Malachi 2 Cross References - BBE

¹ And now, O you priests, this order is for you. ² If you will not give ear and take it to heart, to give glory to my name, says the Lord of armies, then I will send the curse on you and will put a curse on your blessing: truly, even now I have put a curse on it, because you do not take it to heart. ³ See, I will have your arm cut off, and will put waste on your faces, even the waste from your feasts; and you will be taken away with it. ⁴ And you will be certain that I have sent this order to you, so that it might be my agreement with Levi, says the Lord of armies. ⁵ My agreement with him was on my side life and peace, and I gave them to him; on his side fear, and he had fear of me and gave honour to my name. ⁶ True teaching was in his mouth, and no evil was seen on his lips: he was walking with me in peace and righteousness, turning numbers of people away from evil-doing. ⁷ For it is right for the priest's lips to keep knowledge, and for men to be waiting for the law from his mouth: for he is the servant sent from the Lord of armies. ⁸ But you are turned out of the way; you have made the law hard for numbers of people; you have made the agreement of Levi of no value, says the Lord of armies. ⁹ And so I have taken away your honour and made you low before all the people, even as you have not kept my ways, and have given no thought to me in using the law. ¹⁰ Have we not all one father? has not one God made us? why are we, every one of us, acting falsely to his brother, putting shame on the agreement of our fathers? ¹¹ Judah has been acting falsely, and a disgusting thing has been done in Jerusalem; for Judah has made unclean the holy place of the Lord which is dear to him, and has taken as his wife the daughter of a strange god. ¹² The Lord will have the man who does this cut off root and branch out of the tents of Jacob, and him who makes an offering to the Lord of armies. ¹³ And this again you do: covering the altar of the Lord with weeping and with grief, so that he gives no more thought to the offering, and does not take it with pleasure from your hand. ¹⁴ But you say, For what reason? Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your early years, to whom you have been untrue, though she is your friend and the wife to whom you have given your word. ¹⁵ (UNTRANSLATED TEXT) So give thought to your spirit, and let no one be false to the wife of his early years. ¹⁶ For I am against the putting away of a wife, says the Lord, the God of Israel, and against him who is clothed with violent acts, says the Lord of armies: so give thought to your spirit and do not be false in your acts. ¹⁷ You have made the Lord tired with your words. And still you say, How have we made him tired? By your saying, Everyone who does evil is good in the eyes of the Lord, and he has delight in them; or, Where is God the judge?

²⁷ And God made man in his image, in the image of God he made him: male and female he made them.

⁷ And the Lord God made man from the dust of the earth, breathing into him the breath of life: and man became a living soul.

¹⁸ And the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be by himself: I will make one like himself as a help to him

²⁰ And the man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field; but Adam had no one like himself as a help. ²¹ And the Lord God sent a deep sleep on the man, and took one of the bones from his side while he was sleeping, joining up the flesh again in its place: ²² And the bone which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman, and took her to the man. ²³ And the man said, This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh: let her name be Woman because she was taken out of Man. ²⁴ For this cause will a man go away from his father and his mother and be joined to his wife; and they will be one flesh.

³ And after a time, Cain gave to the Lord an offering of the fruits of the earth. ⁴ And Abel gave an offering of the young lambs of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord was pleased with Abel's offering; ⁵ But in Cain and his offering he had no pleasure. And Cain was angry and his face became sad.

²¹ And Enoch was sixty-five years old when he became the father of Methuselah: ²² And after the birth of Methuselah, Enoch went on in God's ways for three hundred years, and had sons and daughters: ²³ And all the years of Enoch's life were three hundred and sixty-five: ²⁴ And Enoch went on in God's ways: and he was not seen again, for God took him.

¹ And after a time, when men were increasing on the earth, and had daughters, ² The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took wives for themselves from those who were pleasing to them.

² The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took wives for themselves from those who were pleasing to them.

⁹ These are the generations of Noah. Noah was an upright man and without sin in his generation: he went in the ways of God.

¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord came to him, and said, I am God, Ruler of all; go in my ways and be upright in all things,

³ And take an oath by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not get a wife for my son Isaac from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am living; ⁴ But that you will go into my country and to my relations and get a wife there for my son Isaac. ⁵ And the servant said, If by chance the woman will not come with me into this land, am I to take your son back again to the land from which you came? ⁶ And Abraham said, Take care that you do not let my son go back to that land. ⁷ The Lord God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from the land of my birth, and made an oath to me, saying, To your seed I will give this land: he will send his angel before you and give you a wife for my son in that land.

⁴⁴ Take a drink, and I will get water for your camels; let her be the woman marked out by the Lord for my master's son.

³⁴ And when Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite: ³⁵ And Isaac and Rebekah had grief of mind because of them.

⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, My life is a weariness to me because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob takes a wife from among the daughters of Heth, such as these, the women of this land, of what use will my life be to me?

² But go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and there get yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. ³ And may God, the Ruler of all, give you his blessing, giving you fruit and increase, so that you may become an army of peoples. ⁴ And may God give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed, so that the land of your wanderings, which God gave to Abraham, may be your heritage.

⁵⁰ If you are cruel to my daughters, or if you take other wives in addition to my daughters, then though no man is there to see, God will be the witness between us.

⁵ If now you will truly give ear to my voice and keep my agreement, you will be my special property out of all the peoples: for all the earth is mine:

⁵ If now you will truly give ear to my voice and keep my agreement, you will be my special property out of all the peoples: for all the earth is mine: ⁶ And you will be a kingdom of priests to me, and a holy nation. These are the words which you are to say to the children of Israel.

¹⁴ But the flesh of the ox and its skin and its waste parts are to be burned outside the circle of the tents, for it is a sin-offering.

²⁶ Then Moses took his place at the way into the tents, and said, Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come to me. And all the sons of Levi came together to him. ²⁷ And he said to them, This is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: Let every man take his sword at his side, and go from one end of the tents to the other, putting to death his brother and his friend and his neighbour. ²⁸ And the sons of Levi did as Moses said; and about three thousand of the people were put to death that day. ²⁹ And Moses said, You have made yourselves priests to the Lord this day; for every one of you has made the offering of his son and his brother; the blessing of the Lord is on you this day.

