed one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it after Jesus.

²⁷A great multitude of the people followed him, including women who also mourned and lamented him.

²⁸But Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, don't weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.

²⁹For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.'

³⁰Then will they begin to tell the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us.'

³¹For if they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?"

³²There were also others, two criminals, led with him to be put to death.

³³When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.

³⁴Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing." Dividing his garments among them, they cast lots.

³⁵The people stood watching. The rulers with them also scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others. Let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one!"

³⁶The soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar,

³⁷and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!"

³⁸An inscription was also written over him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS."

³⁹One of the criminals who was hanged insulted him, saying, "If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!"

⁴⁰But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "Don't you even fear God, seeing you are in the same condemnation?

⁴¹And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong."

⁴²He said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

⁴³He said to him, "Most assuredly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

⁴⁴It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.

⁴⁵The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.

⁴⁶Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" Having said this, he breathed his last.

⁴⁷When the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, "Certainly this was a righteous man."

⁴⁸All the multitudes that came together to see this, when they saw the things that were done, returned beating their breasts.

⁴⁹All his acquaintances, and the women who followed with him from Galilee, stood far away, watching these things.

⁵⁰Behold, a man named Joseph, who was a member of the council, a good and righteous man

⁵¹(he had not consented to their counsel and deed), from Arimathaea, a city of the Jews, who was also waiting for the kingdom of God:

⁵²this man went to Pilate, and asked for Jesus' body.

⁵³He took it down, and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid him in a tomb that was cut in stone, where no man had ever yet lain.

⁵⁴It was the day of the Preparation, and the Sabbath was coming on.

⁵⁵The women, who had come with him out of Galilee, followed after, and saw the tomb, and how his body was laid.

⁵⁶They returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

24But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.

²They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

³They entered in, and didn't find the Lord Jesus' body.

⁴It happened, while they were greatly perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling clothing.

⁵Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth. They said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?

⁶He isn't here, but is risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee,

⁷saying that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again?"

⁸They remembered his words,

⁹returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest.

¹⁰Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them told these things to the apostles.

¹¹These words seemed to them to be nonsense, and they didn't believe them.

¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he departed to his home, wondering what had happened.

¹³Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem.

¹⁴They talked with each other about all of these things which had happened.

¹⁵It happened, while they talked and questioned together, that Jesus himself came near, and went with them.

¹⁶But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

¹⁷He said to them, "What are you talking about as you walk, and are sad?"

¹⁸One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only one travelling in Jerusalem who doesn't know the things which have happened there in these days?"

¹⁹He said to them, "What things?" They said to him, "The things concerning Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people;

²⁰and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.

²¹But we hoped that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

²²Also, certain women of our company amazed us, having been early at the tomb;

²³and when they didn't find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.

²⁴Some of us went to the tomb, and found it just like the women had said, but they didn't see him."

²⁵He said to them, "Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

²⁶Didn't the Christ have to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory?"

²⁷Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

²⁸They drew near to the village, where they were going, and he acted like he would go further.

²⁹They urged him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is almost evening, and the day is almost over." He went in to stay with them.

³⁰It happened, when he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave to them.

³¹Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished out of their sight.

³²They said one to another, "Wasn't our heart burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the scriptures to us?"

³³They rose up that very hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them,

³⁴saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"

³⁵They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

³⁶As they said these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace be to you."

³⁷But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they saw a spirit.

³⁸He said to them, "Why are you troubled? Why do questionings arise in your hearts?

³⁹See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones, as you see that I have."

⁴⁰When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

⁴¹While they still didn't believe for joy, and wondered, he said to them, "Do you have anything here to eat?"

⁴²They gave him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb.

⁴³He took it, and ate in front of them.

⁴⁴He said to them, "This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me."

⁴⁵Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the scriptures.

⁴⁶He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,

⁴⁷and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.

⁴⁹Behold, I send forth the promise of my Father on you. But wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high."

⁵⁰He led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.

⁵¹It happened, while he blessed them, that he withdrew from them, and was carried up into heaven.

⁵²They worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

⁵³and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

²The same was in the beginning with God.

³All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.

⁴In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn't overcome it.

⁶There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.

⁷The same came as a witness, that he might testify about the light, that all might believe through him.

⁸He was not the light, but was sent that he might testify about the light.

⁹The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.

¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn't recognize him.

¹¹He came to his own, and those who were his own didn't receive him.

¹²But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God's children, to those who believe in his name:

¹³who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵John testified about him. He cried out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.'"

¹⁶From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.

¹⁷For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

¹⁸No one has seen God at any time. The only conceived Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.

¹⁹This is John's testimony, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"

²⁰He confessed, and didn't deny, but he confessed, "I am not the Christ."

²¹They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No."

²²They said therefore to him, "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"

²³He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as Isaiah the prophet said."

²⁴The ones who had been sent were from the Pharisees.

²⁵They asked him, "Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?"

²⁶John answered them, "I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you don't know,

²⁷he who comes after me, whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to untie."

²⁸These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

²⁹On the next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

³⁰This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.'

³¹I didn't know him, but for this reason I came baptizing in water: that he would be revealed to Israel."

³²John testified, saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him.

³³I didn't recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me, 'On whoever you will see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.'

³⁴I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God."

³⁵Again, on the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples,

³⁶and he looked at Jesus as he walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"

³⁷The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

³⁸Jesus turned, and saw them following, and said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which is to say, being interpreted, Teacher), "where are you staying?"

³⁹He said to them, "Come, and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth hour.

⁴⁰One of the two who heard John, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

⁴¹He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah!" (which is, being interpreted, Christ).

⁴²He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, "You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas" (which is by interpretation, Peter).

⁴³On the next day, he was determined to go forth into Galilee, and he found Philip. Jesus said to him, "Follow me."

⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.

⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, "We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

⁴⁶Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

⁴⁷Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said about him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!"

⁴⁸Nathanael says to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

⁴⁹Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are King of Israel!"

⁵⁰Jesus answered him, "Because I told you, 'I saw you underneath the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these."

⁵¹He said to him, "Most assuredly, I tell you, hereafter you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

2The third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. Jesus' mother was there.

²Jesus also was invited, with his disciples, to the marriage.

³When the wine ran out, Jesus' Mother said to him, "They have no wine."

⁴Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My hour has not yet come."

⁵His mother said to the servants, "Whatever he says to you, do it."

⁶Now there were six water pots of stone set there after the Jews' manner of purifying, containing two or three metretes apiece.

⁷Jesus said to them, "Fill the water pots with water." They filled them up to the brim.

⁸He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the ruler of the feast." They took it.

⁹When the ruler of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and didn't know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the ruler of the feast called the bridegroom,

¹⁰and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the guests have drunk freely, then that which is worse. You have kept the good wine until now!"

¹¹This beginning of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory. His disciples believed in him.

¹²After this, he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and there they stayed not many days.

¹³The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

¹⁴He found in the temple those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting.

¹⁵He made a whip of cords, and threw all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers' money, and overthrew their tables.

¹⁶To those who sold the doves, he said, "Take these things out of here! Don't make my Father's house a marketplace!"

¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will eat me up."

¹⁸The Jews therefore answered him, "What sign do you show to us, seeing that you do these things?"

¹⁹Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

²⁰The Jews therefore said, "Forty-six years was this temple in building, and will you raise it up in three days?"

²¹But he spoke of the temple of his body.

²²When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.

²³Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, observing his signs which he did.

²⁴But Jesus didn't trust himself to them, because he knew all people,

²⁵and because he didn't need for anyone to testify concerning man; for he himself knew what was in man.

3Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

²The same came to him by night, and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him."

³Jesus answered him, "Most assuredly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can't see the kingdom of God."

⁴Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born?"

⁵Jesus answered, "Most assuredly I tell you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he can't enter into the kingdom of God!

⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

⁷Don't marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born anew.'

⁸The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don't know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

⁹Nicodemus answered him, "How can these things be?"

¹⁰Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and don't understand these things?

¹¹Most assuredly I tell you, we speak that which we know, and testify of that which we have seen, and you don't receive our witness.

¹²If I told you earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

¹³No one has ascended into heaven, but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

¹⁴As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

¹⁵that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

¹⁷For God didn't send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

¹⁸He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn't believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only born Son of God.

¹⁹This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.

²⁰For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn't come to the light, for fear that his works would be reproved.

²¹But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done with God."

²²After these things, Jesus came with his disciples into the land of Judea. He stayed there with them, and baptized.

²³John also was baptizing in Enon near Salim, because there was much water there. They came, and were baptized.

²⁴For John was not yet thrown into prison.

²⁵There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John's disciples with some Jews about purification.

²⁶They came to John, and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, the same baptizes, and all men come to him."

²⁷John answered, "A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven.

²⁸You yourselves testify about me, that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent before him.'

²⁹He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This, my joy, therefore is made full.

³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.

³¹He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the Earth belongs to the Earth, and speaks of the Earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.

³²What he has seen and heard, of that he testifies; and no one receives his witness.

³³He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.

³⁴For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives the Spirit without measure.

³⁵The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.

³⁶He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who disobeys the Son won't see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."

4Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John

²(although Jesus himself didn't baptize, but his disciples),

³he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee.

⁴He needed to pass through Samaria.

⁵So he came to a city of Samaria, called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph.

⁶Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being tired from his journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."

⁸For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

⁹The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

¹⁰Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

¹¹The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where then have you that living water?

¹²Are you greater than our father, Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his sons, and his cattle?"

¹³Jesus answered her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again,

¹⁴but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I don't get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw."

¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."

¹⁷The woman answered, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You said well, 'I have no husband,'

¹⁸for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly."

¹⁹The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

²⁰Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."

²¹Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father.

²²You worship that which you don't know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.

²³But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers.

²⁴God is a Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

²⁵The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah comes," (he who is called Christ). "When he has come, he will declare to us all things."

²⁶Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."

²⁷At this, his disciples came. They marveled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, "What are you looking for?" or, "Why do you speak with her?"

²⁸So the woman left her water pot, and went away into the city, and said to the people,

²⁹"Come, see a man who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Christ?"

³⁰They went out of the city, and were coming to him.

³¹In the meanwhile, the disciples urged him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."

³²But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you don't know about."

³³The disciples therefore said one to another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?"

³⁴Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.

³⁵Don't you say, 'There are yet four months until the harvest?' Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that they are white already to harvest.

³⁶He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit to eternal life; that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

³⁷For in this the saying is true, 'One sows, and another reaps.'

³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you haven't labored. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

³⁹From that city many of the Samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, 'He told me everything that I did."

⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days.

⁴¹Many more believed because of his word.

⁴²They said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."

⁴³After the two days he went forth from there and went into Galilee.

⁴⁴For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.

⁴⁵So when he came into Galilee, the Galilaeans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast.

⁴⁶He came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.

⁴⁷When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him, and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

⁴⁸Jesus therefore said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe."

⁴⁹The nobleman said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."

⁵⁰Jesus said to him, "Go your way. Your son lives." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.

⁵¹As he was now going down, his servants met him and reported, saying "your child lives!"

⁵²So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him."

⁵³So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives." He believed, as did his whole house.

⁵⁴This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.

5After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

²Now in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, there is a pool, which is called in Hebrew, "Bethesda," having five porches.

³In these lay a great multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, or paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water;

⁴for an angel of the Lord went down at certain times into the pool, and stirred up the water. Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made whole of whatever disease he was afflicted with.

⁵A certain man was there, who had been sick for thirty-eight years.

⁶When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to be made well?"

⁷The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I'm coming, another steps down before me."

⁸Jesus said to him, "Arise, take up your mat, and walk."

⁹Immediately, the man was made well, and took up his mat and walked. Now it was the Sabbath on that day.

¹⁰So the Jews said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your mat."

¹¹He answered them, "He who made me well, the same said to me, 'Take up your mat, and walk.'"

¹²Then they asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your mat, and walk'?"

¹³But he who was healed didn't know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a crowd being in the place.

¹⁴Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "Behold, you are made well. Sin no more, so that nothing worse happens to you."

¹⁵The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.

¹⁶For this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.

¹⁷But Jesus answered them, "My Father is still working, so I am working, too."

¹⁸For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

¹⁹Jesus therefore answered them, "Most assuredly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.

²⁰For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.

²¹For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires.

²²For neither does the Father judge any man, but he has given all judgment to the Son,

²³that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who doesn't honor the Son doesn't honor the Father who sent him.

²⁴Most assuredly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn't come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

²⁵Most assuredly, I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God's voice; and those who hear will live.

²⁶For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself.

²⁷He also gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.

²⁸Don't marvel at this, for the hour comes, in which all that are in the tombs will hear his voice,

²⁹and will come forth; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.

³⁰I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous; because I don't seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.

³¹"If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid.

³²It is another who testifies about me. I know that the testimony which he testifies about me is true.

³³You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth.

³⁴But the testimony which I receive is not from man. However, I say these things that you may be saved.

³⁵He was the lamp that burns and shines, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

³⁶But the testimony which I have is greater than that of John, for the works which the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, testify about me, that the Father has sent me.

³⁷The Father himself, who sent me, has testified about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form.

³⁸You don't have his word living in you; for whom he sent, him you don't believe.

³⁹You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.

⁴⁰Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life.

⁴¹I don't receive glory from men.

⁴²But I know you, that you don't have God's love in yourselves.

⁴³I have come in my Father's name, and you don't receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.

⁴⁴How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don't seek the glory that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵"Don't think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope.

⁴⁶For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote about me.

⁴⁷But if you don't believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

6After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which is also called the Sea of Tiberias.

²A great multitude followed him, because they saw the signs which he did on those who were sick.

³Jesus went up into the mountain, and he sat there with his disciples.

⁴Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.

⁵Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?"

⁶This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.

⁷Philip answered him, "Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that everyone of them may receive a little."

⁸One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,

⁹"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these among so many?"

¹⁰Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." Now there was much grass in that place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

¹¹Jesus took the loaves; and having given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were sitting down; likewise also of the fish as much as they desired.

¹²When they were filled, he said to his disciples, "Gather up the broken pieces which are left over, that nothing be lost."

¹³So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten.

¹⁴When therefore the people saw the sign which Jesus did, they said, "This is truly the prophet who comes into the world."

¹⁵Jesus therefore, perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force, to make him king, withdrew again into the mountain by himself.

¹⁶When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea,

¹⁷and they entered into the boat, and were going over the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not come to them.

¹⁸The sea was rising by reason of a great wind that blew.

¹⁹When therefore they had rowed about twenty-five or thirty stadia, they saw Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing near to the boat; and they were afraid.

²⁰But he said to them, "It is I. Don't be afraid."

²¹They were willing therefore to receive him into the boat. Immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.

²²On the next day, the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except the one which his disciples had entered, and that Jesus hadn't entered with his disciples into the boat, but his disciples went away alone.

²³However boats from Tiberias came near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

²⁴When the multitude therefore saw that Jesus wasn't there, neither his disciples, they themselves got into the boats, and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

²⁵When they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?"

²⁶Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly I tell you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled.

²⁷Don't work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For the Father, even God, has sealed him."

²⁸They said therefore to him, "What must we do, that we may work the works of God?"

²⁹Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."

³⁰They said therefore to him, "What then do you do for a sign, that we may see, and believe you? What work do you do?

³¹Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, 'He gave them bread out of the sky to eat.'"

³²Jesus therefore said to them, "Most assuredly, I tell you, it wasn't Moses who gave you the bread out of heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread out of heaven.

³³For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world."

³⁴They said therefore to him, "Lord, always give us this bread."

³⁵Jesus said to them. "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not be hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

³⁶But I told you that you have seen me, and yet don't believe.

³⁷All that which the Father gives me will come to me. Him who comes to me I will in no way throw out.

³⁸For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

³⁹This is the will of my Father who sent me, that of all who he has given to me I should lose nothing, but should raise them up at the last day.

⁴⁰This is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

⁴¹The Jews therefore murmured concerning him, because he said, "I am the bread which came down out of heaven."

⁴²They said, "Isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say, 'I have come down out of heaven?'"

⁴³Therefore Jesus answered them, "Don't murmur among yourselves.

⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day.

⁴⁵It is written in the prophets, 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who hears from the Father, and has learned, comes to me.

⁴⁶Not that any man has seen the Father, except he who is from God. He has seen the Father.

⁴⁷Most assuredly, I tell you, he who believes in me has eternal life.

⁴⁸I am the bread of life.

⁴⁹Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

⁵⁰This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that a man may eat of it, and not die.

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

⁵²The Jews therefore contended with one another, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

⁵³Jesus therefore said to them, "Most assuredly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don't have life in yourselves.

⁵⁴He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

⁵⁵For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

⁵⁶He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him.

⁵⁷As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he who feeds on me, he will also live because of me.

⁵⁸This is the bread which came down out of heaven -- not as our fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever."

⁵⁹These things he said in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.

⁶⁰Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying! Who can hear it?"

⁶¹But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble?

⁶²What if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

⁶³It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.

⁶⁴But there are some of you who don't believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who didn't believe, and who it was who would betray him.

⁶⁵He said, "For this cause have I said to you that no one can come to me, except it be given to him by my Father."

⁶⁶At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

⁶⁷Jesus said therefore to the twelve, "You don't also want to go away, do you?"

⁶⁸Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.

⁶⁹We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

⁷⁰Jesus answered them, "Didn't I choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"

⁷¹Now he spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for it was he who would betray him, being one of the twelve.

7After these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him.

²Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.

³His brothers therefore said to him, "Depart from here, and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do.

⁴For no man does anything in secret, and himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world."

⁵For even his brothers didn't believe in him.

⁶Jesus therefore said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready.

⁷The world can't hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it, that its works are evil.

⁸You go up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, because my time is not yet fulfilled."

⁹Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly, but as it were in secret.

¹¹The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, "Where is he?"

¹²There was much murmuring among the multitudes concerning him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others said, "Not so, but he leads the multitude astray."

¹³Yet no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews.

¹⁴But when it was now the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught.

¹⁵The Jews therefore marveled, saying, "How does this man know letters, having never been educated?"

¹⁶Jesus therefore answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.

¹⁷If anyone desires to do his will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I speak from myself.

¹⁸He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

¹⁹Didn't Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?"

²⁰The multitude answered, "You have a demon! Who seeks to kill you?"

²¹Jesus answered them, "I did one work, and you all marvel because of it.

²²Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a boy.

²³If a boy receives circumcision on the Sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me, because I made a man every bit whole on the Sabbath?

²⁴Don't judge according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment."

²⁵Some therefore of them of Jerusalem said, "Isn't this he whom they seek to kill?

²⁶Behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is truly the Christ?

²⁷However we know where this man comes from, but when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from."

²⁸Jesus therefore cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, "You both know me, and know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, whom you don't know.

²⁹I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me."

