Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander.
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,
now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight,
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
. . .
He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.
These were the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun,
Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, and Shelah. These three were born to him by Bath-shua the Canaanite. Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, who put him to death.
Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, bore to him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all.
The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.
. . .
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.
My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
. . .
Have we no right to food and to drink?
Have we no right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?
Or are Barnabas and I the only apostles who must work for a living?
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not drink of its milk?
Do I say this from a human perspective? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing?
. . .
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.
If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him:
. . .
He also removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made a detestable Asherah pole. Asa chopped down the pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley.
After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel.
Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers and instructed them: “Go inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this injury.”
But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are on your way to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?’
Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘You will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.’” So Elijah departed.
When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, “Why have you returned?”
. . .
After the death of Saul, David returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days.
On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head arrived from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him homage.
“Where have you come from?” David asked. “I have escaped from the Israelite camp,” he replied.
“What was the outcome?” David asked. “Please tell me.” “The troops fled from the battle,” he replied. “Many of them fell and died. And Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead.”
Then David asked the young man who had brought him the report, “How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”
. . .
On the appointed day, Herod donned his royal robes, sat on his throne, and addressed the people.
And they began to shout, “This is the voice of a god, not a man!”
Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.
Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.
I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.
Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,
because we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints—
the faith and love proceeding from the hope stored up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard in the word of truth, the gospel
. . .
Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many generous gifts. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon and chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon.
This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. Now, Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because none of the wise men of my kingdom can interpret it for me. But you are able, because the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”
But at last, into my presence came Daniel (whose name is Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods). And I told him the dream:
“O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery baffles you. So explain to me the visions I saw in my dream, and their interpretation.
Later, King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he drank wine with them.
Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king could drink from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.
Thus they brought in the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king drank from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.
As they drank the wine, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.
At that moment the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. As the king watched the hand that was writing,
. . .
Then Belshazzar gave the command, and they clothed Daniel in purple, placed a gold chain around his neck, and proclaimed him the third highest ruler in the kingdom.
If a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you,
and if the sign or wonder he has spoken to you comes about, but he says, “Let us follow other gods (which you have not known) and let us worship them,”
you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
In the third year of his reign, Xerxes held a feast for all his officials and servants. The military leaders of Persia and Media were there, along with the nobles and princes of the provinces.
Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women in the royal palace of King Xerxes.
On the seventh day, when the king’s heart was merry with wine, he ordered the seven eunuchs who served him—Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carkas—
to bring Queen Vashti before him, wearing her royal crown, to display her beauty to the people and officials. For she was beautiful to behold.
Queen Vashti, however, refused to come at the king’s command brought by his eunuchs. And the king became furious, and his anger burned within him.
Afterward, Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for service to the LORD, since each man went against his son and his brother; so the LORD has bestowed a blessing on you this day.”
Now there have been many other priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office.
But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood.
Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.
For Christ did not enter a man-made copy of the true sanctuary, but He entered heaven itself, now to appear on our behalf in the presence of God.
Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.
Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb.
But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit like a carcass trampled underfoot.
You will not join them in burial, since you have destroyed your land and slaughtered your own people. The offspring of the wicked will never again be mentioned.
This is the message that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.
And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Then He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor train anymore for war.
Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.
. . .
He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.
Summon the archers against Babylon, all who string the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets, and all her warriors will be silenced in that day,” declares the LORD.
“Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts, “for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.
The arrogant one will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities to consume all those around him.”
This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “The sons of Israel are oppressed, and the sons of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to release them.
. . .
So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.
Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the vengeance of the LORD—vengeance for His temple.
On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the first year of the reign of Evil-merodach king of Babylon, he pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison.
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.
He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?”
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
. . .
The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
The captain approached him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call upon your God. Perhaps this God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”
“Beware of the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, and they love the greetings in the marketplaces, the chief seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.
But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.
And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ.
When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain and sat down. His disciples came to Him,
and He began to teach them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
. . .
Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab.
The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah, and they entered the land of Moab and settled there.
Then Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons,
who took Moabite women as their wives, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth. And after they had lived in Moab about ten years,
both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and without her husband.
. . .