¹⁰ And the Lord said, See, this is what I will undertake: before the eyes of your people I will do wonders, such as have not been done in all the earth or in any nation: and all your people will see the work of the Lord, for what I am about to do for you is greatly to be feared. ¹¹ Take care to do the orders which I give you today; I will send out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. ¹² But take care, and do not make any agreement with the people of the land where you are going, for it will be a cause of sin to you. ¹³ But their altars are to be overturned and their pillars broken and their images cut down: ¹⁴ For you are to be worshippers of no other god: for the Lord is a God who will not give his honour to another. ¹⁵ So see that you make no agreement with the people of the land, and do not go after their gods, or take part in their offerings, or be guests at their feasts, ¹⁶ Or take their daughters for your sons; for when their daughters give worship before their gods, they will make your sons take part with them.

¹¹ Teaching the children of Israel all the laws which the Lord has given them by the hand of Moses.

²⁴ Do not make yourself unclean in any of these ways; for so have those nations whom I am driving out from before you made themselves unclean: ²⁵ And the land itself has become unclean; so that I have sent on it the reward of its wrongdoing, and the land itself puts out those who are living in it. ²⁶ So then keep my rules and my decisions, and do not do any of these disgusting things, those of you who are Israelites by birth, or any others who are living with you: ²⁷ For all these disgusting things were done by the men of this country who were there before you, and the land has been made unclean by them; ²⁸ So that the land may not put you out from it, when you make it unclean, as it put out the nations which were there before you. ²⁹ For all those who do any of these disgusting things will be cut off from among their people.

²⁹ For all those who do any of these disgusting things will be cut off from among their people. ³⁰ So then, keep my orders, so that you may not do any of these disgusting things which were done before you, or make yourselves unclean through them: I am the Lord your God.

³ And my face will be turned against that man, and he will be cut off from his people; because he has given his offspring to Molech, making my holy place unclean, and making my holy name common.

²⁶ And you are to be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy and have made you separate from the nations, so that you may be my people.

¹⁵ And he may not make his seed unclean among his people, for I the Lord have made him holy.

¹⁴ But if you do not give ear to me, and do not keep all these my laws; ¹⁵ And if you go against my rules and if you have hate in your souls for my decisions and you do not do all my orders, but go against my agreement; ¹⁶ This will I do to you: I will put fear in your hearts, even wasting disease and burning pain, drying up the eyes and making the soul feeble, and you will get no profit from your seed, for your haters will take it for food. ¹⁷ And my face will be turned from you, and you will be broken before those who are against you, and your haters will become your rulers, and you will go in flight when no man comes after you. ¹⁸ And if, even after these things, you will not give ear to me, then I will send you punishment seven times more for your sins. ¹⁹ And the pride of your strength will be broken, and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass; ²⁰ And your strength will be used up without profit; for your land will not give her increase and the trees of the field will not give their fruit. ²¹ And if you still go against me and will not give ear to me, I will put seven times more punishments on you because of your sins. ²² I will let loose the beasts of the field among you, and they will take away your children and send destruction on your cattle, so that your numbers will become small and your roads become waste. ²³ And if by these things you will not be turned to me, but still go against me; ²⁴ Then I will go against you, and I will give you punishment, I myself, seven times for all your sins. ²⁵ And I will send a sword on you to give effect to the punishment of my agreement; and when you come together into your towns I will send disease among you and you will be given up into the hands of your haters. ²⁶ When I take away your bread of life, ten women will be cooking bread in one oven, and your bread will be measured out by weight; you will have food but never enough. ²⁷ And if, after all this, you do not give ear to me, but go against me still, ²⁸ Then my wrath will be burning against you, and I will give you punishment, I myself, seven times for your sins. ²⁹ Then you will take the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters for food; ³⁰ And I will send destruction on your high places, overturning your perfume altars, and will put your dead bodies on your broken images, and my soul will be turned from you in disgust. ³¹ And I will make your towns waste and send destruction on your holy places; I will take no pleasure in the smell of your sweet perfumes; ³² And I will make your land a waste, a wonder to your haters living in it. ³³ And I will send you out in all directions among the nations, and my sword will be uncovered against you, and your land will be without any living thing, and your towns will be made waste. ³⁴ Then will the land take pleasure in its Sabbaths while it is waste and you are living in the land of your haters; then will the land have rest. ³⁵ All the days while it is waste will the land have rest, such rest as it never had in your Sabbaths, when you were living in it. ³⁶ And as for the rest of you, I will make their hearts feeble in the land of their haters, and the sound of a leaf moved by the wind will send them in flight, and they will go in flight as from the sword, falling down when no one comes after them; ³⁷ Falling on one another, as before the sword, when no one comes after them; you will give way before your haters. ³⁸ And death will overtake you among strange nations, and the land of your haters will be your destruction. ³⁹ And those of you who are still living will be wasting away in their sins in the land of your haters; in the sins of their fathers they will be wasting away. ⁴⁰ And they will have grief for their sins and for the sins of their fathers, when their hearts were untrue to me, and they went against me; ⁴¹ So that I went against them and sent them away into the land of their haters: if then the pride of their hearts is broken and they take the punishment of their sins, ⁴² Then I will keep in mind the agreement which I made with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will keep in mind the land. ⁴³ And the land, while she is without them, will keep her Sabbaths; and they will undergo the punishment of their sins, because they were turned away from my decisions and in their souls was hate for my laws. ⁴⁴ But for all that, when they are in the land of their haters I will not let them go, or be turned away from them, or give them up completely; my agreement with them will not be broken, for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ And because of them I will keep in mind the agreement which I made with their fathers, whom I took out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord. ⁴⁶ These are the rules, decisions, and laws, which the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.

¹² See, I have taken the Levites out of the children of Israel to be mine in place of the first sons of the children of Israel;

⁴⁵ Take the Levites in place of all the first sons of the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites in place of their cattle; the Levites are to be mine; I am the Lord.

¹⁵ After that, the Levites will go in to do whatever has to be done in the Tent of meeting; you are to make them clean and give them as a wave offering.

³⁰ But the person who does wrong in the pride of his heart, if he is one of you or of another nation by birth, is acting without respect for the Lord, and will be cut off from his people. ³¹ Because he had no respect for the word of the Lord, and did not keep his law, that man will be cut off without mercy and his sin will be on him.