³⁰They sought therefore to take him. No one laid a hand on him, because his hour was not yet come.

³¹But of the multitude, many believed in him. They said, "When the Christ comes, will he do more signs than those which this man has done?"

³²The Pharisees heard the multitude murmuring these things concerning him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to take him.

³³Then Jesus said, "Yet a little while, am I with you, then I go to him who sent me.

³⁴You will seek me, and won't find me; and where I am, you can't come."

³⁵The Jews therefore said among themselves, "Where will this man go that we won't find him? Will he go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?

³⁶What is this word that he said, 'You will seek me, and won't find me; and where I am, you can't come?'"

³⁷Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!

³⁸He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water."

³⁹But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn't yet glorified.

⁴⁰Many of the multitude therefore, when they heard these words, said, "This is truly the prophet."

⁴¹Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "What, does the Christ come out of Galilee?

⁴²Hasn't the scripture said that the Christ comes of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?"

⁴³So there arose a division in the multitude because of him.

⁴⁴Some of them would have taken him, but no one laid hands on him.

⁴⁵The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, "Why didn't you bring him?"

⁴⁶The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man!"

⁴⁷The Pharisees therefore answered them, "Are you also led astray?

⁴⁸Has any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees?

⁴⁹But this cursed multitude doesn't know the law."

⁵⁰Nicodemus (he who came to him by night, being one of them) said to them,

⁵¹"Does our law judge a man, unless it first hears from him personally and knows what he does?"

⁵²They answered him, "Are you also from Galilee? Search, and see that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee."

⁵³Everyone went to his own house,

8but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

²At dawn, he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. He sat down, and taught them.

³The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the midst,

⁴they told him, "Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act.

⁵Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such. What then do you say about her?"

⁶They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of. But Jesus stooped down, and wrote on the ground with his finger, as if he didn't hear.

⁷But when they continued asking him, he lifted himself up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her."

⁸Again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.

⁹They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the midst.

¹⁰Jesus lifted himself up, and seeing no one but the woman, said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?"

¹¹She said, "No one, Lord." Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more."

¹²Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life."

¹³The Pharisees therefore said to him, "You testify about yourself. Your witness is not valid."

¹⁴Jesus answered them, "Even if I testify about myself, my witness is true, for I know where I came from, and where I am going; but you don't know where I came from, or where I am going.

¹⁵You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one.

¹⁶Even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me.

¹⁷It's also written in your law that the testimony of two men is valid.

¹⁸I am he who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me."

¹⁹They said therefore 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."

²⁰Jesus spoke these words in the treasury, as he taught in the temple. No one took him, because his hour had not yet come.

²¹Jesus said therefore again to them, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and will die in your sins. Where I go, you can't come."

²²The Jews therefore said, "Will he kill himself, that he says, 'Where I am going, you can't come?'"

²³He said to them, "You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world.

²⁴I said therefore to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins."

²⁵They said therefore to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.

²⁶I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you. However he who sent me is true; and the things which I heard from him, these I say to the world."

²⁷They didn't perceive that he spoke to them about the Father.

²⁸Jesus therefore said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then will you know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things.

²⁹He who sent me is with me. The Father hasn't left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him."

³⁰As he spoke these things, many believed in him.

³¹Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, "If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples.

³²You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

³³They answered him, "We are Abraham's seed, and have never yet been in bondage to anyone. How do you say, 'You will be made free?'"

³⁴Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin.

³⁵A bondservant doesn't live in the house forever. A son remains forever.

³⁶If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

³⁷I know that you are Abraham's seed, yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you.

³⁸I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father."

³⁹They answered him, "Our father is Abraham." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.

⁴⁰But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham didn't do this.

⁴¹You do the works of your father." They said to him, "We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God."

⁴²Therefore Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came forth and have come from God. For neither have I come of myself, but he sent me.

⁴³Why don't you understand my speech? Because you can't hear my word.

⁴⁴You are of your Father, the devil, and it is your desire to do the lusts of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn't stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it.

⁴⁵But because I tell the truth, you don't believe me.

⁴⁶Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

⁴⁷He who is of God hears the words of God. For this cause you don't hear, because you are not of God."

⁴⁸Then the Jews answered him, "Don't we say well that you are a Samaritan, and have a demon?"

⁴⁹Jesus answered, "I don't have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.

⁵⁰But I don't seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges.

⁵¹Most assuredly, I tell you, if a person keeps my word, he will never see death."

⁵²Then the Jews said to him, "Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets; and you say, 'If a man keeps my word, he will never taste of death.'

⁵³Are you greater than our father, Abraham, who died? The prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?"

⁵⁴Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is our God.

⁵⁵You have not known him, but I know him. If I said, 'I don't know him,' I would be like you, a liar. But I know him, and keep his word.

⁵⁶Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it, and was glad."

⁵⁷The Jews therefore said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?"

⁵⁸Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I tell you, before Abraham was born, I AM."

⁵⁹They took up stones therefore to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

9As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth.

²His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

³Jesus answered, "Neither did this man sin, nor his parents. But, that the works of God might be revealed in him,

⁴I must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work.

⁵When I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

⁶When he had said this, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, anointed the blind man's eyes with the mud,

⁷and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means "Sent"). So he went away, washed, and came seeing.

⁸The neighbors therefore, and those who saw that he was blind, before, said, "Isn't this he who sat and begged?"

⁹Others said, "It is he." Still others said, "He is like him." He said, "I am he."

¹⁰They said therefore to him, "How were your eyes opened?"

¹¹He answered, "A man called Jesus made mud, anointed my eyes, and said to me, "Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash." So I went away and washed, and I received sight."

¹²Then they asked him, "Where is he?" He said, "I don't know."

¹³They brought him who before was blind to the Pharisees.

¹⁴It was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.

¹⁵Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes, I washed, and I see."

¹⁶Some therefore of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, because he doesn't keep the Sabbath." Others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" There was division among them.

¹⁷Therefore they asked the blind man again, "What do you say about him, in that he opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet."

¹⁸The Jews therefore did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight,

¹⁹and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?"

²⁰His parents answered them, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind;

²¹but how he now sees, we don't know; or who opened his eyes, we don't know. He is of age. Ask him. He will speak for himself."

²²His parents said these things because they feared the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if any man would confess him as Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.

²³Therefore his parents said, "He is of age. Ask him."

²⁴So they called the man who was blind a second time, and said to him, "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner."

²⁵He therefore answered, "I don't know if he is a sinner. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see."

²⁶They said to him again, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

²⁷He answered them, "I told you already, and you didn't listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?"

²⁸They became abusive towards him and said, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

²⁹We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, we don't know where he comes from."

³⁰The man answered them, "How amazing! You don't know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes.

³¹We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper of God, and does his will, he listens to him.

³²Since the world began it has never been heard of that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.

³³If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."

³⁴They answered him, "You were altogether born in sins, and do you teach us?" They threw him out.

³⁵Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and finding him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of God?"

³⁶He answered, "Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?"

³⁷Jesus said to him, "You have both seen him, and it is he who speaks with you."

³⁸He said, "Lord, I believe!" and he worshipped him.

³⁹Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment, that those who don't see may see; and that those who see may become blind."

⁴⁰Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also blind?"

⁴¹Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, 'We see.' Therefore your sin remains.

10"Most assuredly, I tell you, he who doesn't enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

²But he who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.

⁴Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

⁵They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don't know the voice of strangers."

⁶Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn't understand what he was telling them.

⁷Jesus therefore said to them again, "Most assuredly, I tell you, I am the sheep's door.

⁸All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn't listen to them.

⁹I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture.

¹⁰The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

¹¹I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

¹²He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn't own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep, and scatters them.

¹³The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand, and doesn't care for the sheep.

¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I'm known by my own;

¹⁵even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

¹⁶I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

¹⁷Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.

¹⁸No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father."

¹⁹Therefore a division arose again among the Jews because of these words.

²⁰Many of them said, "He has a demon, and is mad! Why do you listen to him?"

²¹Others said, "These are not the sayings of one possessed with a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"

²²It was the Feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem.

²³It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon's porch.

²⁴The Jews therefore came around him and said to him, "How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."

²⁵Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you don't believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, these testify about me.

²⁶But you don't believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you.

²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

²⁸I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand.

³⁰I and the Father are one."

³¹Therefore Jews took up stones again to stone him.

³²Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?"

³³The Jews answered him, "We don't stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy: because you, being a man, make yourself God."

³⁴Jesus answered them, "Isn't it written in your law, 'I said, you are gods?'

³⁵If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the scripture can't be broken),

³⁶Do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You blaspheme,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God?'

³⁷If I don't do the works of my Father, don't believe me.

³⁸But if I do them, though you don't believe me, believe the works; that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."

³⁹They sought again to seize him, and he went forth out of their hand.

⁴⁰He went away again beyond the Jordan into the place where John was at the first baptizing, and there he stayed.

⁴¹Many came to him. They said, "John indeed did no sign, but everything whatever that John said about this man is true."

⁴²Many believed in him there.

11Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha.

²It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick.

³The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, "Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick."

⁴But when Jesus heard it, he said, "This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God's Son may be glorified by it."

⁵Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

⁶When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed at that time two days in the place where he was.

⁷Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let's go into Judea again."

⁸The disciples told him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and are you going there again?"

⁹Jesus answered, "Aren't there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn't stumble, because he sees the light of this world.

¹⁰But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn't in him."

¹¹He said these things, and after that, he said to them, "Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep."

¹²The disciples therefore said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover."

¹³Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep.

¹⁴So Jesus said to them plainly then, "Lazarus is dead.

¹⁵I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let's go to him."

¹⁶Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, "Let's go also, that we may die with him."

¹⁷So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already.

¹⁸Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia away.

¹⁹Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.

²⁰Therefore Martha, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house.

²¹Therefore Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

²²Even now I know that, whatever you ask of God, God will give you."

²³Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

²⁴Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

²⁵Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he die, yet will he live.

²⁶Whoever 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 Christ, God's Son, he who comes into the world."

²⁸When she had said this, she went away, and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, "The Teacher is here, and is calling you."

²⁹She, when she heard this, arose quickly, and went to him.

³⁰Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha met him.

³¹Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, "She is going to the tomb to weep there."

³²Mary therefore, when she came to where Jesus was, and saw him, fell down at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died."

³³When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,

³⁴and said, "Where have you laid him?" They told him, "Lord, come and see."

³⁵Jesus wept.

³⁶The Jews therefore said, "See how much affection he had for him!"

³⁷Some of them said, "Couldn't this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also caused that this man wouldn't die?"

³⁸Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

³⁹Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days."

⁴⁰Jesus said to her, "Didn't I tell you that if you believed, you would see God's glory?"

⁴¹So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, "Father, I thank you that you listened to me.

⁴²I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude that stands around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me."

⁴³When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"

⁴⁴He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Free him, and let him go."

⁴⁵Therefore many of the Jews, who came to Mary and saw that which Jesus did, believed in him.

⁴⁶But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them the things which Jesus had done.

⁴⁷The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, "What are we doing? For this man does many signs.

⁴⁸If we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."

⁴⁹But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all,

⁵⁰nor do you take account that it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish."

⁵¹Now he didn't say this of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,

⁵²and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

⁵³So from that day forth they took counsel that they might put him to death.

⁵⁴Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews, but departed from there into the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim. He stayed there with his disciples.

⁵⁵Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand. Many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover, to purify themselves.

⁵⁶Then they sought for Jesus and spoke one with another, as they stood in the temple, "What do you think? Isn't he coming to the feast?"

⁵⁷Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had commanded that if anyone knew where he was, he should report it, that they might seize him.

12Therefore six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, who had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.

²So they made him a supper there. Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him.

³Mary, therefore, took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.

⁴Then Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, one of his disciples, who would betray him, said,

⁵"Why wasn't this ointment sold for three hundred denarii, and given to the poor?"

⁶Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and having the money box, used to steal what was put into it.

⁷But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She has kept this for the day of my burial.

⁸For you always have the poor with you, but you don't always have me."

⁹A large crowd therefore of the Jews learned that he was there, and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.

¹⁰But the chief priests conspired to also put Lazarus to death,

¹¹because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.

¹²On the next day a great multitude had come to the feast. When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,

¹³they took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet him, and cried out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!"

¹⁴Jesus, having found a young donkey, sat on it. As it is written,

¹⁵"Don't be afraid, daughter of Zion. Behold, your King comes, sitting on a donkey's colt."

¹⁶His disciples didn't understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about him, and that they had done these things to him.

¹⁷The multitude therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, was testifying.

¹⁸For this cause also the multitude went and met him, because they heard that he had done this sign.

¹⁹The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, "See how you accomplish nothing. Behold, the world has gone after him."

²⁰Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast.

²¹These, therefore, came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, "Sir, we want to see Jesus."

²²Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn, Andrew came with Philip, and they told Jesus.

²³Jesus answered them, "The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

²⁴Most assuredly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

²⁵He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.

²⁶If anyone serves me, let him follow me. Where I am, there will my servant also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

²⁷"Now my soul is troubled. What will I say? 'Father, save me from this time?' But for this cause I came to this time.

²⁸Father, glorify your name!" Then there came a voice out of the sky, saying, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."

²⁹The multitude therefore, who stood by and heard it, said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him."

³⁰Jesus answered, "This voice hasn't come for my sake, but for your sakes.

³¹Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out.

³²I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."

³³But he said this, signifying by what kind of death he should die.

³⁴The multitude answered him, "We have heard out of the law that the Christ remains forever. How do you say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up?' Who is this Son of Man?"

³⁵Jesus therefore said to them, "Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn't overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn't know where he is going.

³⁶While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." Jesus said these things, and he departed and hid himself from them.

³⁷But though he had done so many signs before them, yet they didn't believe in him,

³⁸that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, "Lord, who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"

³⁹For this cause they couldn't believe, for Isaiah said again,

⁴⁰"He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart, Lest they should see with their eyes, And perceive with their heart, And would turn, And I would heal them."

⁴¹Isaiah said these things when he saw his glory, and he spoke of him.

⁴²Nevertheless even of the rulers many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they didn't confess it, so that they wouldn't be put out of the synagogue,

⁴³for they loved men's approval more than God's approval.

⁴⁴Jesus cried out and said, "Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me.

⁴⁵He who sees me sees him who sent me.

⁴⁶I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in the darkness.

⁴⁷If anyone listens to my sayings, and doesn't believe, I don't judge him. For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

⁴⁸He who rejects me, and doesn't receive my sayings, has one who judges him. The word that I spoke, the same will judge him in the last day.

⁴⁹For I spoke not from myself, but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.

⁵⁰I know that his commandment is eternal life. The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father has said to me, so I speak."

13Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his time had come that he would depart out of this world to his Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

²After supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,

³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came forth from God, and was going to God,

⁴arose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments. He took a towel, and wrapped a towel around his waist.

⁵Then he poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

⁶Then he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?"

⁷Jesus answered him, "You don't know what I am doing now, but you will understand later."

⁸Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I don't wash you, you have no part with me."

⁹Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!"

¹⁰Jesus said to him, "Someone who has bathed only needs to have their feet washed, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you."

¹¹For he knew him who would betray him, therefore he said, "You are not all clean."

¹²So when he had washed their feet, put his outer garment back on, and sat down again, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?

¹³You call me, 'Teacher' and 'Lord.' You say so correctly, for so I am.

¹⁴If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

¹⁵For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.

¹⁶Most assuredly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his lord, neither one who is sent greater than he who sent him.

¹⁷If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

¹⁸I speak not of you all. I know whom I have chosen. But that the scripture may be fulfilled, 'He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.'

¹⁹From now on, I tell you before it happens, that when it happens, you may believe that I AM.

²⁰Most assuredly I tell you, he who receives whoever I send, receives me; and he who receives me, receives him who sent me."

²¹When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in the spirit, and testified, "Most assuredly I tell you that one of you will betray me."

²²The disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom he spoke.

²³One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was at the table, leaning against Jesus' breast.

²⁴Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, and said to him, "Tell us who it is of whom he speaks."

²⁵He, leaning back, as he was, on Jesus' breast, asked him, "Lord, who is it?"

²⁶Jesus therefore answered, "It is he who I will give this morsel to when I have dipped it." So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

²⁷After the morsel, then Satan entered into him. Jesus therefore said to him, "What you do, do quickly."

²⁸Now no man at the table knew why he said this to him.

²⁹For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus said to him, "Buy what things we need for the feast," or that he should give something to the poor.

³⁰Therefore, having received that morsel, he went out immediately. It was night.

³¹When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.

³²If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him immediately.

³³Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you can't come,' so now I tell you.

³⁴A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just like I have loved you; that you also love one another.

³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

³⁶Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered, "Where I am going, you can't follow now, but you will follow afterwards."

³⁷Peter said to him, "Lord, why can't I follow you even now? I will lay down my life for you."

³⁸Jesus answered him, "Will you lay down your life for me? Most assuredly I tell you, the rooster won't crow until you have denied me three times.

14"Don't let your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

²In my Father's house are many mansions. If it weren't so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.

³If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also.

⁴Where I go, you know, and you know the way."

⁵Thomas says to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going. How can we know the way?"

⁶Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me.

⁷If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him, and have seen him."

⁸Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."

⁹Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, 'Show us the Father?'

¹⁰Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father living in me does his works.

¹¹Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake.

¹²Most assuredly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these will he do; because I am going to my Father.

¹³Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

¹⁴If you will ask anything in my name, that will I do.

¹⁵If you love me, keep my commandments.

¹⁶I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,

¹⁷-- the Spirit of truth, whom the world can't receive; for it doesn't see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.

¹⁸I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.

¹⁹Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.

²⁰In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

²¹Someone who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him."

²²Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, what will happen that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?"

²³Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.

²⁴He who doesn't love me doesn't keep my words. The word which you hear isn't mine, but the Father's who sent me.

²⁵I have said these things to you, while still living with you.

²⁶But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your memory all that I said to you.

²⁷Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I to you. Don't let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.

²⁸You heard how I told you, 'I go away, and I come to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I said 'I am going to my Father;' for the Father is greater than I.

²⁹Now I have told you before it happens so that, when it happens, you may believe.

³⁰I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world comes, and he has nothing in me.

³¹But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father commanded me, even so I do. Arise, let us go from here.

15"I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.

²Every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

³You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

⁴Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can't bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.

⁵I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

⁶If a man doesn't remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

⁷If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done to you.

⁸In this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples.

⁹Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.

¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and remain in his love.

¹¹I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

¹²This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.

¹³Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

¹⁴You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.

¹⁵No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn't know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

¹⁶You didn't choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

¹⁷I command these things to you, that you may love one another.

¹⁸If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.

¹⁹If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

²⁰Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his lord.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also.

²¹But all these things will they do to you for my name's sake, because they don't know him who sent me.

²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

²³He who hates me, hates my Father also.

²⁴If I hadn't done among them the works which none other did, they wouldn't have had sin. But now have they seen and also hated both me and my Father.