⁹ Does it seem only a small thing to you that the God of Israel has made you separate from the rest of Israel, letting you come near himself to do the work of the House of the Lord, and to take your place before the people to do what has to be done for them; ¹⁰ Letting you, and all your brothers the sons of Levi, come near to him? and would you now be priests?

⁸ And the Lord said to Aaron, See, I have given into your care my lifted offerings; even all the holy things of the children of Israel I have given to you and to your sons as your right for ever, because you have been marked with the holy oil. ⁹ This is to be yours of the most holy things, out of the fire offerings; every offering of theirs, every meal offering and sin-offering, and every offering which they make on account of error, is to be most holy for you and your sons. ¹⁰ As most holy things they are to be your food: let every male have them for food; it is to be holy to you. ¹¹ And this is yours: the lifted offering which they give and all the wave offerings of the children of Israel I have given to you and to your sons and to your daughters as your right for ever: everyone in your house who is clean may have them for food. ¹² All the best of the oil and the wine and the grain, the first-fruits of them which they give to the Lord, to you have I given them. ¹³ The earliest produce from their land which they take to the Lord is to be yours; everyone in your house who is clean may have it for his food. ¹⁴ Everything given by oath to the Lord in Israel is to be yours. ¹⁵ The first birth of every living thing which is offered to the Lord, of man or beast, is to be yours; but for the first sons of man payment is to be made, and for the first young of unclean beasts. ¹⁶ Payment is to be made for these when they are a month old, at the value fixed by you, a price of five shekels by the scale of the holy place, that is, twenty gerahs to the shekel. ¹⁷ But no such payment may be made for the first birth of an ox or a sheep or a goat; these are holy: their blood is to be dropped on the altar, and their fat burned for an offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the Lord. ¹⁸ Their flesh is to be yours; like the breast of the wave offering and the right leg, it is to be yours. ¹⁹ All the lifted offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel give to the Lord, I have given to you and to your sons and to your daughters as a right for ever. This is an agreement made with salt before the Lord, to you and to your seed for ever. ²⁰ And the Lord said to Aaron, You will have no heritage in their land, or any part among them; I am your part and your heritage among the children of Israel. ²¹ And to the children of Levi I have given as their heritage all the tenths offered in Israel, as payment for the work they do, the work of the Tent of meeting. ²² In future the children of Israel are not to come near the Tent of meeting, so that death may not come to them because of sin. ²³ But the Levites are to do the work of the Tent of meeting, and be responsible for errors in connection with it: this is a law for ever through all your generations; and among the children of Israel they will have no heritage. ²⁴ For the tenths which the children of Israel give as a lifted offering to the Lord I have given to the Levites as their heritage. and so I have said to them, Among the children of Israel they will have no heritage.

⁵ How fair are your tents, O Jacob, your houses, O Israel!

¹² So say to them that I will make with him an agreement of peace: ¹³ And by this agreement, he and his sons after him have the right to be priests for ever; because, by his care for the honour of his God, he took away the sin of the children of Israel.

²¹ He will take his place before Eleazar the priest, so that he may get directions from the Lord for him, with the Urim: at his word they will go out, and at his word they will come in, he and all the children of Israel.

¹⁷ In judging, do not let a man's position have any weight with you; give hearing equally to small and great; have no fear of any man, for it is God who is judge: and any cause in which you are not able to give a decision, you are to put before me and I will give it a hearing.

³ Do not take wives or husbands from among them; do not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons. ⁴ For through them your sons will be turned from me to the worship of other gods: and the Lord will be moved to wrath against you and send destruction on you quickly.

⁴ For through them your sons will be turned from me to the worship of other gods: and the Lord will be moved to wrath against you and send destruction on you quickly. ⁵ But this is what you are to do to them: their altars are to be pulled down and their pillars broken, and their holy trees cut down and their images burned with fire. ⁶ For you are a holy people to the Lord your God: marked out by the Lord your God to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.

² For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has taken you to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.

⁹ And see that there is no evil thought in your heart, moving you to say to yourself, The seventh year, the year of forgiveness is near; and so looking coldly on your poor countryman you give him nothing; and he will make an outcry to the Lord against you, and it will be judged as sin in you.

⁸ If you are not able to give a decision as to who is responsible for a death, or who is right in a cause, or who gave the first blow in a fight, and there is a division of opinion about it in your town: then go to the place marked out by the Lord your God; ⁹ And come before the priests, the Levites, or before him who is judge at the time: and they will go into the question and give you a decision: ¹⁰ And you are to be guided by the decision they give in the place named by the Lord, and do whatever they say: ¹¹ Acting in agreement with their teaching and the decision they give: not turning to one side or the other from the word they have given you.

⁵ Then the priests, the sons of Levi, are to come near; for they have been marked out by the Lord your God to be his servants and to give blessings in the name of the Lord; and by their decision every argument and every blow is to be judged:

¹ If a man takes a wife, and after they are married she is unpleasing to him because of some bad quality in her, let him give her a statement in writing and send her away from his house. ² And when she has gone away from him, she may become another man's wife. ³ And if the second husband has no love for her and, giving her a statement in writing, sends her away; or if death comes to the second husband to whom she was married; ⁴ Her first husband, who had sent her away, may not take her back after she has been wife to another; for that is disgusting to the Lord: and you are not to be a cause of sin in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage.

⁸ In connection with the leper's disease, take care to keep and do every detail of the teaching of the priests, the Levites: as I gave them orders, so you are to do.

¹⁴ No part of these things has been used for food in a time of weeping, or put away when I was unclean, or given for the dead: I have given ear to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done all you have given me orders to do.