²⁵But that the word may be fulfilled that is written in their law, 'They hated me without a cause.'

²⁶When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

²⁷You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

16"These things have I spoken to you, so that you wouldn't be caused to stumble.

²They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.

³They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.

⁴But I have told you these things, so that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you about them. I didn't tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.

⁵But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'

⁶But because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart.

⁷Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don't go away, the Counselor won't come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

⁸When he has come, he will convict the world in respect to sin, and righteousness, and judgment;

⁹of sin, because they don't believe in me;

¹⁰of righteousness, because I am going to my Father, and you see me no more;

¹¹of judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.

¹²I have yet many things to tell you, but you can't bear them now.

¹³However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak from himself; but whatever things he hears, he will speak. He will declare to you the things that are to come.

¹⁴He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you.

¹⁵All things whatever the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he takes of mine, and will declare it to you.

¹⁶A little while, and you will not see me. Again a little while, and you will see me."

¹⁷Some of his disciples therefore said to one another, "What is this that he says to us, 'A little while, and you won't see me, and again a little while, and you will see me;' and, 'Because I go to the Father?'"

¹⁸They said therefore, "What is this that he says, 'A little while?' We don't know what he is saying."

¹⁹Therefore Jesus perceived that they wanted to ask him, and he said to them, "Do you inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, 'A little while, and you won't see me, and again a little while, and you will see me?'

²⁰Most assuredly I tell you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.

²¹A woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow, because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn't remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a child is born into the world.

²²You therefore now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

²³In that day you will ask me no question. Most assuredly I tell you, whatever you may ask of the Father, he will give it to you in my name.

²⁴Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.

²⁵I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. But the time comes when I will no more speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father.

²⁶In that day you will ask in my name; and I don't say to you, that I will pray to the Father for you,

²⁷for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from God.

²⁸I came out from the Father, and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father."

²⁹His disciples said to him, "Behold, now you speak plainly, and speak no figures of speech.

³⁰Now we know that you know all things, and don't need for anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came forth from God."

³¹Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?

³²Behold, the time comes, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

³³I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world."

17Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you;

²even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, he will give eternal life.

³This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

⁴I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do.

⁵Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.

⁶I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word.

⁷Now they know that all things whatever you have given me are from you,

⁸for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came forth from you, and they believed that you sent me.

⁹I pray for them. I don't pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

¹⁰All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

¹¹I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.

¹²While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

¹³But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

¹⁴I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

¹⁵I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.

¹⁶They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.

¹⁷Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.

¹⁸As you sent me into the world, even so I sent them into the world.

¹⁹For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

²⁰Neither for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word,

²¹that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.

²²The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;

²³I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.

²⁴Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵Righteous Father, the world didn't know you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.

²⁶I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them."

18When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where was a garden, into which he entered, himself and his disciples.

²Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often resorted there with his disciples.

³Judas then, having taken a detachment of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.

⁴Jesus therefore, knowing all the things that were coming on him, went forth, and said to them, "Who are you looking for?"

⁵They answered him, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I AM." Judas also, who betrayed him, was standing with them.

⁶When therefore he said to them, "I AM," they went backward, and fell to the ground.

⁷Again therefore he asked them, "Who are you looking for?" They said, "Jesus of Nazareth."

⁸Jesus answered, "I told you that I AM. If therefore you seek me, let these go their way,"

⁹that the word might be fulfilled which he spoke, "Of those whom you have given me, I have lost none."

¹⁰Simon Peter therefore, having a sword, drew it, and struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.

¹¹Jesus therefore said to Peter, "Put up the sword into its sheath. The cup which the Father has given me, shall I not drink it?"

¹²So the detachment, the commanding officer, and the officers of the Jews, seized Jesus and bound him,

¹³and led him to Annas first, for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.

¹⁴Now it was Caiaphas who gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.

¹⁵Simon Peter followed Jesus, as did another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest, and entered in with Jesus into the court of the high priest;

¹⁶but Peter was standing at the door outside. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to her who kept the door, and brought in Peter.

¹⁷Then the maid who kept the door said to Peter, "Are you also one of this man's disciples?" He said, "I am not."

¹⁸Now the servants and the officers were standing there, having made a fire of coals, for it was cold. They were warming themselves. Peter was with them, standing and warming himself.

¹⁹The high priest therefore asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his teaching.

²⁰Jesus answered him, "I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in synagogues, and in the temple, where the Jews always meet. I said nothing in secret.

²¹Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. Behold, these know the things which I said."

²²When he had said this, one of the officers standing by slapped Jesus with his hand, saying, "Do you answer the high priest like that?"

²³Jesus answered him, "If I have spoken evil, testify of the evil; but if well, why do you beat me?"

²⁴Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest.

²⁵Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said therefore to him, "Are you also one of his disciples?" He denied it, and said, "I am not."

²⁶One of the servants of the high priest, being a relative of him whose ear Peter cut off, said, "Didn't I see you in the garden with him?"

²⁷Peter therefore denied again, and immediately the rooster crowed.

²⁸They led Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. It was early, and they themselves didn't enter into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.

²⁹Pilate therefore went out to them, and said, "What accusation do you bring against this man?"

³⁰They answered him, "If this man weren't an evildoer, we wouldn't have delivered him up to you."

³¹Pilate therefore said to them, "Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law." Therefore the Jews said to him, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death,"

³²that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spoke, signifying by what kind of death he should die.

³³Pilate therefore entered again into the Praetorium, called Jesus, and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"

³⁴Jesus answered him, "Do you say this of yourself, or did others tell it to you concerning me?"

³⁵Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me. What have you done?"

³⁶Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn't be delivered to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here."

³⁷Pilate therefore said to him, "Are you a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. To this end have I been born, and to this end I have come into the world, that I should testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."

³⁸Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" When he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, "I find no basis for a charge against him.

³⁹But you have a custom, that I should release to you one at the Passover. Therefore do you desire that I release to you the King of the Jews?"

⁴⁰Then they all cried out again, saying, "Not this man, but Barabbas!" Now Barabbas was a robber.

19Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and flogged him.

²The soldiers twisted thorns into a crown, and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment.

³They said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and they struck him with their hands.

⁴Then Pilate went out again, and said to them, "Behold, I bring him out to you, that you may know that I find no basis for a charge against him."

⁵Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, "Behold, the man!"

⁶When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, saying, "Crucify! Crucify!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves, and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him."

⁷The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God."

⁸When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was more afraid.

⁹He entered into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer.

¹⁰Pilate therefore said to him, "Aren't you speaking to me? Don't you know that I have power to release you, and have power to crucify you?"

¹¹Jesus answered, "You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin."

¹²At this, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, "If you release this man, you aren't Caesar's friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!"

¹³When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called "The Pavement," but in Hebrew, "Gabbatha."

¹⁴Now it was the Preparation of the Passover, at about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, "Behold, your King!"

¹⁵They cried out, "Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!"

¹⁶Then therefore he delivered him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away.

¹⁷He went out, bearing his cross, to the place called "The place of a skull," which is called in Hebrew, "Golgotha,"

¹⁸where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the middle.

¹⁹Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. There was written, "JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS."

²⁰Therefore many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.

²¹The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, "Don't write, 'The King of the Jews,' but that, 'he said, I am King of the Jews.'"

²²Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

²³Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.

²⁴Then they said to one another, "Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it will be," that the scripture might be fulfilled, which says, "They parted my garments among them, For my cloak they cast lots." Therefore the soldiers did these things.

²⁵But there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

²⁶Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son!"

²⁷Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

²⁸After this, Jesus, seeing that all things were now finished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I am thirsty."

²⁹Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and brought it to his mouth.

³⁰When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished." He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit.

³¹Therefore the Jews, because it was the Preparation, so that the bodies wouldn't remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special one), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

³²Therefore the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with him;

³³but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was already dead, they didn't break his legs.

³⁴However one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

³⁵He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, that you also may believe.

³⁶For these things happened, that the scripture might be fulfilled, "A bone of him will not be broken."

³⁷Again another scripture says, "They will look on him whom they pierced."

³⁸After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus' body. Pilate gave him permission. He came therefore, and took away his body.

³⁹Nicodemus also came, he who at first came to Jesus by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred Roman pounds.

⁴⁰So they took Jesus' body, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.

⁴¹Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. In the garden a new tomb in which no man had ever yet been laid.

⁴²Then because of the Jews' Preparation (for the tomb was near at hand) they laid Jesus there.

20Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early, while it was yet dark, to the tomb, and saw the stone taken away from the tomb.

²She ran therefore, and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have laid him!"

³Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb.

⁴They both ran together. The other disciple outran Peter, and came to the tomb first.

⁵Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying, yet he didn't enter in.

⁶Then Simon Peter came, following him, and entered into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying,

⁷and the cloth that was on his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself.

⁸Then the other disciple also entered in therefore, who came first to the tomb, and he saw, and believed.

⁹For as yet they didn't know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

¹⁰So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

¹¹But Mary was standing outside at the tomb weeping. So, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb,

¹²and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

¹³They told her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have laid him."

¹⁴When she had said this, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and didn't know that it was Jesus.

¹⁵Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?" She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."

¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned herself, and said to him, "Rhabbouni!" which is to say, "Teacher!"

¹⁷Jesus said to her, "Don't touch me, for I haven't yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers, and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.'"

¹⁸Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.

¹⁹When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be to you."

²⁰When he had said this, he showed to them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord.

²¹Jesus therefore said to them again, "Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."

²²When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit!

²³Whoever's sins you forgive, they are forgiven to them. Whoever's sins you retain, they are retained."

²⁴But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn't with them when Jesus came.

²⁵The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

²⁶After eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace be to you."

²⁷Then he said to Thomas, "Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don't be faithless, but believing."

²⁸Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"

²⁹Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed."

³⁰Therefore Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book;

³¹but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

21After these things, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias. He revealed himself this way.

²Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.

³Simon Peter said to them, "I'm going fishing." They told him, "We are also coming with you." They immediately went forth, and entered into the boat. That night, they caught nothing.

⁴But when day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples didn't know that it was Jesus.

⁵Jesus therefore said to them, "Children, have you anything to eat?" They answered him, "No."

⁶He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it in for the multitude of fish.

⁷That disciple therefore whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It's the Lord!" So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he wrapped his coat around him (for he was naked), and threw himself into the sea.

⁸But the other disciples came in the little boat (for they were not far from the land, but about two hundred cubits away), dragging the net full of fish.

⁹So when they got out on the land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread.

¹⁰Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish which you have just caught."

¹¹Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of great fish, one hundred fifty-three; and even though there were so many, the net wasn't torn.

¹²Jesus said to them, "Come and eat breakfast." None of the disciples dared inquire of him, "Who are you?" knowing that it was the Lord.

¹³Then Jesus came and took the bread, gave it to them, and the fish likewise.

¹⁴This is now the third time that Jesus was revealed to his disciples, after he had risen from the dead.

¹⁵So when they had eaten their breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I have affection for you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs."

¹⁶He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I have affection for you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep."

¹⁷He says to him the third time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you have affection for me?" Peter was grieved because he asked him the third time, "Do you have affection for me?" He said to him, "Lord, you know everything. You know that I have affection for you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.

¹⁸Most assuredly I tell you, when you were young, you dressed yourself, and walked where you wanted to. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you, and carry you where you don't want to go."

¹⁹Now he said this, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. When he had said this, he said to him, "Follow me."

²⁰Then Peter, turning around, saw a disciple following. This was the disciple whom Jesus sincerely loved, the one who had also leaned on Jesus' breast at the supper and asked, "Lord, who is going to betray You?"

²¹Peter seeing him, said to Jesus, "Lord, and what will this man do?"

²²Jesus said to him, "If I desire that he stay until I come, what is that to you? You follow me."

²³This saying therefore went forth among the brothers, that that disciple wouldn't die. Yet Jesus didn't say to him that he wouldn't die, but, "If I desire that he stay until I come, what is that to you?"

²⁴This is the disciple who testifies about these things, and wrote these things. We know that his witness is true.

²⁵There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they would all be written, I suppose that even the world itself wouldn't contain the books that would be written.

1The first book I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Jesus began both to do and to teach,

²until the day in which he was received up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

³To these he also showed himself alive after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and spoke about God's kingdom.

⁴Being assembled together with them, he charged them, "Don't depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me.

⁵For John indeed baptized with water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

⁶Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?"

⁷He said to them, "It isn't for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within His own authority.

⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth."

⁹When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

¹⁰While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing,

¹¹who also said, "You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky."

¹²Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away.

¹³When they had come in, they went up into the upper chamber, where they were staying; that is Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.

¹⁴All these with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

¹⁵In these days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (and there was a multitude of persons gathered together, about one hundred twenty), and said,

¹⁶"Brothers, it was necessary that this Scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was guide to those who took Jesus.

¹⁷For he was numbered with us, and received his portion in this ministry.

¹⁸Now this man obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness, and falling headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines gushed out.

¹⁹It became known to everyone who lived in Jerusalem that in their language that field was called 'Akeldama,' that is, 'The field of blood.'

²⁰For it is written in the book of Psalms, 'Let his habitation be made desolate, Let no one dwell therein,' and, 'Let another take his office.'

²¹Of the men therefore who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and went out among us,

²²beginning from the baptism of John, to the day that he was received up from us, of these must one become a witness with us of his resurrection."

²³They put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.

²⁴They prayed, and said, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two you have chosen

²⁵to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place."

²⁶They drew lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

2Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place.

²Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

³Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and it sat on each one of them.

⁴They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.

⁵Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under the sky.

⁶When this sound was heard, the multitude came together, and were bewildered, because everyone heard them speaking in his own language.

⁷They were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, "Behold, aren't all these who speak Galileans?

⁸How do we hear, everyone in our own native language?

⁹Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia,

¹⁰Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,

¹¹Cretans and Arabians: we hear them speaking in our languages the mighty works of God!"

¹²They were all amazed, and were perplexed, saying one to another, "What does this mean?"

¹³Others, mocking, said, "They are filled with new wine."

¹⁴But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spoke out to them, "You men of Judea, and all you who dwell at Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words.

¹⁵For these aren't drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is only the third hour of the day.

¹⁶But this is what has been spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷'It will be in the last days, says God, I will pour forth of my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.

¹⁸Yes, and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy.

¹⁹I will show wonders in the the sky above, And signs on the earth beneath; Blood, and fire, and billows of smoke.

²⁰The sun will be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes.

²¹It will be, that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.'

²²"You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as you yourselves know,

²³him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;

²⁴whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.

²⁵For David says concerning him, 'I saw the Lord always before my face, For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.

²⁶Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope;

²⁷Because you will not leave my soul in Hades, Neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.

²⁸You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.'

²⁹"Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

³⁰Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,

³¹he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was his soul left in Hades, nor did his flesh see decay.

³²This Jesus God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

³³Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this, which you now see and hear.

³⁴For David didn't ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit by my right hand,

³⁵Until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet."'

³⁶"Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."

³⁷Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what will we do?"

³⁸Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

³⁹For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself."

⁴⁰With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation!"

⁴¹Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.

⁴²They continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.

⁴³Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

⁴⁴All who believed were together, and had all things common.

⁴⁵They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need.

⁴⁶Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart,

⁴⁷praising God, and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.

3Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.

²A certain man who was lame from his mother's womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of those who entered into the temple.

³Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms.

⁴Peter, fastening his eyes on him, with John, said, "Look at us."

⁵He listened to them, expecting to receive something from them.

⁶But Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk!"

⁷He took him by the right hand, and raised him up. Immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength.

⁸Leaping up, he stood, and began to walk. He entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God.

⁹All the people saw him walking and praising God.

¹⁰They recognized him, that it was he who sat begging for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened to him.

¹¹As the lame man who was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering.

¹²When Peter saw it, he answered to the people, "You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk?

¹³The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied before the face of Pilate, when he had determined to release him.

¹⁴But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,

¹⁵and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses.

¹⁶By faith in his name has his name made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which is through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

¹⁷"Now, brothers, I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

¹⁸But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.

¹⁹Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,

²⁰and that he may send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before,

²¹whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from ancient times.

²²For Moses indeed said to the fathers, 'The Lord God will raise up a prophet to you from among your brothers, like me. You will listen to him in all things whatever he says to you.

²³It will be, that every soul that will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.'

²⁴Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days.

²⁵You are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'In your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.'

²⁶God, having raised up his servant, Jesus, sent him to you first, to bless you, in turning away everyone of you from your wickedness."

4As they spoke to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came to them,

²being upset because they taught the people and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

³They laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was now evening.

⁴But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

⁵It happened in the morning, that their rulers, elders, and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem.

⁶Annas the high priest was there, with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and as many as were relatives of the high priest.

⁷When they had stood them in the midst, they inquired, "By what power, or in what name, have you done this?"

⁸Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "You rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,

⁹if we are examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed,

¹⁰be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, in him does this man stand here before you whole.

¹¹He is 'the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which was made the head of the corner.'

¹²There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, in which we must be saved!"

¹³Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Jesus.

¹⁴Seeing the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

¹⁵But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,

¹⁶saying, "What will we do to these men? Because indeed a notable miracle has been done through them, as can be plainly seen by all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we can't deny it.

¹⁷But so that this spreads no further among the people, let's threaten them, that from now on they don't speak to anyone in this name."

¹⁸They called them, and charged them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

¹⁹But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves,

²⁰for we can't help telling the things which we saw and heard."

²¹They, when they had further threatened them, let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people; for everyone glorified God for that which was done.

²²For the man was more than forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was performed.

²³Being let go, they came to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

²⁴They, when they heard it, lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, "O Lord, you are God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them;

²⁵who by the mouth of your servant, David, said, 'Why do the nations rage, And the peoples plot a vain thing?

²⁶The kings of the earth take a stand, And the rulers take council together, Against the Lord, and against his Christ.'

²⁷For truly, in this city against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together

²⁸to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen.

²⁹Now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness,

³⁰while you stretch forth your hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy Servant Jesus."

³¹When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were gathered together. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

³²The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common.

³³With great power, the apostles gave their testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Great grace was on them all.

³⁴For neither was there among them any who lacked, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,

³⁵and laid them at the apostles' feet, and distribution was made to each, according as anyone had need.

³⁶Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, Son of Exhortation), a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race,

³⁷having a field, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

5But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession,

²and kept back part of the price, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

³But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land?

⁴While you kept it, didn't it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn't it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You haven't lied to men, but to God."

⁵Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and died. Great fear came on all who heard these things.

⁶The young men arose and wrapped him up, and they carried him out and buried him.

⁷About three hours later, his wife, not knowing what was had happened, came in.

⁸Peter answered her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." She said, "Yes, for so much."

⁹But Peter asked her, "How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out."

¹⁰She fell down immediately at his feet, and died. The young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her by her husband.

¹¹Great fear came on the whole assembly, and on all who heard these things.