¹⁵ But if you do not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, and take care to do all his orders and his laws which I give you today, then all these curses will come on you and overtake you: ¹⁶ You will be cursed in the town and cursed in the field. ¹⁷ A curse will be on your basket and on your bread-basin. ¹⁸ A curse will be on the fruit of your body, and on the fruit of your land, on the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock. ¹⁹ You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ²⁰ The Lord will send on you cursing and trouble and punishment in everything to which you put your hand, till sudden destruction overtakes you; because of your evil ways in which you have been false to me. ²¹ The Lord will send disease after disease on you, till you have been cut off by death from the land to which you are going. ²² The Lord will send wasting disease, and burning pain, and flaming heat against you, keeping back the rain till your land is waste and dead; so will it be till your destruction is complete. ²³ And the heaven over your heads will be brass, and the earth under you hard as iron. ²⁴ The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust, sending it down on you from heaven till your destruction is complete. ²⁵ The Lord will let you be overcome by your haters: you will go out against them one way, and you will go in flight before them seven ways: you will be the cause of fear among all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ Your bodies will be meat for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth; there will be no one to send them away. ²⁷ The Lord will send on you the disease of Egypt, and other sorts of skin diseases which nothing will make well. ²⁸ He will make your minds diseased, and your eyes blind, and your hearts wasted with fear: ²⁹ You will go feeling your way when the sun is high, like a blind man for whom all is dark, and nothing will go well for you: you will be crushed and made poor for ever, and you will have no saviour. ³⁰ You will take a wife, but another man will have the use of her: the house which your hands have made will never be your resting-place: you will make a vine-garden, and never take the fruit of it. ³¹ Your ox will be put to death before your eyes, but its flesh will not be your food: your ass will be violently taken away before your face, and will not be given back to you: your sheep will be given to your haters, and there will be no saviour for you. ³² Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people, and your eyes will be wasted away with looking and weeping for them all the day: and you will have no power to do anything. ³³ The fruit of your land and all the work of your hands will be food for a nation which is strange to you and to your fathers; you will only be crushed down and kept under for ever: ³⁴ So that the things which your eyes have to see will send you out of your minds. ³⁵ The Lord will send a skin disease, attacking your knees and your legs, bursting out from your feet to the top of your head, so that nothing will make you well. ³⁶ And you, and the king whom you have put over you, will the Lord take away to a nation strange to you and to your fathers; there you will be servants to other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ And you will become a wonder and a name of shame among all the nations where the Lord will take you. ³⁸ You will take much seed out into the field, and get little in; for the locust will get it. ³⁹ You will put in vines and take care of them, but you will get no wine or grapes from them; for they will be food for worms. ⁴⁰ Your land will be full of olive-trees, but there will be no oil for the comfort of your body; for your olive-tree will give no fruit. ⁴¹ You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be yours; for they will go away prisoners into a strange land. ⁴² All your trees and the fruit of your land will be the locust's. ⁴³ The man from a strange land who is living among you will be lifted up higher and higher over you, while you go down lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He will let you have his wealth at interest, and will have no need of yours: he will be the head and you the tail. ⁴⁵ And all these curses will come after you and overtake you, till your destruction is complete; because you did not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, or keep his laws and his orders which he gave you: ⁴⁶ These things will come on you and on your seed, to be a sign and a wonder for ever; ⁴⁷ Because you did not give honour to the Lord your God, worshipping him gladly, with joy in your hearts on account of all your wealth of good things; ⁴⁸ For this cause you will become servants to those whom the Lord your God will send against you, without food and drink and clothing, and in need of all things: and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck till he has put an end to you. ⁴⁹ The Lord will send a nation against you from the farthest ends of the earth, coming with the flight of an eagle; a nation whose language is strange to you; ⁵⁰ A hard-faced nation, who will have no respect for the old or mercy for the young: ⁵¹ He will take the fruit of your cattle and of your land till death puts an end to you: he will let you have nothing of your grain or wine or oil or any of the increase of your cattle or the young of your flock, till he has made your destruction complete. ⁵² Your towns will be shut in by his armies, till your high walls, in which you put your faith, have come down: his armies will be round your towns, through all your land which the Lord your God has given you. ⁵³ And your food will be the fruit of your body, the flesh of the sons and daughters which the Lord your God has given you; because of your bitter need and the cruel grip of your haters. ⁵⁴ That man among you who is soft and used to comfort will be hard and cruel to his brother, and to his dear wife, and to of those his children who are still living; ⁵⁵ And will not give to any of them the flesh of his children which will be his food because he has no other; in the cruel grip of your haters on all your towns. ⁵⁶ The most soft and delicate of your women, who would not so much as put her foot on the earth, so delicate is she, will be hard-hearted to her husband and to her son and to her daughter; ⁵⁷ And to her baby newly come to birth, and to the children of her body; for having no other food, she will make a meal of them secretly, because of her bitter need and the cruel grip of your haters on all your towns. ⁵⁸ If you will not take care to do all the words of this law, recorded in this book, honouring that name of glory and of fear, THE LORD YOUR GOD; ⁵⁹ Then the Lord your God will make your punishment, and the punishment of your seed, a thing to be wondered at; great punishments and cruel diseases stretching on through long years. ⁶⁰ He will send on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which were a cause of fear to you, and they will take you in their grip. ⁶¹ And all the diseases and the pains not recorded in the book of this law will the Lord send on you till your destruction is complete. ⁶² And you will become a very small band, though your numbers were like the stars of heaven; because you did not give ear to the voice of the Lord your God. ⁶³ And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and increasing you, so the Lord will take pleasure in cutting you off and causing your destruction, and you will be uprooted from the land which you are about to take as your heritage. ⁶⁴ And the Lord will send you wandering among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other: there you will be servants to other gods, of wood and stone, gods of which you and your fathers had no knowledge. ⁶⁵ And even among these nations there will be no peace for you, and no rest for your feet: but the Lord will give you there a shaking heart and wasting eyes and weariness of soul: ⁶⁶ Your very life will be hanging in doubt before you, and day and night will be dark with fears, and nothing in life will be certain: ⁶⁷ In the morning you will say, If only it was evening! And at evening you will say, If only morning would come! Because of the fear in your hearts and the things which your eyes will see. ⁶⁸ And the Lord will take you back to Egypt again in ships, by the way of which I said to you, You will never see it again: there you will be offering yourselves as men-servants and women-servants to your haters for a price, and no man will take you.

¹⁷ But if your heart is turned away and your ear is shut, and you go after those who would make you servants and worshippers of other gods: ¹⁸ I give witness against you this day that destruction will certainly be your fate, and your days will be cut short in the land where you are going, the land of your heritage on the other side of Jordan.

⁴ He is the Rock, complete is his work; for all his ways are righteousness: a God without evil who keeps faith, true and upright is he.