¹²By the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. They were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.

¹³None of the rest dared to join them, however the people honored them.

¹⁴More believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.

¹⁵They even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mattresses, so that as Peter came by, at the least his shadow might overshadow some of them.

¹⁶Multitudes also came together from the cities around Jerusalem, bringing sick people, and those who were tormented by unclean spirits: and they were all healed.

¹⁷But the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy,

¹⁸and laid hands on the apostles, and put them in public custody.

¹⁹But an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors by night, and brought them out, and said,

²⁰"Go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life."

²¹When they heard this, they entered into the temple about daybreak, and taught. But the high priest came, and those who were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

²²But the officers who came didn't find them in the prison. They returned and reported,

²³"We found the prison shut and locked, and the guards standing before the doors, but when we had opened it up, we found no one inside."

²⁴Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these words, they were very perplexed about them and what might become of this.

²⁵One came and told them, "Behold, the men whom you put in prison are in the temple, standing and teaching the people."

²⁶Then the captain went with the officers, and brought them without violence, for they were afraid that the people might stone them.

²⁷When they had brought them, they set them before the council. The high priest questioned them,

²⁸saying, "Didn't we strictly charge you not to teach in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man's blood on us."

²⁹But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men.

³⁰The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.

³¹God exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.

³²We are His witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."

³³But they, when they heard this, were cut to the heart, and determined to kill them.

³⁴But one stood up in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, honored by all the people, and commanded to take the apostles out a little while.

³⁵He said to them, "You men of Israel, be careful concerning these men, what you are about to do.

³⁶For before these days Theudas rose up, making himself out to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were dispersed, and came to nothing.

³⁷After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the enrollment, and drew away some people after him. He also perished, and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered abroad.

³⁸Now I tell you, refrain from these men, and leave them alone. For if this counsel or this work is of men, it will be overthrown.

³⁹But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it, and you would be found even to be fighting against God."

⁴⁰They agreed with him. When they had called the apostles to them, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

⁴¹They therefore departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus' name.

⁴²Every day, in the temple and at home, they never stopped teaching and preaching Jesus, the Christ.

6Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a grumbling of the Grecian Jews against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily service.

²The twelve called the multitude of the disciples to them and said, "It is not appropriate for us to forsake the word of God and serve tables.

³Therefore select from among you, brothers, seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

⁴But we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word."

⁵These words pleased the whole multitude. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch;

⁶whom they set before the apostles. When they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.

⁷The word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly. A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

⁸Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.

⁹But some of those who were of the synagogue called "The Libertines," and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen.

¹⁰They weren't able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

¹¹Then they secretly induced men who said, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God."

¹²They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and came on him and seized him, and brought him in to the council,

¹³and set up false witnesses who said, "This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.

¹⁴For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us."

¹⁵All who sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face like it was the face of an angel.

7The high priest said, "Are these things so?"

²He said, "Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

³and said to him, 'Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.'

⁴Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living.

⁵He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him in possession, and to his seed after him, when he still had no child.

⁶God spoke thus, that his seed would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

⁷'I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,' said God, 'and after that will they come out, and serve me in this place.'

⁸He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹"The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him,

¹⁰and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

¹¹Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food.

¹²But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent forth our fathers the first time.

¹³On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's race was revealed to Pharaoh.

¹⁴Joseph sent, and called Jacob, his father, to him, and all his relatives, seventy-five souls.

¹⁵Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers,

¹⁶and they were brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the sons of Hamor of Shechem.

¹⁷"But as the time of the promise came close which God swore to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸until there arose a different king, who didn't know Joseph.

¹⁹The same dealt slyly with our race, and mistreated our fathers, that they should throw out their babies, so that they wouldn't stay alive.

²⁰At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father's house.

²¹When he was thrown out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and reared him as her own son.

²²Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works.

²³But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

²⁴Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian.

²⁵He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn't understand.

²⁶The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, 'Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one to another?'

²⁷But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

²⁸Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'

²⁹Moses fled at this saying, and became an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

³⁰"When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.

³¹When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the Lord came to him,

³²'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' Moses trembled, and dared not look.

³³The Lord said to him, 'Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

³⁴I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.'

³⁵"This Moses, whom they refused, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' -- God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer with the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶This man led them forth, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.

³⁷This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, 'The Lord God will raise up a prophet to you from among your brothers, like me.'

³⁸This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him in the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us,

³⁹to whom our fathers wouldn't be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,

⁴⁰saying to Aaron, 'Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us forth out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him.'

⁴¹They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

⁴²But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, 'Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

⁴³You took up the tent of Moloch, The star of your god Rephan, The figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon.'

⁴⁴"Our fathers had the tent of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses appointed, that he should make it according to the pattern that he had seen.

⁴⁵Which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, to the days of David,

⁴⁶who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷But Solomon built him a house.

⁴⁸However, the Most High doesn't dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says,

⁴⁹'heaven is my throne, And the earth the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build me?' says the Lord; 'Or what is the place of my rest?

⁵⁰Didn't my hand make all these things?'

⁵¹"You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.

⁵²Which of the prophets didn't your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.

⁵³You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn't keep it!"

⁵⁴Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

⁵⁵But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

⁵⁶and said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God!"

⁵⁷But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord.

⁵⁸They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

⁵⁹They stoned Stephen, as he called on the Lord, saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit!"

⁶⁰He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, don't hold this sin against them!" When he had said this, he fell asleep.

8Saul was consenting to his death. A great persecution arose against the assembly which was in Jerusalem in that day. They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles.

²Devout men buried Stephen, and lamented greatly over him.

³But Saul ravaged the assembly, entering into every house, and dragged both men and women off to prison.

⁴Therefore those who were scattered abroad went around preaching the word.

⁵Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and proclaimed to them the Christ.

⁶The multitudes listened with one accord to the things that were spoken by Philip, when they heard and saw the signs which he did.

⁷For unclean spirits came out of many of those who had them. They came out, crying with a loud voice. Many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed.

⁸There was great joy in that city.

⁹But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who had used sorcery in the city before, and amazed the people of Samaria, making himself out to be some great one,

¹⁰to whom they all listened, from the least to the greatest, saying, "This man is that great power of God."

¹¹They listened to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his sorceries.

¹²But when they believed Philip preaching good news concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

¹³Simon himself also believed. Being baptized, he continued with Philip. Seeing signs and great miracles done, he was amazed.

¹⁴Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them,

¹⁵who, when they had come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit;

¹⁶for as yet he had fallen on none of them. They had only been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁷Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸Now when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money,

¹⁹saying, "Give me also this power, that whoever I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit."

²⁰But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!

²¹You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart isn't right before God.

²²Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

²³For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity."

²⁴Simon answered, "Pray for me to the Lord, that none of the things which you have spoken come on me."

²⁵They therefore, when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.

²⁶But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, "Arise, and go toward the south to the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert."

²⁷He arose and went. Behold, there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship.

²⁸He was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.

²⁹The Spirit said to Philip, "Go near, and join yourself to this chariot."

³⁰Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, "Do you understand you what you are reading?"

³¹He said, "How can I, unless someone explains it to me?" He begged Philip to come up and sit with him.

³²Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this, "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb before his shearer is silent, So he doesn't open his mouth.

³³In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will declare His generations? For his life is taken from the earth."

³⁴The eunuch answered Philip, "Please tell who the prophet is talking about: about himself, or about some other?"

³⁵Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him Jesus.

³⁶As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?"

³⁸He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch didn't see him any more, for he went on his way rejoicing.

⁴⁰But Philip was found at Azotus. Passing through, he preached the gospel to all the cities, until he came to Caesarea.

9But Saul, still breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest,

²and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

³As he traveled, it happened that he got close to Damascus, and suddenly a light from the sky shone around him.

⁴He fell on the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

⁵He said, "Who are you, Lord?" The Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

⁶But rise up, and enter into the city, and you will be told what you must do."

⁷The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.

⁸Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one. They led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.

⁹He was without sight for three days, and neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias!" He said, "Behold, it's me, Lord."

¹¹The Lord said to him, "Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying,

¹²and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in, and laying his hands on him, that he might receive his sight."

¹³But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he did to your saints at Jerusalem.

¹⁴Here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name."

¹⁵But the Lord said to him, "Go your way, for he is my chosen vessel to bear my name before the nations and kings, and the children of Israel.

¹⁶For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake."

¹⁷Ananias departed, and entered into the house. Laying his hands on him, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord, who appeared to you in the way which you came, has sent me, that you may receive your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

¹⁸Immediately there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he received his sight. He arose and was baptized.

¹⁹He took food and was strengthened. Saul stayed several days with the disciples who were at Damascus.

²⁰Immediately in the synagogues he proclaimed the Christ, that he is the Son of God.

²¹All who heard him were amazed, and said, "Isn't this he who in Jerusalem made havoc of those who called on this name? And he had come here intending to bring them bound before the chief priests!"

²²But Saul increased more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived at Damascus, proving that this is the Christ.

²³When many days were fulfilled, the Jews conspired together to kill him,

²⁴but their plot became known to Saul. They watched the gates both day and night that they might kill him,

²⁵but his disciples took him by night, and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket.

²⁶When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join himself to the disciples. They were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.

²⁷But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

²⁸He was with them going in and going out at Jerusalem,

²⁹preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. He spoke and disputed against the Grecian Jews, but they were seeking to kill him.

³⁰When the brothers knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him out to Tarsus.

³¹So the assemblies throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, and were built up. They were multiplied, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

³²It happened, as Peter went throughout all those parts, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.

³³There he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years, because he was paralyzed.

³⁴Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and make your bed!" Immediately he arose.

³⁵All who lived at Lydda and in Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

³⁶Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which when translated, means Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and acts of mercy which she did.

³⁷It happened in those days that she fell sick, and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in an upper chamber.

³⁸As Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to them.

³⁹Peter got up and went with them. When he had come, they brought him into the upper chamber. All the widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them.

⁴⁰Peter put them all out, and kneeled down and prayed. Turning to the body, he said, "Tabitha, get up!" She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.

⁴¹He gave her his hand, and raised her up. Calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.

⁴²It became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

⁴³It happened, that he stayed many days in Joppa with one Simon, a tanner.

10Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment,

²a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave alms generously to the people, and always prayed to God.

³At about the ninth hour of the day, he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God coming to him, and saying to him, "Cornelius!"

⁴He, fastening his eyes on him, and being frightened, said, "What is it, Lord?" He said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have gone up for a memorial before God.

⁵Now send men to Joppa, and get one Simon, who is surnamed Peter.

⁶He lodges with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the seaside."

⁷When the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of those who waited on him continually.

⁸Having explained everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.

⁹Now on the next day, as they were on their journey, and got close to the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, at about noon.

¹⁰He became hungry, and desired to eat, but while they were preparing, he fell into a trance.

¹¹He saw heaven opened, and a certain container descending to him, like a great sheet, let down by four corners on the earth,

¹²in which were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, reptiles, and birds of the sky.

¹³A voice came to him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat!"

¹⁴But Peter said, "Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean."

¹⁵A voice came to him again the second time, "What God has cleansed, you must not make unholy."

¹⁶This was done three times, and immediately the vessel was received up into heaven.

¹⁷Now while Peter was very perplexed in himself what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood before the gate,

¹⁸and called and asked whether Simon, who was surnamed Peter, was lodging there.

¹⁹While Peter thought about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Behold, three men seek you.

²⁰But arise, get down, and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them."

²¹Peter went down to the men, and said, "Behold, I am he whom you seek. Why have you come?"

²²They said, "Cornelius a centurion, a righteous man and one who fears God, and well spoken of by all the nation of the Jews, was directed by a holy angel to invite you to his house, and to listen to what you say.

²³So he called them in and lodged them. On the next day Peter arose and went out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.

²⁴On the next day they entered into Caesarea. Cornelius was waiting for them, having called together his relatives and his near friends.

²⁵When it happened that Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.

²⁶But Peter raised him up, saying, "Stand up! I myself am also a man."

²⁷As he talked with him, he went in, and found many come together.

²⁸He said to them, "You yourselves know how it is an unlawful thing for a man who is a Jew to join himself or come to one of another nation, but God has shown me that I shouldn't call any man unholy or unclean.

²⁹Therefore also I came without complaint when I was sent for. I ask therefore, why did you send for me?"

³⁰Cornelius said, "Four days ago, I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth hour, I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,

³¹and said, 'Cornelius, your prayer is heard, and your alms are remembered in the sight of God.

³²Send therefore to Joppa, and call to you Simon, who is surnamed Peter. He lodges in the house of Simon a tanner, by the seaside. When he comes, he will speak to you.'

³³Therefore I sent to you at once, and it was good of you to come. Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God to hear all things that have been commanded you by God."

³⁴Peter opened his mouth and said, "Truly I perceive that God doesn't show favoritism,

³⁵but in every nation he who fears him, and works righteousness, is acceptable to him.

³⁶The word which he sent to the children of Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all):

³⁷that spoken word you yourselves know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;

³⁸even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with him.

³⁹We are witnesses of all things which he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they also killed, hanging him on a tree.

⁴⁰God raised him up the third day, and gave him to be revealed,

⁴¹not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen before by God, to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

⁴²He charged us to preach to the people, and to testify that this is he who is appointed by God as the Judge of the living and the dead.

⁴³All the prophets testify about him, that through his name everyone who believes in him will receive remission of sins."

⁴⁴While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word.

⁴⁵They of the circumcision who believed were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was also poured out on the Gentiles.

⁴⁶For they heard them speak with other languages, and magnify God. Then Peter answered,

⁴⁷"Can any man forbid the water, that these who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we should not be baptized,?"

⁴⁸He commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay some days.

11Now the apostles and the brothers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.

²When Peter had come up to Jerusalem, those who were of the circumcision contended with him,

³saying, "You went in to uncircumcised men, and ate with them!"

⁴But Peter began, and explained to them in order, saying,

⁵"I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision: a certain container descending, like it was a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners. It came as far as me,

⁶on which, when I had looked intently, I considered, and saw the four-footed animals of the earth, wild animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky.

⁷I also heard a voice saying to me, 'Rise, Peter, kill and eat!'

⁸But I said, 'Not so, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered into my mouth.'

⁹But a voice answered me the second time out of heaven, 'What God has cleansed, don't you make unholy.'

¹⁰This was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven.

¹¹Behold, immediately three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent from Caesarea to me.

¹²The Spirit told me to go with them, without discriminating. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house.

¹³He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying to him, 'Send to Joppa, and get Simon, whose surname is Peter,

¹⁴who will speak to you words whereby you will be saved, you and all your house.'

¹⁵As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, even as on us at the beginning.

¹⁶I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, 'John indeed baptized with water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.'

¹⁷If then God gave to them the same gift as us, when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, that I could withstand God?"

¹⁸When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life!"

¹⁹They therefore who were scattered abroad by the oppression that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except only to Jews.

²⁰But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus.

²¹The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

²²The report concerning them came to the ears of the assembly which was in Jerusalem. They sent forth Barnabas to go as far as Antioch,

²³who, when he had come, and had seen the grace of God, was glad. He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would remain near to the Lord.

²⁴For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and many people were added to the Lord.

²⁵Barnabas went forth to Tarsus to look for Saul.

²⁶When he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. It happened, that even for a whole year they were gathered together with the assembly, and taught many people. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

²⁷Now in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

²⁸One of them named Agabus stood up, and indicated by the Spirit that there should be a great famine over all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius.

²⁹The disciples, as anyone had plenty, each determined to send relief to the brothers who lived in Judea;

³⁰which they also did, sending it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

12Now about that time, Herod the king put forth his hands to oppress some of the assembly.

²He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.

³When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread.

⁴When he had captured him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover.

⁵Peter therefore was kept in the prison, but constant prayer was made by the assembly to God for him.

⁶The same night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards in front of the door kept the prison.

⁷Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side, and woke him up, saying, "Stand up quickly!" His chains fell off from his hands.

⁸The angel said to him, "Put on your clothes, and tie on your sandals." He did so. He said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you, and follow me."

⁹He went out, and followed him. He didn't know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he saw a vision.

¹⁰When they were past the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened to them by itself. They went out, and passed on through one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.

¹¹When Peter had come to himself, he said, "Now I truly know that the Lord has sent forth his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from everything the Jewish people were expecting."

¹²Thinking about that, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.

¹³When Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a maid named Rhoda came to answer.

¹⁴When she recognized Peter's voice, she didn't open the gate for joy, but ran in, and reported that Peter stood before the gate.

¹⁵They said to her, "You are crazy!" But she insisted that it was so. They said, "It is his angel."

¹⁶But Peter continued knocking. When they had opened, they saw him, and were amazed.

¹⁷But he, beckoning to them with his hand to be silent, declared to them how the Lord had brought him forth out of the prison. He said, "Tell these things to James, and to the brothers." He departed, and went to another place.

¹⁸Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter.

¹⁹When Herod had sought for him, and didn't find him, he examined the guards, and commanded that they should be put to death. He went down from Judea to Caesarea, and stayed there.

²⁰Now Herod was highly displeased with those of Tyre and Sidon. They came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus, the king's chamberlain, their friend, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food.

²¹On an appointed day, Herod dressed himself in royal clothing, sat on the throne, and gave a speech to them.

²²The people shouted, "The voice of a god, and not of a man!"

²³Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn't give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms, and he died.

²⁴But the word of God grew and multiplied.

²⁵Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their service, also taking with them John whose surname was Mark.

13Now in the assembly that was at Antioch there were some prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

²As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them."

³Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

⁴So, being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. From there they sailed to Cyprus.

⁵When they were at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They had also John as their attendant.

⁶When they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus,

⁷who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of understanding. The same called Barnabas and Saul to him, and sought to hear the word of God.

⁸But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn aside the proconsul from the faith.

⁹But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fastened his eyes on him,

¹⁰and said, "Full of all deceit and all cunning, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

¹¹Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a season!" Immediately there fell on him a mist and darkness. He went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

¹²Then the proconsul, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

¹³Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos, and came to Perga in Pamphylia. John departed from them and returned to Jerusalem.

¹⁴But they, passing through from Perga, came to Antioch of Pisidia. They went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down.

¹⁵After the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, "Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, speak."

¹⁶Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, "Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen.

¹⁷The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they stayed as aliens in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm, he led them forth out of it.

¹⁸For about the time of forty years he put up with them in the wilderness.

¹⁹When he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land for an inheritance, for about four hundred and fifty years.

²⁰After these things he gave them judges until Samuel, the prophet.

²¹Afterward they asked for a king, and God gave to them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.

²²When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he also testified, 'I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.'

²³From this man's seed, God has brought salvation to Israel according to his promise,

²⁴before his coming, when John had first preached the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

²⁵As John was fulfilling his course, he said, 'What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. But behold, there comes one after me the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.'

²⁶Brothers, children of the stock of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, the word of this salvation is sent forth to you.