⁸ And of Levi he said, Give your Thummim to Levi and let the Urim be with your loved one, whom you put to the test at Massah, with whom you were angry at the waters of Meribah; ⁹ Who said of his father, Who is he? and of his mother, I have not seen her; he kept himself separate from his brothers and had no knowledge of his children: for they have given ear to your word and kept your agreement. ¹⁰ They will be the teachers of your decisions to Jacob and of your law to Israel: the burning of perfumes before you will be their right, and the ordering of burned offerings on your altar.

¹⁰ They will be the teachers of your decisions to Jacob and of your law to Israel: the burning of perfumes before you will be their right, and the ordering of burned offerings on your altar. ¹¹ Let your blessing, O Lord, be on his substance, may the work of his hands be pleasing to you: may those who take up arms against him and all who have hate for him, be wounded through the heart, never to be lifted up again.

²⁶ No other is like the God of Jeshurun, coming on the heavens to your help, and letting his glory be seen in the skies. ²⁷ The God of your fathers is your safe resting-place, and under you are his eternal arms: driving out the forces of your haters from before you, he said, Let destruction overtake them. ²⁸ And Israel is living in peace, the fountain of Jacob by himself, in a land of grain and wine, with dew dropping from the heavens. ²⁹ Happy are you, O Israel: who is like you, a people whose saviour is the Lord, whose help is your cover, whose sword is your strength! All those who are against you will put themselves under your rule, and your feet will be planted on their high places.

¹⁹ And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give glory and praise to the Lord, the God of Israel; give me word now of what you have done, and keep nothing back from me.

¹² For if you go back, joining yourselves to the rest of these nations who are still among you, getting married to them and living with them and they with you:

¹² For if you go back, joining yourselves to the rest of these nations who are still among you, getting married to them and living with them and they with you: ¹³ Then you may be certain that the Lord your God will not go on driving these nations out from before you; but they will become a danger and a cause of sin to you, a whip for your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you are cut off from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

¹³ Then you may be certain that the Lord your God will not go on driving these nations out from before you; but they will become a danger and a cause of sin to you, a whip for your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you are cut off from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁴ Now I am about to go the way of all the earth: and you have seen and are certain, all of you, in your hearts and souls, that in all the good things which the Lord said about you, he has kept faith with you; everything has come true for you. ¹⁵ And you will see that, as all the good things which the Lord your God undertook to do for you, have come to you, so the Lord will send down on you all the evil things till he has made your destruction complete, and you are cut off from the good land which the Lord your God has given you. ¹⁶ If the agreement of the Lord your God, which was given to you by his orders, is broken, and you become the servants of other gods and give them worship, then the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, and you will quickly be cut off from the good land which he has given you.

³ And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River, guiding him through all the land of Canaan; I made his offspring great in number, and gave him Isaac.

⁶ And they took as wives the daughters of these nations and gave their daughters to their sons, and became servants to their gods.

¹⁰ And the responsible men of Gilead said to Jephthah, May the Lord be our witness: we will certainly do as you say.

⁹ So after they had taken food and wine in the guest room, Hannah got up. Now Eli the priest was seated by the pillars of the doorway of the Temple of the Lord. ¹⁰ And with grief in her soul, weeping bitterly, she made her prayer to the Lord.

³ Say no more words of pride; let not uncontrolled sayings come out of your mouths: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, by him acts are judged.

¹⁷ And the sin of these young men was very great before the Lord; for they gave no honour to the Lord's offerings.

²⁴ No, my sons, the account which is given me, which the Lord's people are sending about, is not good.

²⁹ Why then are you looking with envy on my offerings of meat and of meal which were ordered by my word, honouring your sons before me, and making yourselves fat with all the best of the offerings of Israel, my people? ³⁰ For this reason the Lord God of Israel has said, Truly I did say that your family and your father's people would have their place before me for ever: but now the Lord says, Let it not be so; I will give honour to those by whom I am honoured, and those who have no respect for me will be of small value in my eyes.

³⁰ For this reason the Lord God of Israel has said, Truly I did say that your family and your father's people would have their place before me for ever: but now the Lord says, Let it not be so; I will give honour to those by whom I am honoured, and those who have no respect for me will be of small value in my eyes. ³¹ See, the days are coming when your arm and the arm of your father's people will be cut off; ³² And never again will there be an old man in your family. ³³ But one man of your family will not be cut off by my hand, and his eyes will be made dark, and grief will be in his heart: and all the offspring of your family will come to their end by the sword of men. ³⁴ And this will be the sign to you, which will come on Hophni and Phinehas, your sons; death will overtake them on the same day.

¹⁴ So I have made an oath to the family of Eli that no offering of meat or of meal which they may make will ever take away the sin of his family.

⁵ Then he said, The Lord is witness against you, and the man on whom he has put the holy oil is witness this day that you have seen no wrong in me. And they said, He is witness.

²² And Samuel said, Has the Lord as much delight in offerings and burned offerings as in the doing of his orders? Truly, to do his pleasure is better than to make offerings, and to give ear to him than the fat of sheep. ²³ For to go against his orders is like the sin of those who make use of secret arts, and pride is like giving worship to images. Because you have put away from you the word of the Lord, he has put you from your place as king.

¹⁹ And Tamar, in her grief, put dust on her head; and she put her hand on her head and went away crying loudly. ²⁰ And her brother Absalom said to her, Has your brother Amnon been with you? but now, let there be an end to your crying, my sister: he is your brother, do not take this thing to heart. So Tamar went on living uncomforted in her brother's house.

¹ Now a number of strange women were loved by Solomon, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites: ² The nations of which the Lord had said to the children of Israel, You are not to take wives from them and they are not to take wives from you; or they will certainly make you go after their gods: to these Solomon was united in love. ³ He had seven hundred wives, daughters of kings, and three hundred other wives; and through his wives his heart was turned away. ⁴ For it came about that when Solomon was old, his heart was turned away to other gods by his wives; and his heart was no longer true to the Lord his God as the heart of his father David had been. ⁵ For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcom, the disgusting god of the Ammonites. ⁶ And Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord, not walking in the Lord's ways with all his heart as David his father did. ⁷ Then Solomon put up a high place for Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, in the mountain before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the disgusting god worshipped by the children of Ammon. ⁸ And so he did for all his strange wives, who made offerings with burning of perfumes to their gods.