²⁷For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they didn't know him, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.

²⁸Though they found no cause of death, they still asked Pilate to have him killed.

²⁹When they had fulfilled all things that were written about him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a tomb.

³⁰But God raised him from the dead,

³¹and he was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people.

³²We bring you good news of the promise made to the fathers,

³³that God has fulfilled the same to us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm, 'You are my Son. Today I have become your father.'

³⁴"Concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he has spoken thus: 'I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.'

³⁵Therefore he says also in another psalm, 'You will not allow your Holy One to see decay.'

³⁶For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, and was laid with his fathers, and saw decay.

³⁷But he whom God raised up saw no decay.

³⁸Be it known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins,

³⁹and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

⁴⁰Beware therefore, lest that come on you which is spoken in the prophets:

⁴¹'Behold, you scoffers, and wonder, and perish; For I work a work in your days, A work which you will in no way believe, if one declares it to you.'"

⁴²So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.

⁴³Now when the synagogue broke up, many of the Jews and of the devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas; who, speaking to them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

⁴⁴The next Sabbath almost the whole city was gathered together to hear the word of God.

⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted the things which were spoken by Paul, and blasphemed.

⁴⁶Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, and said, "It was necessary that God's word should be spoken to you first. Since indeed you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.

⁴⁷For so has the Lord commanded us, saying, 'I have set you as a light of the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.'"

⁴⁸As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

⁴⁹The Lord's word was spread abroad throughout all the region.

⁵⁰But the Jews urged on the devout women of honorable estate, and the chief men of the city, and stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and threw them out of their borders.

⁵¹But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came to Iconium.

⁵²The disciples were filled with joy with the Holy Spirit.

14It happened in Iconium that they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks believed.

²But the disobedient Jews stirred up and embittered the souls of the Gentiles against the brothers.

³Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who testified to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

⁴But the multitude of the city was divided. Part sided with the Jews, and part with the apostles.

⁵When some of both the Gentiles and the Jews, with their rulers, made a violent attempt to insult them and to stone them,

⁶they became aware of it, and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, Derbe, and the surrounding region.

⁷There they preached the gospel.

⁸At Lystra a certain man sat, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked.

⁹He was listening to Paul speaking, who, fastening eyes on him, and seeing that he had faith to be made whole,

¹⁰said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet!" He leaped up and walked.

¹¹When the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the language of Lycaonia, "The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!"

¹²They called Barnabas "Jupiter," and Paul "Mercury," because he was the chief speaker.

¹³The priest of Jupiter, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and would have made a sacrifice with the multitudes.

¹⁴But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes, and sprang into the multitude, crying out,

¹⁵"Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them;

¹⁶who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.

¹⁷Yet he didn't leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."

¹⁸Even saying these things, they hardly stopped the multitudes from making a sacrifice to them.

¹⁹But some Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

²⁰But as the disciples stood around him, he rose up, and entered into the city. On the next day he went out with Barnabas to Derbe.

²¹When they had preached the gospel to that city, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,

²²confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of God.

²³When they had appointed elders for them in every assembly, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

²⁴They passed through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia.

²⁵When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.

²⁶From there they sailed to Antioch, from where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled.

²⁷When they had arrived, and had gathered the assembly together, they reported all the things that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

²⁸They stayed there with the disciples for a long time.

15Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can't be saved."

²Therefore when Paul and Barnabas had no small discord and discussion with them, they appointed Paul and Barnabas, and some others of them, to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question.

³They, being sent on their way by the assembly, passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. They caused great joy to all the brothers.

⁴When they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the assembly and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them.

⁵But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses."

⁶The apostles and the elders were gathered together to see about this matter.

⁷When there had been much discussion, Peter rose up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that a good while ago God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.

⁸God, who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like he did to us.

⁹He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.

¹⁰Now therefore why do you tempt God, that you should put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

¹¹But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are."

¹²All the multitude kept silence, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul reporting what signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

¹³After they were silent, James answered, "Brothers, listen to me.

¹⁴Simeon has reported how God first visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.

¹⁵This agrees with the words of the prophets. As it is written,

¹⁶'After these things I will return. I will again build the tent of David, which has fallen. I will again build its ruins. I will set it up:

¹⁷That the rest of men may seek after the Lord; All the Gentiles who are called by my name, Says the Lord, who does all these things.

¹⁸All his works are known to God from eternity.'

¹⁹"Therefore my judgment is that we don't trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God,

²⁰but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.

²¹For Moses from generations of old has in every city those who preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath."

²²Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole assembly, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brothers.

²³They wrote these things by their hand: "The apostles, the elders, and the brothers, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia: greetings.

²⁴Because we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, 'You must be circumcised and keep the law,' to whom we gave no commandment;

²⁵it seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose out men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,

²⁶men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁷We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves will also tell you the same things by word of mouth.

²⁸For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things:

²⁹that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell."

³⁰So, when they were sent off, they came to Antioch. Having gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter.

³¹When they had read it, they rejoiced for the consolation.

³²Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged the brothers with many words, and strengthened them.

³³After they had spent some time there, they were sent back with greetings from the brothers to the apostles.

³⁵But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.

³⁶After some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let's return now and visit our brothers in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing."

³⁷Barnabas planned to take John with them also, who was called Mark.

³⁸But Paul didn't think that it was a good idea to take with them someone who withdrew from them from Pamphylia, and didn't go with them to do the work.

³⁹Then there arose a sharp contention, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him, and sailed away to Cyprus,

⁴⁰but Paul chose Silas, and went out, being commended by the brothers to the grace of God.

⁴¹He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the assemblies.

16He came to Derbe and Lystra: and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewess who believed; but his father was a Greek.

²The brothers who were at Lystra and Iconium gave a good testimony about him.

³Paul wanted to have him go forth with him, and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts; for they all knew that his father was a Greek.

⁴As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered the decrees to them to keep which had been ordained by the apostles and elders who were at Jerusalem.

⁵So the assemblies were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.

⁶When they had gone through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

⁷When they had come opposite Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit didn't allow them.

⁸Passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.

⁹A vision appeared to Paul in the night. There was a man of Macedonia standing, begging him, and saying, "Come over into Macedonia and help us."

¹⁰When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go forth into Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.

¹¹Setting sail therefore from Troas, we made a straight course to Samothrace, and the day following to Neapolis;

¹²and from there to Philippi, which is a city of Macedonia, the first of the district, a Roman colony. We were staying some days in this city.

¹³On the Sabbath day we went forth outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down, and spoke to the women who had come together.

¹⁴A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshipped God, heard us; whose heart the Lord opened to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul.

¹⁵When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and stay." She urged us.

¹⁶It happened, as we were going to prayer, that a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling.

¹⁷The same, following after Paul and us, cried out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation!"

¹⁸This she did for many days. But Paul, becoming distressed, turned and said to the spirit, "I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" It came out that very hour.

¹⁹But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they laid hold on Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.

²⁰When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, "These men, being Jews, are agitating our city,

²¹and set forth customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans."

²²The multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore their clothes off of them, and commanded them to be beaten with rods.

²³When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely,

²⁴who, having received such a charge, threw them into the inner prison, and secured their feet in the stocks.

²⁵But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

²⁶Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were loosened.

²⁷The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

²⁸But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, "Don't harm yourself, for we are all here!"

²⁹He called for lights and sprang in, and, fell down trembling before Paul and Silas,

³⁰and brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

³¹They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your house."

³²They spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house.

³³He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was immediately baptized, he and all his household.

³⁴He brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his house, having believed in God.

³⁵But when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants, saying, "Let those men go."

³⁶The jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, "The magistrates have sent to let you go; now therefore come out, and go in peace."

³⁷But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us publicly, without a trial, men who are Romans, and have cast us into prison! Do they now release us secretly? No, most assuredly, but let them come themselves and bring us out!"

³⁸The sergeants reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans,

³⁹and they came and begged them. When they had brought them out, they asked them to depart from the city.

⁴⁰They went out of the prison, and entered into Lydia's house. When they had seen the brothers, they comforted them, and departed.

17Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.

²Paul, as was his custom, went in to them, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,

³explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer, and to rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ."

⁴Some of them were persuaded, and joined Paul and Silas, of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and not a few of the chief women.

⁵But the disobedient Jews gathered some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them forth to the people.

⁶When they didn't find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here also,

⁷whom Jason has received. These all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus!"

⁸The multitude and the rulers of the city were troubled when they heard these things.

⁹When they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

¹⁰The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.

¹¹Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.

¹²Many of them therefore believed; also of the Greek women of honorable estate, and not a few men.

¹³But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Beroea also, they came there likewise, agitating the multitudes.

¹⁴Then the brothers immediately sent forth Paul to go as far as to the sea, and Silas and Timothy still stayed there.

¹⁵But those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens. Receiving a commandment to Silas and Timothy that they should come to him with all speed, they departed.

¹⁶Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.

¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him.

¹⁸Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also encountered him. Some said, "What does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "He seems to be advocating foreign demons," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹They took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you?

²⁰For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean."

²¹Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

²²Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, and said, "You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.

²³For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, dwells not in temples made with hands,

²⁵neither is he served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.

²⁶He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation,

²⁷that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

²⁸'For in him we live, and move, and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'

²⁹Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and device of man.

³⁰The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all men everywhere should repent,

³¹because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; whereof he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead."

³²Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, "We want to hear you yet again concerning this."

³³Thus Paul went out from among them.

³⁴But certain men joined with him, and believed, among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

18After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.

²He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,

³and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers.

⁴He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.

⁵But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.

⁶When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!"

⁷He departed there, and went into the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshipped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.

⁸Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house. Many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized.

⁹The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, "Don't be afraid, but speak and don't be silent;

¹⁰for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city."

¹¹He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

¹²But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat,

¹³saying, "This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law."

¹⁴But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you;

¹⁵but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don't want to be a judge of these matters."

¹⁶He drove them from the judgment seat.

¹⁷Then all the Greeks laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio didn't care about any of these things.

¹⁸Paul, having stayed after this yet many days, took his leave of the brothers, and sailed from there for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila with him. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow.

¹⁹He came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews.

²⁰When they asked him to stay a longer time, he declined;

²¹but taking his leave of them, and saying, "I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you if God wills," he set sail from Ephesus.

²²When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the assembly, and went down to Antioch.

²³Having spent some time there, he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples.

²⁴Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the scriptures.

²⁵This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning 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.

²⁷When he had determined to pass over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he had come, he helped them much, who had believed through grace;

²⁸for he powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

19It happened that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples.

²He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They said to him, "No, we did not so much as hear whether there is a Holy Spirit."

³He said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism."

⁴Paul said, "John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, on Jesus."

⁵When they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

⁶When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with other languages, and prophesied.

⁷They were about twelve men in all.

⁸He entered into the synagogue, and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning the kingdom of God.

⁹But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus.

¹⁰This continued for the space of two years, so that all those who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

¹¹God worked special miracles by the hands of Paul,

¹²insomuch that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and the evil spirits went out.

¹³But some of the itinerant Jews, exorcists, took on themselves to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches."

¹⁴There were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did this.

¹⁵The evil spirit answered, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?"

¹⁶The man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

¹⁷This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived at Ephesus. Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

¹⁸Many also of those who had believed came, confessing, and declaring their deeds.

¹⁹Not a few of those who practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. They counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.

²⁰So the word of the Lord was growing and becoming mighty.

²¹Now after these things had ended, Paul determined in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome."

²²Having sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while.

²³About that time there arose no small stir concerning the Way.

²⁴For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen,

²⁵whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, "Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth.

²⁶You see and hear, that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands.

²⁷Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing, and her majesty destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships."

²⁸When they heard this they were filled with wrath, and cried out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

²⁹The whole city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel.

³⁰When Paul wanted to enter in to the people, the disciples didn't allow him.

³¹Certain also of the Asiarchs, being his friends, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater.

³²Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was in confusion. Most of them didn't know why they had come together.

³³They brought Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. Alexander beckoned with his hand, and would have made a defense to the people.

³⁴But when they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for a time of about two hours cried out, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

³⁵When the town clerk had quieted the multitude, he said, "You men of Ephesus, what man is there who doesn't know that the city of the Ephesians is temple-keeper of the great goddess Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus?

³⁶Seeing then that these things can't be denied, you ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rash.

³⁷For you have brought these men here, who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess.

³⁸If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him, have a matter against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them press charges against one another.

³⁹But if you seek anything about other matters, it will be settled in the regular assembly.

⁴⁰For indeed we are in danger of being accused concerning this day's riot, there being no cause. Concerning it, we wouldn't be able to give an account of this commotion."

⁴¹When he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.

20After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, took leave of them, and departed to go into Macedonia.

²When he had gone through those parts, and had encouraged them with many words, he came into Greece.

³When he had spent three months there, and a plot was made against him by Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he determined to return through Macedonia.

⁴These accompanied him as far as Asia: Sopater of Beroea; Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians; Gaius of Derbe; Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.

⁵But these had gone ahead, and were waiting for us at Troas.

⁶We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came to them at Troas in five days, where we stayed seven days.

⁷On the first day of the week, when the disciples were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and continued his speech until midnight.

⁸There were many lights in the upper chamber where we were gathered together.

⁹A certain young man named Eutychus sat in the window, weighed down with deep sleep. As Paul spoke still longer, being weighed down by his sleep, he fell down from the third story, and was taken up dead.

¹⁰Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, "Don't be troubled, for his life is in him."

¹¹When he had gone up, and had broken bread, and eaten, and had talked with them a long while, even until break of day, he departed.

¹²They brought the boy alive, and were not a little comforted.

¹³But we who went ahead to the ship set sail for Assos, there intending to take in Paul, for he had so arranged, intending himself to go by land.

¹⁴When he met us at Assos, we took him in, and came to Mitylene.

¹⁵Sailing from there, we came the following day opposite Chios. The next day we touched at Samos and stayed at Trogyllium, and the day after we came to Miletus.

¹⁶For Paul had determined to sail past Ephesus, that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

¹⁷From Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to himself the elders of the assembly.

¹⁸When they had come to him, he said to them, "You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you all the time,

¹⁹serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears, and with trials which happened to me by the plots of the Jews;

²⁰how I didn't shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house,

²¹testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

²²Now, behold, I go bound by the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there;

²³except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me.

²⁴But these things don't count; nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

²⁵Now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no more.

²⁶Therefore I testify to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all men,

²⁷for I didn't shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

²⁸Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.

²⁹For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

³⁰Men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.

³¹Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn't cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.

³²Now, brothers, I entrust you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build up, and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

³³I coveted no one's silver, or gold, or clothing.

³⁴You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities, and to those who were with me.

³⁵In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

³⁶When he had spoken these things, he kneeled down and prayed with them all.

³⁷They all wept a lot, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him,

³⁸sorrowing most of all because of the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. They brought him on his way to the ship.

21When it happened that we had parted from them and had set sail, we came with a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.

²Having found a ship crossing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard, and set sail.

³When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left hand, we sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload her cargo.

⁴Having found disciples, we stayed there seven days. These said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.

⁵When it happened that we had accomplished the days, we departed and went on our journey. They all, with wives and children, brought us on our way until we were out of the city. Kneeling down on the beach, we prayed.

⁶After saying goodbye to each other, we went on board the ship, and they returned home again.

⁷When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais. We greeted the brothers, and stayed with them one day.

⁸On the next day, we, who were Paul's companions, departed, and came to Caesarea. We entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.

⁹Now this man had four virgin daughters, who prophesied.

¹⁰As we stayed there some days, a certain prophet, named Agabus, came down from Judea.

¹¹Coming to us, and taking Paul's belt, he bound his own feet and hands, and said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit: 'So will the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'"

¹²When we heard these things, both we and they of that place begged him not to go up to Jerusalem.

¹³Then Paul answered, "What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

¹⁴When he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, "The Lord's will be done."

¹⁵After these days we took up our baggage and went up to Jerusalem.

¹⁶Some of the disciples from Caesarea also went with us, bringing one Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we would stay.

¹⁷When we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly.

¹⁸The day following, Paul went in with us to James; and all the elders were present.

¹⁹When he had greeted them, he reported one by one the things which God had worked among the Gentiles through his ministry.

²⁰They, when they heard it, glorified God. They said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law.

²¹They have been informed about you, that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children neither to walk after the customs.

²²What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come.

²³Therefore do what we tell you. We have four men who have a vow on them.

²⁴Take them, and purify yourself with them, and pay their expenses for them, that they may shave their heads. Then all will know that there is no truth in the things that they have been informed about you, but that you yourself also walk keeping the law.

²⁵But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written our decision that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from food offered to idols, from blood, from strangled things, and from sexual immorality."

²⁶Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purified himself and went with them into the temple, declaring the fulfillment of the days of purification, until the offering was offered for every one of them.

²⁷When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the multitude and laid hands on him,

²⁸crying out, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. Moreover, he also brought Greeks into the temple, and has defiled this holy place!"

²⁹For they had seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

³⁰All the city was moved, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple. Immediately the doors were shut.

³¹As they were trying to kill him, news came up to the commanding officer of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

³²Immediately he took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them. They, when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, stopped beating Paul.

³³Then the commanding officer came near, arrested him, commanded him to be bound with two chains, and inquired who he was and what he had done.

³⁴Some shouted one thing, some another, among the crowd. When he couldn't find out the truth because of the noise, he commanded him to be brought into the barracks.

³⁵When he came to the stairs, it happened that he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd;

³⁶for the multitude of the people followed after, crying out, "Away with him!"

³⁷As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he asked the commanding officer, "May I say something to you?" He said, "Do you know Greek?

³⁸Aren't you then the Egyptian, who before these days stirred up to sedition and led out into the wilderness the four thousand men of the Assassins?"

³⁹But Paul said, "I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. I beg you, allow me to speak to the people."

⁴⁰When he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the stairs, beckoned with his hand to the people. When there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying,

22"Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense which I now make to you."

²When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. He said,

³"I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are this day.

⁴I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.

⁵As also the high priest and all the council of the elders testify, from whom also I received letters to the brothers, and journeyed to Damascus to bring them also who were there to Jerusalem in bonds to be punished.

⁶It happened that, as I made my journey, and came close to Damascus, about noon, suddenly there shone from the sky a great light around me.

⁷I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'

⁸I answered, 'Who are you, Lord?' He said to me, 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.'

⁹Those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they didn't understand the voice of him who spoke to me.

¹⁰I said, 'What will I do, Lord?' The Lord said to me, 'Arise, and go into Damascus. There you will be told about all things which are appointed for you to do.'

¹¹When I couldn't see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus.

¹²One Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well reported of by all the Jews who lived there,

¹³came to me, and standing by me said to me, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight!' In that very hour I looked up at him.

¹⁴He said, 'The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth.