¹⁰ So I will send evil on the line of Jeroboam, cutting off from his family every male child, those who are shut up and those who go free in Israel; the family of Jeroboam will be brushed away like a man brushing away waste till it is all gone.

²⁵ And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe.

²⁸ And Micaiah said, If you come back at all in peace, the Lord has not sent his word by me.

³⁶ So they came back and gave him word of it. And he said, This is what the Lord said by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the heritage of Jezreel the flesh of Jezebel will become food for dogs; ³⁷ And the dead body of Jezebel will be like waste dropped on the face of the earth in the heritage of Jezreel; so that they will not be able to say, This is Jezebel.

⁸ And selection was made of them for their special work, all having equal chances, small as well as great, the teacher as the learner.

⁸ And with them, Shemaiah and Nethaniah and Zebadiah and Asahel and Shemiramoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah and Tob-adonijah, the Levites; and Elishama and Jehoram the priests. ⁹ And they gave teaching in Judah and had the book of the law of the Lord with them; they went through all the towns of Judah teaching the people.

²² And Hezekiah said kind words to the Levites who were expert in the ordering of the worship of the Lord: so they kept the feast for seven days, offering peace-offerings and praising the Lord, the God of their fathers.

¹⁰ For Ezra had given his mind to learning the law of the Lord and doing it, and to teaching his rules and decisions in Israel.

¹ Now after these things were done, the captains came to me and said, The people of Israel and the priests and Levites have not kept themselves separate from the people of the lands, but have taken part in the disgusting ways of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites. ² For they have taken their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed has been mixed with the peoples of the lands; and in fact the captains and rulers have been the first to do this evil.

⁴ Then everyone who went in fear of the words of the God of Israel, because of the sin of those who had come back, came together to me; and I kept where I was, overcome with grief, till the evening offering.

¹¹ Which you gave to your servants the prophets, saying, The land into which you are going, to take it for a heritage, is an unclean land, because of the evil lives of the peoples of the land and their disgusting ways, which have made the land unclean from end to end. ¹² So now do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or do anything for their peace or well-being for ever; so that you may be strong, living on the good of the land, and handing it on to your children for a heritage for ever.

¹² So now do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or do anything for their peace or well-being for ever; so that you may be strong, living on the good of the land, and handing it on to your children for a heritage for ever. ¹³ And after everything which has come on us because of our evil-doing and our great sin, and seeing that the punishment which you, O God, have given us, is less than the measure of our sins, and that you have kept from death those of us who are here; ¹⁴ Are we again to go against your orders, taking wives from among the people who do these disgusting things? would you not be angry with us till our destruction was complete, till there was not one who got away safe?

² And Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answering, said to Ezra, We have done evil against our God, and have taken as our wives strange women of the peoples of the land: but still there is hope for Israel in this question.

² And Shecaniah, the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answering, said to Ezra, We have done evil against our God, and have taken as our wives strange women of the peoples of the land: but still there is hope for Israel in this question. ³ Let us now make an agreement with our God to put away all the wives and all their children, if it seems right to my lord and to those who go in fear of the words of our God; and let it be done in keeping with the law.

¹⁸ And among the sons of the priests who were married to strange women were these: of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak and his brothers, Maaseiah and Eliezer and Jarib and Gedaliah. ¹⁹ And they gave their word that they would put away their wives; and for their sin, they gave an offering of a male sheep of the flock.

² And Ezra the priest put the law before the meeting of the people, before the men and women and all those who were able to take it in, on the first day of the seventh month. ³ He was reading it in the wide place in front of the water-doorway, from early morning till the middle of the day, in the hearing of all those men and women whose minds were able to take it in; and the ears of all the people were open to the book of the law. ⁴ And Ezra the scribe took his place on a tower of wood which they had made for the purpose; and by his side were placed Mattithiah and Shema and Anaiah and Uriah and Hilkiah and Maaseiah on the right; and on the left, Pedaiah and Mishael and Malchijah and Hashum and Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam. ⁵ And Ezra took the book, opening it before the eyes of all the people for he was higher than the people; and when it was open, all the people got to their feet: ⁶ And Ezra gave praise to the Lord, the great God. And all the people in answer said, So be it, so be it; lifting up their hands; and with bent heads they gave worship to the Lord, going down on their faces to the earth. ⁷ And Jeshua and Bani and Sherebiah and Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites made the law clear to the people: and the people kept in their places. ⁸ And they gave out the words of the book the law of God, clearly, and gave the sense of it, so that their minds were able to take it in. ⁹ And Nehemiah, who was the Tirshatha, and Ezra, the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were the teachers of the people, said to all the people, This day is holy to the Lord your God; let there be no sorrow or weeping; for all the people were weeping on hearing the words of the law. ¹⁰ Then he said to them, Go away now, and take the fat for your food and the sweet for your drink, and send some to him for whom nothing is made ready: for this day is holy to our Lord: and let there be no grief in your hearts; for the joy of the Lord is your strong place. ¹¹ So the Levites made all the people quiet, saying, Be quiet, for the day is holy; and do not give way to grief. ¹² And all the people went away to take food and drink, and to send food to others, and to be glad, because the words which were said to them had been made clear.

²³ And in those days I saw the Jews who were married to women of Ashdod and Ammon and Moab: ²⁴ And their children were talking half in the language of Ashdod; they had no knowledge of the Jews' language, but made use of the language of the two peoples.

²⁴ And their children were talking half in the language of Ashdod; they had no knowledge of the Jews' language, but made use of the language of the two peoples. ²⁵ And I took up the cause against them, cursing them and giving blows to some of them and pulling out their hair; and I made them take an oath by God, saying, You are not to give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. ²⁶ Was it not in these things that Solomon, king of Israel, did wrong? among a number of nations there was no king like him, and he was dear to his God, and God made him king over all Israel: but even he was made to do evil by strange women. ²⁷ Are we then without protest to let you do all this great evil, sinning against our God by taking strange women for your wives? ²⁸ And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib, the chief priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite: so I sent him away from me. ²⁹ Keep them in mind, O my God, because they have put shame on the priests' name and on the agreement of the priests and the Levites.