¹⁵For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶Now why do you wait? Arise, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.'

¹⁷It happened that, when I had returned to Jerusalem, and while I prayed in the temple, I fell into a trance,

¹⁸and saw him saying to me, 'Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not receive testimony concerning me from you.'

¹⁹I said, 'Lord, they themselves know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue those who believed in you.

²⁰When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting to his death, and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him.'

²¹He said to me, 'Depart, for I will send you forth far from here to the Gentiles.'"

²²They listened to him until he said that, then they lifted up their voice, and said, "Rid the earth of this fellow, for he isn't fit to live!"

²³As they cried out, and threw off their cloaks, and threw dust into the air,

²⁴the commanding officer commanded him to be brought into the barracks, ordering him to be examined by scourging, that he might know for what crime they shouted against him like that.

²⁵When they had tied him up with thongs, Paul asked the centurion who stood by, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and not found guilty?"

²⁶When the centurion heard it, he went to the commanding officer and told him, "Watch what you are about to do, for this man is a Roman!"

²⁷The commanding officer came and asked him, "Tell me, are you a Roman?" He said, "Yes."

²⁸The commanding officer answered, "I bought my citizenship for a great price." Paul said, "But I was born a Roman."

²⁹Immediately those who were about to examine him departed from him, and the commanding officer also was afraid when he realized that he was a Roman, because he had bound him.

³⁰But on the next day, desiring to know the truth about why he was accused by the Jews, he freed him from the bonds, and commanded the chief priests and all the council to come together, and brought Paul down and set him before them.

23Paul, looking steadfastly at the council, said, "Brothers, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day."

²The high priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.

³Then said Paul to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to judge me according to the law, and command me to be struck contrary to the law?"

⁴Those who stood by said, "Do you malign God's high priest?"

⁵Paul said, "I didn't know, brothers, that he was high priest. For it is written, 'You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.'"

⁶But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, "Men and brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. Concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged!"

⁷When he had said this, there arose an argument between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

⁸For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess all of these.

⁹A great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees part stood up, and contended, saying, "We find no evil in this man. But if a spirit or angel has spoken to him, let's not fight against God!"

¹⁰When a great argument arose, the commanding officer, fearing that Paul would be torn in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them, and bring him into the barracks.

¹¹The following night, the Lord stood by him, and said, "Cheer up, Paul, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must testify also at Rome."

¹²When it was day, some of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

¹³There were more than forty people who had made this conspiracy.

¹⁴They came to the chief priests and the elders, and said, "We have bound ourselves under a great curse, to taste nothing until we have killed Paul.

¹⁵Now therefore, you with the council inform the commanding officer that he should bring him down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to judge his case more exactly. We are ready to kill him before he comes near."

¹⁶But Paul's sister's son heard of their lying in wait, and he came and entered into the barracks and told Paul.

¹⁷Paul summoned one of the centurions, and said, "Bring this young man to the commanding officer, for he has something to tell him."

¹⁸So he took him, and brought him to the commanding officer, and said, "Paul, the prisoner, called me to himself, and asked me to bring this young man to you, who has something to tell you."

¹⁹The commanding officer took him by the hand, and going aside, asked him privately, "What is it that you have to tell me?"

²⁰He said, "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring down Paul tomorrow to the council, as though intending to inquire somewhat more accurately concerning him.

²¹Therefore don't yield to them, for more than forty men lie in wait for him, who have bound themselves under a curse neither to eat nor to drink until they have killed him. Now they are ready, looking for the promise from you."

²²So the commanding officer let the young man go, charging him, "Tell no one that you have told these things to me."

²³He called to himself two of the centurions, and said, "Prepare two hundred soldiers to go as far as Caesarea, with seventy horsemen, and two hundred men armed with spears, at the third hour of the night."

²⁴He asked them to provide animals, that they might set Paul on one, and bring him safely to Felix, the governor.

²⁵He wrote a letter like this:

²⁶"Claudius Lysias to the most excellent governor Felix: Greetings.

²⁷"This man was seized by the Jews, and was about to be killed by them, when I came on them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman.

²⁸Desiring to know the cause why they accused him, I brought him down to their council.

²⁹I found him to be accused about questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or of bonds.

³⁰When I was told that the Jews lay in wait for the man, I sent him to you immediately, charging his accusers also to bring their accusations against him before you. Farewell."

³¹So the soldiers, carrying out their orders, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.

³²But on the next day they left the horsemen to go with him, and returned to the barracks.

³³They, when they came to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, presented Paul also before him.

³⁴When the governor had read it, he asked what province he was from. When he understood that he was from Cilicia, he said,

³⁵"I will hear you fully when your accusers also arrive." He commanded that he be kept in Herod's palace.

24After five days, the high priest, Ananias, came down with certain elders and an orator, one Tertullus. They informed the governor against Paul.

²When he was called, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, "Seeing that by you we enjoy much peace, and that excellent measures are coming to this nation,

³we accept it in all ways and in all places, most excellent Felix, with all thankfulness.

⁴But, that I don't delay you, I entreat you to bear with us and hear a few words.

⁵For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and an instigator of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

⁶He even tried to profane the temple. We arrested him.

⁷

⁸By examining him yourself you may ascertain all these things of which we accuse him."

⁹The Jews also joined in the attack, affirming that these things were so.

¹⁰When the governor had beckoned to him to speak, Paul answered, "Because I know that you have been a judge of this nation for many years, I cheerfully make my defense,

¹¹seeing that you can recognize that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship at Jerusalem.

¹²In the temple they didn't find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the synagogues, or in the city.

¹³Nor can they prove to you the things whereof they now accuse me.

¹⁴But this I confess to you, that after the Way, which they call a sect, so I serve the God of our fathers, believing all things which are according to the law, and which are written in the prophets;

¹⁵having hope toward God, which these also themselves look for, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

¹⁶Herein I also practice always having a conscience void of offense toward God and men.

¹⁷Now after some years, I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings;

¹⁸amid which they found me purified in the temple, with no crowd, nor yet with tumult. But certain Jews from Asia --

¹⁹who ought to have been here before you, and to make accusation, if they had anything against me.

²⁰Or else let these men themselves say what injustice they found in me when I stood before the council,

²¹unless it is for this one thing that I cried standing among them, 'Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am being judged before you today!'"

²²But Felix, having more exact knowledge concerning the Way, deferred them, saying, "When Lysias, the commanding officer, comes down, I will decide your case."

²³He ordered the centurion that Paul should be kept in custody, and should have some privileges, and not to forbid any of his friends to serve him or to visit him.

²⁴But after some days, Felix came with Drusilla, his wife, who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁵As he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified, and answered, "Go your way for this time, and when it is convenient for me, I will call you to me."

²⁶He hoped that way that money would be given to him by Paul, that he might release him. Therefore also he sent for him more often, and talked with him.

²⁷But when two years were fulfilled, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and desiring to gain favor with the Jews, Felix left Paul in bonds.

25Festus therefore, having come into the province, after three days went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.

²Then the high priest and the principal men of the Jews informed him against Paul, and they begged him,

³asking a favor against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem; plotting to kill him on the way.

⁴However Festus answered that Paul was kept in custody at Caesarea, and that he himself was about to depart shortly.

⁵"Let them therefore," said he, "that are in power among you go down with me, and if there is anything wrong in the man, let them accuse him."

⁶When he had stayed among them more than ten days, he went down to Caesarea, and on the next day he sat on the judgment seat, and commanded Paul to be brought.

⁷When he had come, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing against him many and grievous charges which they could not prove,

⁸while he said in his defense, "Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I sinned at all."

⁹But Festus, desiring to gain favor with the Jews, answered Paul and said, "Will you go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before me?"

¹⁰But Paul said, "I am standing before Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also know very well.

¹¹For if I have done wrong, and have committed anything worthy of death, I don't refuse to die; but if none of those things is true that these accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!"

¹²Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, "You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go."

¹³Now when some days had passed, Agrippa, the King, and Bernice arrived at Caesarea, and greeted Festus.

¹⁴As they stayed there many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the King, saying, "There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix;

¹⁵about whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, asking for a sentence against him.

¹⁶To whom I answered that it is not the custom of the Romans to give up any man to destruction, before the accused have met the accusers face to face, and have had opportunity to make his defense concerning the matter laid against him.

¹⁷When therefore they were come together here, I didn't delay, but on the next day sat on the judgment seat, and commanded the man to be brought.

¹⁸Concerning whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought no charge of such things as I supposed;

¹⁹but had certain questions against him of their own religion, and of one Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

²⁰I, being perplexed how to inquire concerning these things, asked whether he would go to Jerusalem and there be judged of these matters.

²¹But when Paul had appealed to be kept for the decision of the emperor, I commanded him to be kept until I should send him to Caesar."

²²Agrippa said to Festus, "I also would like to hear the man myself." "Tomorrow," he said, "you will hear him."

²³So on the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great pomp, and they had entered into the place of hearing with the commanding officers and principal men of the city, at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.

²⁴Festus said, "King Agrippa, and all men who are here present with us, you see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews petitioned me, both at Jerusalem and here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.

²⁵But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and as he himself appealed to the emperor I determined to send him.

²⁶Of whom I have no certain thing to write to my lord. Therefore I have brought him forth before you, and especially before you, king Agrippa, that, after examination, I may have something to write.

²⁷For it seems to me unreasonable, in sending a prisoner, not to also specify the charges against him."

26Agrippa said to Paul, "You may speak for yourself." Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense.

²"I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you this day concerning all the things whereof I am accused by the Jews,

³especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.

⁴"Indeed, all the Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem;

⁵having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

⁶Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers,

⁷which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa!

⁸Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?

⁹"I most assuredly thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰This I also did in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them.

¹¹Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

¹²"Whereupon as I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests,

¹³at noon, O King, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me.

¹⁴When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.'

¹⁵I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' He said, 'I am Jesus, whom you persecute.

¹⁶But arise, and stand on your feet, for to this end have I appeared to you, to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you;

¹⁷delivering you from the 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, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

¹⁹"Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

²¹For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple, and tried to kill me.

²²Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come,

²³how the Christ must suffer, and how he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to these people and to the Gentiles."

²⁴As he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!"

²⁵But he said, "I am not crazy, most excellent Festus, but speak forth words of truth and soberness.

²⁶For the king knows of these things, to whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things is hidden from him, for this has not been done in a corner.

²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe."

²⁸Agrippa said to Paul, "With a little persuasion are you trying to make me a Christian?"

²⁹Paul said, "I pray to God, that whether with little or with much, not only you, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these bonds."

³⁰The king rose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and those who sat with them.

³¹When they had withdrawn, they spoke one to another, saying, "This man does nothing worthy of death or of bonds."

³²Agrippa said to Festus, "This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar."

27When it was determined that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners to a centurion named Julius, of the Augustan band.

²Embarking in a ship of Adramyttium, which was about to sail to places on the coast of Asia, we put to sea, Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.

³The next day, we touched at Sidon. Julius treated Paul kindly, and gave him permission to go to his friends and refresh himself.

⁴Putting to sea from there, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the winds were contrary.

⁵When we had sailed across the sea which is off Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia.

⁶There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy, and he put us on board.

⁷When we had sailed slowly many days, and had come with difficulty opposite Cnidus, the wind not allowing us further, we sailed under the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone.

⁸With difficulty sailing along it we came to a certain place called Fair Havens, near the city of Lasea.

⁹When much time was spent, and the voyage was now dangerous, because the Fast had now already gone by, Paul admonished them,

¹⁰and said to them, "Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives."

¹¹But the centurion gave more heed to the master and to the owner of the ship than to those things which were spoken by Paul.

¹²Because the haven was not suitable to winter in, the majority advised to put to sea from there, if by any means they could reach Phoenix, and winter there, which is a port of Crete, looking northeast and southeast.

¹³When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to shore.

¹⁴But after no long time there beat down from it a tempestuous wind, which is called Euroclydon.

¹⁵When the ship was caught, and couldn't face the wind, we gave way to it, and were driven along.

¹⁶Running under the lee of a small island called Clauda, we were able, with difficulty, to secure the boat.

¹⁷When they had hoisted it up, they used cables to help reinforce the ship. Fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis sand bars, they lowered the sea anchor, and so were driven.

¹⁸As we labored exceedingly with the storm, the next day they began to throw things overboard.

¹⁹On the third day, they threw out the ship's tackle with their own hands.

²⁰When neither sun nor stars shone on us for many days, and no small tempest pressed on us, all hope that we should be saved was now taken away.

²¹When they had been long without food, Paul stood up in the midst of them, and said, "Sirs, you should have listened to me, and not have set sail from Crete, and have gotten this injury and loss.

²²Now I exhort you to cheer up, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.

²³For there stood by me this night an angel, belonging to the God whose I am and whom I serve,

²⁴saying, 'Don't be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. Behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.'

²⁵Therefore, sirs, cheer up! For I believe God, that it will be just as it has been spoken to me.

²⁶But we must run aground on a certain island."

²⁷But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven back and forth in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors surmised that they were drawing near to some land.

²⁸They took soundings, and found twenty fathoms. After a little while, they took soundings again, and found fifteen fathoms.

²⁹Fearing that we would run aground on rocky ground, they let go four anchors from the stern, and wished for daylight.

³⁰As the sailors were trying to flee out of the ship, and had lowered the boat into the sea, pretending that they would lay out anchors from the bow,

³¹Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, "Unless these stay in the ship, you can't be saved."

³²Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat, and let her fall off.

³³While the day was coming on, Paul begged them all to take some food, saying, "This day is the fourteenth day that you wait and continue fasting, having taken nothing.

³⁴Therefore I beg you to take some food, for this is for your safety; for there will not a hair perish from the head of any of you."

³⁵When he had said this, and had taken bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all, and he broke it, and began to eat.

³⁶Then were they all of good cheer, and they also took food.

³⁷We were in all in the ship two hundred seventy-six souls.

³⁸When they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.

³⁹When it was day, they didn't recognize the land, but they noticed a certain bay with a beach, and they decided to try to drive the ship onto it.

⁴⁰Casting off the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time untying the rudder ropes. Hoisting up the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach.

⁴¹But coming to a place where two seas met, they ran the vessel aground. The bow struck and remained immovable, but the stern began to break up by the violence of the waves.

⁴²The soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, so that none of them would swim out and escape.

⁴³But the centurion, desiring to save Paul, stopped them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should throw themselves overboard first to go to the land;

⁴⁴and the rest, some on planks, and some on other things from the ship. So it happened that they all escaped safely to the land.

28When we had escaped, then we knew that the island was called Malta.

²The natives showed us no common kindness; for they kindled a fire, and received us all, because of the present rain, and because of the cold.

³But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand.

⁴When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said one to another, "No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped from the sea, yet Justice has not allowed to live."

⁵However he shook off the creature into the fire, and wasn't harmed.

⁶But they expected that he would have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly, but when they were long in expectation and saw nothing bad happen to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.

⁷Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island, named Publius, who received us, and courteously entertained us three days.

⁸It was so, that the father of Publius lay sick of fever and dysentery. Paul entered in to him, prayed, and laying his hands on him, healed him.

⁹Then when this was done, the rest also that had diseases in the island came, and were cured.

¹⁰They also honored us with many honors, and when we sailed, they put on board the things that we needed.

¹¹After three months, we set sail in a ship of Alexandria which had wintered in the island, whose sign was "The Twin Brothers."

¹²Touching at Syracuse, we stayed there three days.

¹³From there we circled around and arrived at Rhegium. After one day, a south wind sprang up, and on the second day we came to Puteoli,

¹⁴where we found brothers, and were entreated to stay with them seven days. So we came to Rome.

¹⁵From there the brothers, when they heard of us, came to meet us as far as The Market of Appius and The Three Taverns; whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.

¹⁶When we entered into Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier who guarded him.

¹⁷It happened, that after three days Paul called together those who were the leaders of the Jews. When they had come together, he said to them, "I, brothers, though I had done nothing against the people, or the customs of our fathers, still was delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans,

¹⁸who, when they had examined me, desired to set me free, because there was no cause of death in me.

¹⁹But when the Jews spoke against it, I was constrained to appeal to Caesar, not that I had anything about which to accuse my nation.

²⁰For this cause therefore did I ask you to see and to speak with me. For because of the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain."

²¹They said to him, "We neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor did any of the brothers come here and report or speak any evil of you.

²²But we desire to hear of you what you think. For, as concerning this sect, it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against."

²³When they had appointed him a day, they came to him into his lodging in great number. He explained to them, testifying about the kingdom of God, and persuading them concerning Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets, from morning until evening.

²⁴Some believed the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved.

²⁵When they didn't agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one word, "The Holy Spirit spoke well through Isaiah, the prophet, to our fathers,

²⁶saying, 'Go to this people, and say, In hearing, you will hear, and will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, and will in no way perceive.

²⁷For this people's heart has grown callous. Their ears are dull of hearing. Their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their heart, Would turn again, And I would heal them.'

²⁸"Be it known therefore to you, that the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles. They will also hear."

²⁹When he had said these words, the Jews departed, having a great dispute among themselves.

³⁰Paul stayed two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who went in to him,

³¹preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, without hinderance.

1Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

²which he promised before through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

³concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,

⁴who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

⁵through whom we received grace and apostleship, to obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name's sake.

⁶Among whom you are also called to be Jesus Christ's.

⁷To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.

⁹For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,

¹⁰requesting, if by any means now at length I may be prospered by the will of God to come to you.

¹¹For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established;

¹²that is, that I with you may be comforted in you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine.

¹³Now I don't desire to have you unaware, brothers, that often I planned to come to you, and was hindered so far, that I might have some fruit in you also, even as in the rest of the Gentiles.

¹⁴I am debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish.

¹⁵So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

¹⁷For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith to faith. As it is written, "But the righteous shall live by faith."

¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness,

¹⁹because that which is known by God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them.

²⁰For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.

²¹Because, knowing God, they didn't glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

²²Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

²³and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.

²⁴Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves,

²⁵who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

²⁶For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.

²⁷Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.

²⁸Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

²⁹being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers,

³⁰backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

³¹without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful;

³²who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with those who practice them.

2Therefore you are without excuse, man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things.

²We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

³Do you know this, O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

⁴Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

⁵But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

⁶who "will render to every man according to his works:"

⁷to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruptibility, eternal life;

⁸but to those who are self-seeking, and don't obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation,

⁹oppression and anguish, on every soul of man who works evil, on the Jew first, and also on the Greek.

¹⁰But glory and honor and peace to every man who works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

¹¹For there is no partiality with God.

¹²For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

¹³For it isn't the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified

¹⁴(for when Gentiles who don't have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves,

¹⁵in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them)

¹⁶in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ.

¹⁷Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, and rest on the law, and glory in God,

¹⁸and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,

¹⁹and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

²⁰a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth.