²⁹ Keep them in mind, O my God, because they have put shame on the priests' name and on the agreement of the priests and the Levites.

⁷ Like the waste from his body he comes to an end for ever: those who have seen him say, Where is he?

³ For all my breath is still in me, and the spirit of God is my life;

¹⁵ Did not God make him as well as me? did he not give us life in our mothers' bodies?

⁵ For Job has said, I am upright, and it is God who has taken away my right; ⁶ Though I am right, still I am in pain; my wound may not be made well, though I have done no wrong. ⁷ What man is like Job, a man who freely makes sport of God, ⁸ And goes in the company of evil-doers, walking in the way of sinners? ⁹ For he has said, It is no profit to a man to take delight in God.

¹⁷ How may a hater of right be a ruler? and will you say that the upright Ruler of all is evil?

³⁶ May Job be tested to the end, because his answers have been like those of evil men.

¹⁷ (UNTRANSLATED TEXT)

¹¹ He says in his heart, God has no memory of me: his face is turned away; he will never see it. ¹² Up! O Lord; let your hand be lifted: give thought to the poor. ¹³ Why has the evil-doer a low opinion of God, saying in his heart, You will not make search for it?

²¹ For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not been turned away in sin from my God.

³⁰ The mouth of the good man says words of wisdom; the talk of his tongue is of righteousness.

²² Let their table before them be for their destruction; let their feasts become a net to take them.

³ Because of my envy of the men of pride, when I saw the well-being of the wrongdoers. ⁴ For they have no pain; their bodies are fat and strong. ⁵ They are not in trouble as others are; they have no part in the unhappy fate of men. ⁶ For this reason pride is round them like a chain; they are clothed with violent behaviour as with a robe. ⁷ Their eyes are bursting with fat; they have more than their heart's desire. ⁸ Their thoughts are deep with evil designs; their talk from their seats of power is of cruel acts. ⁹ Their mouth goes up to heaven; their tongues go walking through the earth. ¹⁰ For this reason they are full of bread; and water is ever flowing for them. ¹¹ And they say, How will the Lord see this? is there knowledge in the Most High? ¹² Truly, such are the sinners; they do well at all times, and their wealth is increased. ¹³ As for me, I have made my heart clean to no purpose, washing my hands in righteousness; ¹⁴ For I have been troubled all the day; every morning have I undergone punishment. ¹⁵ If I would make clear what it is like, I would say, You are false to the generation of your children.

³⁴ When he sent death on them, then they made search for him; turning to him and looking for him with care; ³⁵ In the memory that God was their Rock, and the Most High God their saviour. ³⁶ But their lips were false to him, and their tongues were untrue to him; ³⁷ And their hearts were not right with him, and they did not keep their agreement with him.

¹¹ But my people did not give ear to my voice; Israel would have nothing to do with me. ¹² So I gave them up to the desires of their hearts; that they might go after their evil purposes.

¹⁰ Who came to destruction at En-dor; their bodies became dust and waste.

⁹ When your fathers put me to the test and saw my power and my work. ¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with this generation, and said, They are a people whose hearts are turned away from me, for they have no knowledge of my ways;

³ Be certain that the Lord is God; it is he who has made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep to whom he gives food.

²⁸ And they were joined to Baal-peor, and took part in the offerings to the dead.

³⁰ Then Phinehas got up, and made prayer for them; and the disease went no farther. ³¹ And all the generations coming after him kept the memory of his righteousness for ever.

³⁴ They did not put an end to the peoples, as the Lord had said; ³⁵ But they were joined to the nations, learning their works. ³⁶ And they gave worship to images; which were a danger to them: ³⁷ They even made offerings of their sons and their daughters to evil spirits, ³⁸ And gave the blood of their sons and their daughters who had done no wrong, offering them to the images of Canaan; and the land was made unclean with blood. ³⁹ So they became unclean through their works, going after their evil desires.

⁷ When he is judged, let the decision go against him; and may his prayer become sin. ⁸ Let his life be short; let another take his position of authority. ⁹ Let his children have no father, and his wife be made a widow. ¹⁰ Let his children be wanderers, looking to others for their food; let them be sent away from the company of their friends. ¹¹ Let his creditor take all his goods; and let others have the profit of his work. ¹² Let no man have pity on him, or give help to his children when he is dead. ¹³ Let his seed be cut off; in the coming generation let their name go out of memory. ¹⁴ Let the Lord keep in mind the wrongdoing of his fathers; and may the sin of his mother have no forgiveness. ¹⁵ Let them be ever before the eyes of the Lord, so that the memory of them may be cut off from the earth.

¹⁰² My heart has not been turned away from your decisions; for you have been my teacher.

¹⁷ Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind:

²³ And keep watch over your heart with all care; so you will have life.

¹⁸ Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years. ¹⁹ As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.

²⁵ Let not your heart's desire go after her fair body; let not her eyes take you prisoner.

²⁵ Let not your heart be turned to her ways, do not go wandering in her footsteps.

⁷ The memory of the upright is a blessing, but the name of the evil-doer will be turned to dust.

⁸ The offering of the evil-doer is disgusting to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright man is his delight.

²⁷ The offering of evil-doers is disgusting: how much more when they give it with an evil purpose!

¹³ He who keeps his sins secret will not do well; but one who is open about them, and gives them up, will get mercy.

²⁰ This is the way of a false wife; she takes food, and, cleaning her mouth, says, I have done no wrong.

¹ And again I saw all the cruel things which are done under the sun; there was the weeping of those who have evil done to them, and they had no comforter: and from the hands of the evil-doers there went out power, but they had no comforter.

¹¹ Because punishment for an evil work comes not quickly, the minds of the sons of men are fully given to doing evil.

⁹ Have joy with the woman of your love all the days of your foolish life which he gives you under the sun. Because that is your part in life and in your work which you do under the sun.

⁷ And the dust goes back to the earth as it was, and the spirit goes back to God who gave it.

¹⁵ See, you are fair, my love, you are fair; you have the eyes of a dove.