²¹You therefore who teach another, don't you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn't steal, do you steal?

²²You who say a man shouldn't commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

²³You who glory in the law, through your disobedience of the law do you dishonor God?

²⁴For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," just as it is written.

²⁵For circumcision indeed profits, if you be a doer of the law, but if you be a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

²⁶If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won't his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision?

²⁷Won't the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?

²⁸For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh;

²⁹but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.

3Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?

²Much in every way! Because first of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

³For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith make of no effect the faithfulness of God?

⁴Certainly not! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, "That you might be justified in your words, And might prevail when you come into judgment."

⁵But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.

⁶Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?

⁷For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

⁸Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), "Let us do evil, that good may come?" Those who say so are justly condemned.

⁹What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously charged both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin.

¹⁰As it is written, "There is no one righteous. No, not one.

¹¹There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.

¹²They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not, so much as one."

¹³"Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit." "The poison of vipers is under their lips;"

¹⁴"Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness."

¹⁵"Their feet are swift to shed blood.

¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their ways.

¹⁷The way of peace, they haven't known."

¹⁸"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

¹⁹Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.

²⁰Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

²¹But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets;

²²even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction,

²³for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;

²⁴being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;

²⁵whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done before, in the forbearance of God;

²⁶for the showing of his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what manner of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

²⁸We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

²⁹Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn't he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

³⁰if it is so that God is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.

³¹Do we then make the law of no effect through faith? Certainly not! No, we establish the law.

4What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?

²For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.

³For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."

⁴Now to him who works, the reward is not accounted as of grace, but as of debt.

⁵But to him who doesn't work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

⁶Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works,

⁷"Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, Whose sins are covered.

⁸Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not charge with sin."

⁹Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.

¹⁰How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.

¹¹He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.

¹²The father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father, Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.

¹³For not through the law was the promise to Abraham or to his seed that he should be heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith.

¹⁴For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.

¹⁵For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.

¹⁶For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

¹⁷As it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations." This is before him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.

¹⁸Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, "So will your seed be."

¹⁹Without being weakened in faith, he didn't consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.

²⁰Yet, looking to the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,

²¹and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

²²Therefore also it was "reckoned to him for righteousness."

²³Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,

²⁴but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,

²⁵who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.

5Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;

²through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

³Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering works perseverance;

⁴and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope:

⁵and hope doesn't disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given to us.

⁶For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

⁷For one will hardly die for a righteous man. For perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die.

⁸But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God's wrath through him.

¹⁰For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.

¹¹Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

¹²Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.

¹³For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law.

¹⁴Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren't like Adam's disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.

¹⁵But the free gift isn't like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

¹⁶The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification.

¹⁷For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life.

¹⁹For as through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one will many be made righteous.

²⁰The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly;

²¹that as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

6What will we say then? Will we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

²Certainly not! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

³Or don't you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

⁴We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

⁵For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;

⁶knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

⁷For he who has died has been freed from sin.

⁸But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;

⁹knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!

¹⁰For the death that he died, he died to sin once; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹Thus also consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹²Therefore don't let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

¹³Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

¹⁴For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Will we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!

¹⁶Don't you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?

¹⁷But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were servants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered.

¹⁸Being made free from sin, you became servants of righteousness.

¹⁹I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.

²⁰For when you were servants of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

²¹What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

²²But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life.

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

7Or don't you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?

²For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.

³So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.

⁴Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit to God.

⁵For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring forth fruit to death.

⁶But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

⁷What will we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! However, I wouldn't have known sin, except through the law. For I wouldn't have known coveting, unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."

⁸But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

⁹I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

¹⁰The commandment, which was to life, this I found to be to death;

¹¹for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

¹²So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.

¹³Did then that which is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful.

¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.

¹⁵For I don't know what I am doing. For I don't practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.

¹⁶But if what I don't desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.

¹⁷So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

¹⁸For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don't find it doing that which is good.

¹⁹For the good which I desire, I don't do; but the evil which I don't desire, that I practice.

²⁰But if what I don't desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

²¹I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.

²²For I delight in God's law after the inward man,

²³but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?

²⁵I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

8There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.

³For what the law couldn't do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh;

⁴that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

⁵For those who are after the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

⁶For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;

⁷because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be.

⁸Those who are in the flesh can't please God.

⁹But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn't have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

¹⁰If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

¹¹But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

¹²So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

¹³For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God.

¹⁵For you didn't receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, "Abba! Father!"

¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;

¹⁷and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.

¹⁸For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us.

¹⁹For the creation waits with eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.

²⁰For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope

²¹that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

²²For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.

²³Not only so, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for adoption, the redemption of our body.

²⁴For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees?

²⁵But if we hope for that which we don't see, we wait for it with patience.

²⁶In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don't know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can't be uttered.

²⁷He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit's mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.

²⁸We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.

²⁹For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

³⁰Whom he foreordained, them he also called. Whom he called, them he also justified. Whom he justified, them he also glorified.

³¹What then will we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

³²He who didn't spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?

³³Who could bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

³⁴Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

³⁶Even as it is written, "For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter."

³⁷No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

³⁸For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

9I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit,

²that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.

³For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to the flesh,

⁴who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;

⁵whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.

⁶But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel.

⁷Neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children. But, "In Isaac will your seed be called."

⁸That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as a seed.

⁹For this is a word of promise, "At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son."

¹⁰Not only so, but Rebecca also conceived by one, by our father Isaac.

¹¹For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,

¹²it was said to her, "The elder will serve the younger."

¹³Even as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

¹⁴What will we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!

¹⁵For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

¹⁶So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.

¹⁷For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth."

¹⁸So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

¹⁹You will say then to me, "Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?"

²⁰But no, man, who are you who replies against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?"

²¹Or hasn't the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?

²²What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,

²³and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,

²⁴us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?

²⁵As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; And her 'beloved,' who was not beloved."

²⁶"It will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' There will they be called 'sons of the living God.'"

²⁷Isaiah cries concerning Israel, "If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, It is the remnant who will be saved;

²⁸For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth."

²⁹As Isaiah has said before, "Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And would have been made like Gomorrah."

³⁰What will we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn't follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;

³¹but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness.

³²Why? Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone;

³³even as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And no one who believes in him will be put to shame."

10Brothers, my heart's desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved.

²For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

³For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn't subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

⁴For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

⁵For Moses writes about the righteousness of the law, "The one who does them will live by them."

⁶But the righteousness which is of faith says this, "Don't say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down);

⁷or, 'Who will descend 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, which we preach:

⁹that if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

¹⁰For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

¹¹For the scripture says, "Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."

¹²For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him.

¹³For, "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved."

¹⁴How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher?

¹⁵And how will they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!"

¹⁶But they didn't all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"

¹⁷So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

¹⁸But I say, didn't they hear? Yes, most assuredly, "Their sound went out into all the earth, Their words to the ends of the world."

¹⁹But I ask, didn't Israel know? First Moses says, "I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation, With a nation void of understanding I will make you angry."

²⁰Isaiah is very bold, and says, "I was found by those who didn't seek me. I was revealed to those who didn't ask for me."

²¹But as to Israel he says, "All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.

11I ask then, Did God reject his people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

²God didn't reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don't you know what the scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:

³"Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have broken down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life."

⁴But how does God answer him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal."

⁵Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

⁶And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

⁷What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn't obtain, but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened.

⁸According as it is written, "God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day."

⁹David says, "Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, A stumbling block, and a retribution to them.

¹⁰Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Bow down their back always."

¹¹I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? Certainly not! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.

¹²Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?

¹³For I speak to you who are Gentiles. Since then as I am an apostle to Gentiles, I glorify my ministry;

¹⁴if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.

¹⁵For if the rejection of them [is] the reconciling of the world, what would the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?

¹⁶If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the root of the richness of the olive tree;

¹⁸don't boast over the branches. But if you boast, it is not you who bear the root, but the root you.

¹⁹You will say then, "Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in."

²⁰True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don't be conceited, but fear;

²¹for if God didn't spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

²²See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off.

²³They also, if they don't continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

²⁴For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

²⁵For I don't desire, brothers, to have you ignorant of this mystery, so that you won't be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles have come in,

²⁶and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, "There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, And he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

²⁷This is my covenant to them, When I will take away their sins."

²⁸Concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake.

²⁹For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

³⁰For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,

³¹even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy.

³²For God has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.

³³Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!

³⁴"For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"

³⁵"Or who has first given to him, And it will be repaid to him again?"

³⁶For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.

12Therefore I beg you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.

²Don't be fashioned according to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

³For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith.

⁴For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members don't have the same function,

⁵so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

⁶Having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, if prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith;

⁷or service, let us give ourselves to service; or he who teaches, to his teaching;

⁸or he who exhorts, to his exhorting: he who gives, let him do it with liberality; he who rules, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

⁹Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good.

¹⁰In love of the brothers be tenderly affectionate one to another; in honor preferring one another;

¹¹not lagging in diligence; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

¹²rejoicing in hope; enduring in oppression; continuing steadfastly in prayer;

¹³contributing to the needs of the saints; given to hospitality.

¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless, and don't curse.

¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.

¹⁶Be of the same mind one toward another. Don't set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Don't be wise in your own conceits.

¹⁷Repay no one evil for evil. Respect what is honorable in the sight of all men.

¹⁸If it is possible, as much as it is up to you, be at peace with all men.

¹⁹Don't seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God's wrath. For it is written, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord."

²⁰Therefore "If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head."

²¹Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

13Let every soul be in subjection to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those who be are ordained by God.

²Therefore he who resists the authority, withstands the ordinance of God; and those who withstand will receive to themselves judgment.

³For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Do you desire to have no fear of the authority? Do that which is good, and you will have praise from the same,

⁴for he is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do that which is evil, be afraid, for he doesn't bear the sword in vain; for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him who does evil.

⁵Therefore you need to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience' sake.

⁶For this reason you also pay taxes, for they are ministers of God's service, attending continually on this very thing.

⁷Give therefore to everyone what you owe: taxes to whom taxes are due; customs to whom customs; respect to whom respect; honor to whom honor.

⁸Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

⁹For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not give false testimony," "You shall not covet," and whatever other commandments there are, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

¹⁰Love doesn't harm his neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.

¹¹This, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awake out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.

¹²The night is far gone, and the day is near. Let's therefore throw off the works of darkness, and let's put on the armor of light.

¹³Let us walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy.

¹⁴But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.

14But receive him who is weak in faith, not for judging thoughts.

²One man has faith to eat all things, but he who is weak eats herbs.

³Don't let him who eats despise him who doesn't eat. Don't let him who doesn't eat judge him who eats, for God has received him.

⁴Who are you who judge the servant of another? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand.

⁵One man esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.

⁶He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. He who doesn't eat, to the Lord he doesn't eat, and gives God thanks.

⁷For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself.

⁸For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord's.

⁹For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

¹⁰But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

¹¹For it is written, "'As I live,' says the Lord, 'to me every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess to God.'"

¹²So then each one of us will give account of himself to God.

¹³Therefore Let's not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother's way, or an occasion of falling.

¹⁴I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

¹⁵Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don't destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.

¹⁶Then don't let your good be slandered,

¹⁷for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

¹⁹So then, let us follow after things which make for peace, and things whereby we may build one another up.

²⁰Don't overthrow God's work for food's sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating.

²¹It is good not to eat meat, drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak.

²²Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who doesn't judge himself in that which he approves.

²³But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn't of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.

²⁴Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept in silence through eternal times,

²⁵but now is revealed, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known to all the nations to obedience of faith;

²⁶to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen.

15Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

²Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up.

³For Christ also didn't please himself. But, as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me."

⁴For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might have hope.

⁵Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus,

⁶that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁷Therefore receive one another, even as Christ also received you, to the glory of God.

⁸Now I say that Christ has been made a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers,

⁹and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore will I give praise to you among the Gentiles, And sing to your name."

¹⁰Again he says, "Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people."

¹¹Again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him."

¹²Again, Isaiah says, "There will be the root of Jesse, He who arises to rule over the Gentiles; On him will the Gentiles hope."

¹³Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

¹⁴I myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish others.

¹⁵But I write the more boldly to you in some measure, as putting you again in memory, because of the grace that was given to me by God,

¹⁶that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁷I have therefore my boasting in Christ Jesus in things pertaining to God.

¹⁸For I will not dare to speak of any things except those which Christ worked through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles, by word and deed,

¹⁹in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of God's Spirit; so that from Jerusalem, and around as far as to Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ;

²⁰yes, making it my aim so to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build on another man's foundation.

²¹But, as it is written, "They will see, to whom no news of him came. They who haven't heard will understand."

²²Therefore also I was hindered these many times from coming to you,

²³but now, no longer having any place in these regions, and having these many years a longing to come to you,

²⁴whenever I journey to Spain, I will come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while.

²⁵But now, I say, I am going to Jerusalem, serving the saints.

²⁶For it has been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are at Jerusalem.

²⁷Yes, it has been their good pleasure, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them also to serve them in fleshly things.

²⁸When therefore I have accomplished this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will go on by you to Spain.

²⁹I know that, when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

³⁰Now I beg you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,

³¹that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints;

³²that I may come to you in joy through the will of God, and together with you, find rest.

³³Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

16I commend to you Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the assembly that is at Cenchreae,

²that you receive her in the Lord, in a way worthy of the saints, and that you assist her in whatever matter she may need from you, for she herself also has been a helper of many, and of my own self.

³Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,

⁴who for my life, laid down their own necks; to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the Gentiles.

⁵Greet the assembly that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first-fruits of Achaia to Christ.

⁶Greet Mary, who labored much for us.

⁷Greet Andronicus and Junias, my relatives and my fellow prisoners, who are notable among the apostles, who also have been in Christ before me.

⁸Greet Amplias, my beloved in the Lord.

⁹Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys, my beloved.

¹⁰Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.

¹¹Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet them of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.

¹²Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Greet Persis, the beloved, who labored much in the Lord.

¹³Greet Rufus, the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.

¹⁴Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.

¹⁵Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.

¹⁶Greet one another with a holy kiss. The assemblies of Christ greet you.

¹⁷Now I beg you, brothers, mark those who are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and turn away from them.

¹⁸For those who are such don't serve our Lord, Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the innocent.

¹⁹For your obedience has reached all. I rejoice therefore over you. But I desire to have you wise to that which is good, but innocent to that which is evil.

²⁰Now the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet swiftly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

²¹Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my relatives.

²²I, Tertius, who write the letter, greet you in the Lord.

²³Gaius, my host and host of the whole assembly, greets you. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you, as does Quartus, the brother.

²⁴The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all! Amen.

1This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John,

²who testified to God's word, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, about everything that he saw.

³Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is at hand.

⁴John, to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from God, who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before his throne;

⁵and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood;

⁶and he made us to be a kingdom, priests to his God and Father; to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

⁷Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, including those who pierced him. All the tribes of the earth will mourn over him. Even so, Amen.

⁸"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

⁹I John, your brother and partaker with you in oppression and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the isle that is called Patmos because of God's Word and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

¹⁰I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet

¹¹saying, "What you see, write in a book and send to the seven assemblies: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."

¹²I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. Having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands.

¹³And in the midst of the lampstands was one like a son of man, clothed with a robe reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest.

¹⁴His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.

¹⁵His feet were like burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace. His voice was like the voice of many waters.

¹⁶He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.

¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, "Don't be afraid. I am the first and the last,

¹⁸and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. I have the keys of Death and of Hades.

¹⁹Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter;

²⁰the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven assemblies. The seven lampstands are seven assemblies.

2To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write: "He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands says these things:

²"I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can't tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false.

³You have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake, and have not grown weary.

⁴But I have this against you, that you left your first love.

⁵Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you, and will move your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent.

⁶But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of my God.

⁸"To the angel of the assembly in Smyrna write: "The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life says these things:

⁹"I know your oppression, and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

¹⁰Don't be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life.

¹¹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. He who overcomes won't be hurt by the second death.

¹²"To the angel of the assembly in Pergamum write: "He who has the sharp two-edged sword says these things:

¹³"I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and didn't deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

¹⁴But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

¹⁵So you also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans in the same way.

¹⁶Repent therefore, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.

¹⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.

¹⁸"To the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write: "The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things:

¹⁹I know your works, your love, faith, service, patient endurance, and that your last works are more than the first.

²⁰But I have this against you, that you tolerate your woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

²¹I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

²²Behold, I will throw her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great oppression, unless they repent of her works.

²³I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

²⁴But to you I say, to the rest who are in Thyatira, as many as don't have this teaching, who don't know what some call 'the deep things of Satan,' to you I say, I don't lay on you any other burden.

²⁵Nevertheless that which you have, hold firmly until I come.

²⁶He who overcomes, and he who keeps my works to the end, to him will I give authority over the nations.

²⁷He will rule them with a rod of iron, shattering them like clay pots; as I also have received of my Father:

²⁸and I will give him the morning star.

²⁹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

3"And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars says these things: "I know your works, that you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

²Wake up, and establish the things that remain, which were ready to die, for I have found no works of yours perfected before my God.

³Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If therefore you won't watch, I will come as a thief, and you won't know what hour I will come on you.

⁴Nevertheless you have a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

⁵He who overcomes will be arrayed like this in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

⁶He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

⁷"To the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia write: "He who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and that shuts and no one opens, says these things:

⁸"I know your works (behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut), that you have a little power, and kept my word, and didn't deny my name.

⁹Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.

¹⁰Because you kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that which is to come on the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.

¹¹I come quickly. Hold firmly that which you have, so that no one takes your crown.

¹²He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will go out from there no more. I will write on him 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, and my own new name.

¹³He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

¹⁴"To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: "The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Head of God's creation, says these things:

¹⁵"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.

¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth.

¹⁷Because you say, 'I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;' and don't know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;

¹⁸I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

¹⁹As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.

²⁰Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me.

²¹He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.

²²He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies."

4After these things I looked and saw a door opened in heaven, and the first voice that I heard, like a trumpet speaking with me, was one saying, "Come up here, and I will show you the things which must happen after this."

²Immediately I was in the Spirit. Behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne

³that looked like a jasper stone and a sardius. There was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald to look at.

⁴Around the throne were twenty-four thrones. On the thrones were twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white garments, with crowns of gold on their heads.

⁵Out of the throne proceed lightnings, sounds, and thunders. There were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

⁶Before the throne was something like a sea of glass, like a crystal. In the midst of the throne, and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind.

⁷The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.

⁸and the four living creatures, having each one of them six wings, are full of eyes around about and within. They have no rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.

⁹When the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever,

¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever, and will throw their crowns before the throne, saying,

¹¹"Worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and because of your desire they existed, and were created."

5I saw, in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written within and on the back, sealed shut with seven seals.

²I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?"

³No one in heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look in it.

⁴And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book, or to look in it.

⁵One of the elders said to me, "Don't weep. Behold, the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome to open the book and its seven seals."

⁶I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.

⁷Then he came, and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.

⁸Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

⁹They sang a new song, saying, "You are worthy to take the book, And to open its seals: For you were killed, And bought us for God with your blood, Out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,

¹⁰And made them kings and priests to our God, And they reign on earth."

¹¹I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands;

¹²saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, riches, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing!"

¹³I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever. Amen."

¹⁴The four living creatures said, "Amen!" The elders fell down and worshipped.

6I saw that the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, "Come and see!"

²I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow. A crown was given to him, and he came forth conquering, and to conquer.

³When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come!"

⁴Another came forth, a red horse. To him who sat on it was given to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another. There was given to him a great sword.

⁵When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come and see!" I saw, and behold, a black horse. He who sat on it had a balance in his hand.

⁶I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A choenix of wheat for a denarius, and three choenix of barley for a denarius! Don't damage the oil and the wine!"

⁷When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come and see!"

⁸I saw, and behold, a pale horse. He who sat on him, his name was Death. Hades followed with him. Authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with death, and by the wild animals of the earth was given to them.

⁹When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.

¹⁰They cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, Master, the holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

¹¹There was given to each one of them a white robe. It was said to them that they should rest yet for a little time, until their fellow servants and their brothers, who would also be killed even as they were, had been fulfilled.

¹²I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became as blood.

¹³The stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind.

¹⁴The sky was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

¹⁵The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and freeman, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.

¹⁶They told the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,

¹⁷for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?"

7After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree.

²I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea,

³saying, "Don't harm the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!"

⁴I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:

⁵Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand, Of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, Of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand,

⁶Of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, Of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand, Of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand,

⁷Of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, Of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, Of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand,

⁸Of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand, Of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.

⁹After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.

¹⁰They cried with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation be to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

¹¹All the angels were standing around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures; and they fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,

¹²saying, "Amen! Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might, be to our God forever and ever! Amen."

¹³One of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are arrayed in white robes, who are they, and where did they come from?"

¹⁴I told him, "My lord, you know." He said to me, "These are those who came out of the great oppression. They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb's blood.

¹⁵Therefore are they before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.

¹⁶They will never be hungry, neither thirsty any more; neither will the sun beat on them, nor any heat;

¹⁷for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to living springs of waters. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

8When he opened the seventh seal, there followed a silence in heaven for about half an hour.

²I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.

³Another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer. Much incense was given to him, that he should add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.

⁴The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand.

⁵The angel took the censer, and he filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it on the earth. There followed thunders, sounds, lightnings, and an earthquake.

⁶The seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

⁷The first sounded, and there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and they were thrown on the earth. One third of the earth was burnt up, and one third of the trees were burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

⁸The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. One third of the sea became blood,

⁹and one third of the creatures which were in the sea died, those who had life. One third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from the sky, burning like a torch, and it fell on one third of the rivers, and on the springs of the waters.

¹¹The name of the star is called "Wormwood." One third of the waters became wormwood. Many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.

¹²The fourth angel sounded, and one third of the sun was struck, and one third of the moon, and one third of the stars; so that one third of them would be darkened, and the day wouldn't shine for one third of it, and the night in the same way.

¹³I saw, and I heard an eagle, flying in mid heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe! Woe! Woe for those who dwell on the earth, because of the other voices of the trumpets of the three angels, who are yet to sound.

9The fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star from the sky fallen to the earth. The key to the pit of the abyss was given to him.

²He opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke from a great furnace. The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke from the pit.

³Then out of the smoke came forth locusts on the earth, and power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

⁴They were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men who don't have God's seal on their foreheads.

⁵They were given power not to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion, when it strikes a man.

⁶In those days men will seek death, and will in no way find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

⁷The shapes of the locusts were like horses prepared for war. On their heads were something like gold crowns, and their faces were like men's faces.

⁸They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like those of lions.

⁹They had breastplates, like breastplates of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots, or of many horses rushing to war.

¹⁰They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails is their power to harm men for five months.

¹¹They have over them as king the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is "Abaddon," but in Greek, he has the name "Apollyon."

¹²The first woe is past. Behold, there are still two woes coming after this.

¹³The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God,

¹⁴saying to the sixth angel who had one trumpet, "Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."

¹⁵The four angels were freed who had been prepared for that hour and day and month and year, so that they would kill one third of mankind.

¹⁶The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them.

¹⁷Thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, having breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of lions. Out of their mouths proceed fire, smoke, and sulfur.

¹⁸By these three plagues were one third of mankind killed: by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur, which proceeded out of their mouths.

¹⁹For the power of the horses is in their mouths, and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, and have heads, and with them they harm.

²⁰The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn't repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn't worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk.

²¹They didn't repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their sexual immorality, nor of their thefts.

10I saw another mighty angel coming down out of the sky, clothed with a cloud. A rainbow was on his head. His face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.

²He had in his hand a little book open. He set his right foot on the sea, and his left on the land.

³He cried with a loud voice, as a lion roars. When he cried, the seven thunders uttered their voices.

⁴When the seven thunders sounded, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from the sky saying, "Seal up the things which the seven thunders said, and don't write them."

⁵The angel who I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to the sky,

⁶and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there will no longer be delay,

⁷but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as he declared to his servants, the prophets.

⁸The voice which I heard from heaven, again speaking with me, said, "Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land."

⁹I went to the angel, saying, "Give me the little book." He said to me, "Take it, and eat it up. It will make your belly bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey."

¹⁰I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth. When I had eaten it, my belly was made bitter.

¹¹He told me, "You must prophesy again over many peoples, nations, languages, and kings."

11A reed like a rod was given to me. One said, "Rise, and measure God's temple, and the altar, and those who worship in it.

²Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don't measure it, for it has been given to the gentiles. They will tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months.

³I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.

⁴These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands, standing before the Lord of the earth.

⁵If anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies. If anyone desires to harm them, he must be killed in this way.

⁶These have the power to shut up the sky, that it may not rain during the days of their prophecy. They have power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire.

⁷When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them.

⁸Their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

⁹From among the peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will people look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not allow their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.

¹⁰Those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, and make merry. They will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.

¹¹After the three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood on their feet. Great fear fell on those who saw them.

¹²I heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here!" They went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies saw them.

¹³In that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

¹⁴The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe comes quickly.

¹⁵The seventh angel sounded, and there followed great voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ. He will reign forever and ever!"

¹⁶The twenty-four elders, who sit before God on their thrones, fell on their faces and worshipped God,

¹⁷saying: "We give you thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, the one who is and who was; because you have taken your great power, and reigned.

¹⁸The nations were angry, and your wrath came, as did the time for the dead to be judged, and to give your servants, the prophets, their reward, as well as the saints, and those who fear your name, the small and the great; and to destroy those who destroy the earth."

¹⁹God's temple that is in heaven was opened, and the ark of the Lord's covenant was seen in his temple. There followed lightnings, sounds, thunders, an earthquake, and great hail.

12A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

²She was with child. She cried out, laboring and in pain, giving birth.

³Another sign was seen in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns.

⁴His tail drew one third of the stars of the sky, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.

⁵She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God, and to his throne.

⁶The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that there they may nourish her one thousand two hundred sixty days.

⁷There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war.

⁸They didn't prevail, neither was a place found for him any more in heaven.

⁹The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

¹⁰I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now is come the salvation, the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.

¹¹They overcame him because of the Lamb's blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn't love their life, even to death.

¹²Therefore rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time."

¹³When the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.

¹⁴Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

¹⁵The serpent spewed water out of his mouth after the woman like a river, that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream.

¹⁶The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon spewed out of his mouth.

¹⁷The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep God's commandments and hold Jesus' testimony.

13Then I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads, blasphemous names.

²The beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.

³One of his heads looked like it had been wounded fatally. His fatal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled at the beast.

⁴They worshipped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"

⁵A mouth speaking great things and blasphemy was given to him. Authority to continue for forty-two months was given to him.

⁶He opened his mouth for blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tent, those who dwell in heaven.

⁷It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. Authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation was given to him.

⁸All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed.

⁹If anyone has an ear, let him hear.

¹⁰If anyone gathers into captivity, into captivity he goes. If anyone will kill with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

¹¹I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon.

¹²He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.

¹³He performs great signs, even making fire come down out of the sky on the earth in the sight of men.

¹⁴He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to do in front of the beast; saying to those who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived.

¹⁵It was given to him to give breath to it, to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as wouldn't worship the image of the beast to be killed.

¹⁶He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead;

¹⁷and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name.

¹⁸Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred sixty-six.

14I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him one hundred forty-four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads.

²I heard a sound from heaven, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of a great thunder. The sound which I heard was like that of harpers playing on their harps.

³They sing something like a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. None could learn the song except the one hundred forty-four thousand, those who had been redeemed out of the earth.

⁴These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed by Jesus from among men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb.

⁵In their mouth was found no lie. They are without fault.

⁶I saw another angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation, tribe, language, and people.

⁷He said with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give him glory; for the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the springs of waters!"

⁸Another, a second angel, followed, saying, "Babylon the great has fallen, which has made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality."

⁹Another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a great voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead, or on his hand,

¹⁰he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.

¹¹The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.

¹²Here is the patience of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."

¹³I heard the voice from heaven saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them."

¹⁴I looked, and behold, a white cloud; and on the cloud one sitting like a son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

¹⁵Another angel came out from the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, "Send forth your sickle, and reap; for the hour to reap has come; for the harvest of the earth is ripe!"

¹⁶He who sat on the cloud thrust his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

¹⁷Another angel came out from the temple which is in heaven. He also had a sharp sickle.

¹⁸Another angel came out from the altar, he who has power over fire, and he called with a great voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Send forth your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe!"

¹⁹The angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vintage of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

²⁰The winepress was trodden outside of the city, and blood came out from the winepress, even to the bridles of the horses, as far as one thousand six hundred stadia.

15I saw another great and marvelous sign in the sky: seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them God's wrath is finished.

²I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire. Those who overcame the beast, and his image, and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

³They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations.

⁴Who wouldn't fear you, Lord, And glorify your name? For you only are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you. For your righteous acts have been revealed.

⁵After these things I looked, and the temple of the tent of the testimony in heaven was opened.

⁶The seven angels who had the seven plagues came out from the temple, clothed with pure, bright linen, and wearing golden sashes around their breasts.

⁷One of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.

⁸The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power. No one was able to enter into the temple, until the seven plagues of the seven angels would be finished.

16I heard a loud voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God on the earth!"

²The first went, and poured out his bowl into the earth, and it became a harmful and evil sore on the men that had the mark of the beast, and that worshipped his image.

³The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man. Every living thing in the sea died.

⁴The third poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and it became blood.

⁵I heard the angel of the waters saying, "You are righteous, who are and who were, you Holy One, because you judged this way.

⁶For they poured out the blood of the saints and the prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve this."

⁷I heard the altar saying, "Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments."

⁸The fourth poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given to him to scorch men with fire.

⁹Men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn't repent and give him glory.

¹⁰The fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened. They gnawed their tongues because of the pain,

¹¹and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They didn't repent of their works.

¹²The sixth poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. Its water was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sunrise.

¹³I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, something like frogs;

¹⁴for they are spirits of demons, performing signs; which go forth to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.

¹⁵"Behold, I come like a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his clothes, so that he doesn't walk naked, and they see his shame."

¹⁶He gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew, "Har-magedon."

¹⁷The seventh poured out his bowl into the air. A loud voice came forth out of the temple, from the throne, saying, "It is done!"

¹⁸There were lightnings, sounds, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men on the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty.

¹⁹The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

²⁰Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

²¹Great hailstones, about the weight of a talent, came down out of the sky on men. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague of it is exceeding great.

17One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters,

²with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and those who dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her sexual immorality."

³He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored animal, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.

⁴The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations, even the unclean things of her sexual immorality,

⁵and on her forehead a name written, "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."

⁶I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.

⁷The angel said to me, "Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.

⁸The beast that you saw was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go into destruction. Those who dwell on the earth will wonder, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast, how that he was, and is not, and will come.

⁹Here is the mind that has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits.

¹⁰They are seven kings. Five have fallen, the one is, the other is not yet come. When he comes, he must continue a little while.

¹¹The beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he goes to destruction.

¹²The ten horns that you saw are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour.

¹³These have one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast.

¹⁴These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings. They also will overcome who are with him, called and chosen and faithful."

¹⁵He said to me, "The waters which you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages.

¹⁶The ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute, and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh, and will burn her utterly with fire.

¹⁷For God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, and to come to unity of mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished.

¹⁸The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth."

18After these things, I saw another angel coming down out of the sky, having great authority. The earth was illuminated with his glory.

²He cried with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and has become a habitation of demons, and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird!

³For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury."

⁴I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come forth, my people, out of her, that you have no participation her sins, and that you don't receive of her plagues,

⁵for her sins have reached to the sky, and God has remembered her iniquities.

⁶Return to her just as she returned, and double to her the double according to her works. In the cup which she mixed, mix to her double.

⁷However much she glorified herself, and grew wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, 'I sit a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see mourning.'

⁸Therefore in one day her plagues will come: death, mourning, and famine; and she will be utterly burned with fire; for the Lord God who has judged her is strong.

⁹The kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived wantonly with her, will weep and wail over her, when they look at the smoke of her burning,

¹⁰standing far away for the fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For your judgment has come in one hour.'

¹¹The merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise any more;

¹²merchandise of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, all expensive wood, every vessel of ivory, every vessel made of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble;

¹³and cinnamon, spices, incense, ointment, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, and sheep; and merchandise of horses and chariots and slaves; and souls of men.

¹⁴The fruits which your soul lusted after have been lost to you, and all things that were dainty and sumptuous have perished from you, and you will find them no more at all.

¹⁵The merchants of these things, who were made rich by her, will stand far away for the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning;

¹⁶saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, she who was dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls!

¹⁷For in an hour such great riches are made desolate.' Every shipmaster, and everyone who sails anywhere, and mariners, and as many as gain their living by sea, stood far away,

¹⁸and cried out as they looked at the smoke of her burning, saying, 'What is like the great city?'

¹⁹They cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her great wealth!' For in one hour is she made desolate.

²⁰Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints, you apostles, and you prophets; for God has judged your judgment on her."

²¹A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all.

²²The voice of harpers and minstrels and flute players and trumpeters will be heard no more at all in you. No craftsman, of whatever craft, will be found any more at all in you. The sound of a mill will be heard no more at all in you.

²³The light of a lamp will shine no more at all in you. The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will be heard no more at all in you; for your merchants were the princes of the earth; for with your sorcery all the nations were deceived.

²⁴In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth."

19After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God:

²for true and righteous are his judgments. For he has judged the great prostitute, her who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his servants at her hand."

³A second time they said, "Hallelujah! Her smoke goes up forever and ever."

⁴The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who sits on the throne, saying, "Amen! Hallelujah!"

⁵A voice came forth from the throne, saying, "Give praise to our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, the small and the great!"

⁶I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunders, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns!

⁷Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let us give the glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready."

⁸It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

⁹He said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" He said to me, "These are true words of God."

¹⁰I fell down before his feet to worship him. He said to me, "Look! Don't do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy."

¹¹I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war.

¹²His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has names written and a name written which no one knows but he himself.

¹³He is clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood. His name is called "The Word of God."

¹⁴The armies which are in heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in white, pure, fine linen.

¹⁵Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, two-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron. He treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty.

¹⁶He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

¹⁷I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, "Come! Be gathered together to the great supper of God,

¹⁸that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, and small and great."

¹⁹I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse, and against his army.

²⁰The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. They two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

²¹The rest were killed with the sword of him who sat on the horse, the sword which came forth out of his mouth. All the birds were filled with their flesh.

20I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

²He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for one thousand years,

³and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were finished. After this, he must be freed for a short time.

⁴I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as didn't worship the beast nor his image, and didn't receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived, and reigned with Christ one thousand years.

⁵The rest of the dead didn't live until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

⁶Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him one thousand years.

⁷And after the thousand years, Satan will be freed out of his prison,

⁸and will come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

⁹They went up over the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the beloved city. Fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them.

¹⁰The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where are also the beast and the false prophet. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

¹¹I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.

¹²I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.

¹³The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works.

¹⁴Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.

¹⁵If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

21I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more.

²I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

³I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, "Behold, God's tent is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

⁴He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.

⁵He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true."

⁶He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life.

⁷He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.

⁸But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

⁹One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were laden with the seven last plagues came, and he spoke with me, saying, "Come here. I will show you the wife, the Lamb's bride."

¹⁰He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

¹¹having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, as if it was a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

¹²having a great and high wall; having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.

¹³On the east were three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.

¹⁵He who spoke with me had for a measure a golden reed to measure the city, its gates, and its walls.

¹⁶The city lies foursquare, and its length is as great as its breadth. He measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand stadia. Its length, breadth, and height are equal.

¹⁷He measured its wall, one hundred forty-four cubits, by the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.

¹⁸The construction of its wall was jasper. The city was pure gold, like pure glass.

¹⁹The foundations of the city's wall were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald;

²⁰the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprasus; the eleventh, jacinth; and the twelfth, amethyst.

²¹The twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each one of the gates was made of one pearl. The street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

²²I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, are its temple.

²³The city has no need for the sun, neither of the moon, to shine, for the very glory of God illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

²⁴The nations will walk in its light. The kings of the earth bring their glory into it.

²⁵Its gates will in no way be shut by day (for there will be no night there),

²⁶and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.

²⁷There will in no way enter into it anything profane, or one who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

22He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,

²in the midst of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

³There will be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will serve him.

⁴They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

⁵There will be no more night, and they need no lamp light, neither sunlight; for the Lord God will give them light. They will reign forever and ever.

⁶He said to me, "These words are faithful and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angels to show to his servants the things which must happen soon."

⁷"Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."

⁸Now I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.

⁹He said to me, "See you don't do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God."

¹⁰He said to me, "Don't seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.

¹¹He who acts unjustly, let him act unjustly still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him do righteousness still. He who is holy, let him be holy still."

¹²"Behold, I come quickly. My reward is with me, to repay to each man according to his work.

¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

¹⁴Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.

¹⁵Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

¹⁶I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things to you for the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David; the Bright and Morning Star. "

¹⁷The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" He who hears, let him say, "Come!" He who is thirsty, let him come. He who desires, let him take the water of life freely.

¹⁸I testify to every man who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, may God add to him the plagues which are written in this book.

¹⁹If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, may God take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.

²⁰He who testifies these things says, "Yes, I come quickly." Amen! Come, Lord Jesus.

²¹The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.