¹¹ What use to me is the number of the offerings which you give me? says the Lord; your burned offerings of sheep, and the best parts of fat cattle, are a weariness to me; I take no pleasure in the blood of oxen, or of lambs, or of he-goats. ¹² At whose request do you come before me, making my house unclean with your feet? ¹³ Give me no more false offerings; the smoke of burning flesh is disgusting to me, so are your new moons and Sabbaths and your holy meetings. ¹⁴ Your new moons and your regular feasts are a grief to my soul: they are a weight in my spirit; I am crushed under them.

¹⁴ Your new moons and your regular feasts are a grief to my soul: they are a weight in my spirit; I am crushed under them. ¹⁵ And when your hands are stretched out to me, my eyes will be turned away from you: even though you go on making prayers, I will not give ear: your hands are full of blood.

²⁴ For this reason the Lord, the Lord of armies, the Strong One of Israel, has said, I will put an end to my haters, and send punishment on those who are against me; ²⁵ And my hand will again be on you, washing away what is unclean as with soap, and taking away all your false metal; ²⁶ And I will give you judges again as at the first, and wise guides as in the past; then you will be named, The Town of Righteousness, the true town. ²⁷ Upright acts will be the price of Zion's forgiveness, and by righteousness will men be living there. ²⁸ But a common destruction will overtake sinners and evil-doers together, and those who have gone away from the Lord will be cut off.

¹⁸ Cursed are those who make use of ox-cords for pulling the evil thing, and the bands of a young ox for their sin! ¹⁹ Who say, Let him do his work quickly, let him make it sudden, so that we may see it: let the design of the Holy One of Israel come near, so that it may be clear to us. ²⁰ Cursed are those who give the name of good to evil, and of evil to what is good: who make light dark, and dark light: who make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter!

¹³ And he said, Give ear now, O family of David: is it not enough that you are driving men to disgust? will you do the same to my God?

¹⁴ For this cause the Lord took away from Israel head and tail, high and low, in one day. ¹⁵ The man who is honoured and responsible is the head, and the prophet who gives false teaching is the tail. ¹⁶ For the guides of this people are the cause of their wandering from the right way, and those who are guided by them come to destruction.

¹⁶ For the guides of this people are the cause of their wandering from the right way, and those who are guided by them come to destruction.

¹ See, the Lord is making the earth waste and unpeopled, he is turning it upside down, and sending the people in all directions. ² And it will be the same for the people as for the priest; for the servant as for his master; and for the woman-servant as for her owner; the same for the one offering goods for a price as for him who takes them; the same for him who gives money at interest and for him who takes it; the same for him who lets others have the use of his property as for those who make use of it.

¹¹ Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see: let them see (UNTRANSLATED TEXT) yes, your haters will be burned up in the fire.

⁹ So by this will the sin of Jacob be covered, and this is all the fruit of taking away his punishment; when all the stones of the altar are crushed together, so that the wood pillars and the sun-images will not be put up again.

²⁰ For the bed is not long enough for a man to be stretched out on: and the cover is not wide enough for him to be covered with.

⁸ Now go, put it in writing before them on a board, and make a record of it in a book, so that it may be for the future, a witness for all time to come. ⁹ For they are an uncontrolled people, false-hearted, who will not give ear to the teaching of the Lord: ¹⁰ Who say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Do not give us word of what is true, but say false things to give us pleasure: ¹¹ Get out of the good way, turning from the right road; do not keep the Holy One of Israel before our minds.

¹¹ Get out of the good way, turning from the right road; do not keep the Holy One of Israel before our minds. ¹² For this cause the Holy One of Israel says, Because you will not give ear to this word, and are looking for help in ways of deceit and evil, and are putting your hope in them: ¹³ This sin will be to you like a crack in a high wall, causing its fall suddenly and in a minute.

¹⁸ For this cause the Lord will be waiting, so that he may be kind to you; and he will be lifted up, so that he may have mercy on you; for the Lord is a God of righteousness: there is a blessing on all whose hope is in him.

¹⁹ Who is blind, but my servant? who has his ears stopped, but he whom I send? who is blind as my true one, or who has his ears shut like the Lord's servant?

²⁵ For this reason he let loose on him the heat of his wrath, and his strength was like a flame; and it put fire round about him, but he did not see it; he was burned, but did not take it to heart.

¹ But now, says the Lord your Maker, O Jacob, and your life-giver, O Israel: have no fear, for I have taken up your cause; naming you by your name, I have made you mine.

⁷ Every one who is named by my name, and whom I have made for my glory, who has been formed and designed by me.

¹⁵ I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Maker of Israel, your King.

²⁴ You have not got me sweet-smelling plants with your money, or given me pleasure with the fat of your offerings: but you have made me a servant to your sins, and you have made me tired with your evil doings.

² The Lord who made you, forming you in your mother's body, the Lord, your helper, says, Have no fear, O Jacob my servant, and you, Jeshurun, whom I have taken for myself.

²⁶ Who makes the word of his servants certain, and gives effect to the purposes of his representatives; who says of Jerusalem, Her people will come back to her; and of the towns of Judah, I will give orders for their building, and will make her waste places fertile again:

⁷ And you said, I will be a queen for ever: you did not give attention to these things, and did not keep in mind what would come after.

¹ This is the word of the Lord: Where is the statement which I gave your mother when I put her away? or to which of my creditors have I given you for money? It was for your sins that you were given into the hands of others, and for your evil-doing was your mother put away.

² Let your thoughts be turned to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth: for when he was but one, my voice came to him, and I gave him my blessing, and made him a great people.

⁶ For the Lord has made you come back to him, like a wife who has been sent away in grief of spirit; for one may not give up the wife of one's early days.

¹¹ And of whom were you in fear, so that you were false, and did not keep me in mind, or give thought to it? Have I not been quiet, keeping myself secret, and so you were not in fear of me?

³ They say, Why have we kept ourselves from food, and you do not see it? why have we kept ourselves from pleasure, and you take no note of it? If, in the days when you keep from food, you take the chance to do your business, and get in your debts;

⁶ Their twisted threads will not make clothing, and their works will give them nothing for covering themselves: their works are works of sin, and violent acts are in their hands.

¹³ We have gone against the Lord, and been false to him, turning away from our God, our words have been uncontrolled, and in our hearts are thoughts of deceit.

⁸ For I, the Lord, take pleasure in upright judging; I will not put up with the violent taking away of right; and I will certainly give them their reward, and I will make an eternal agreement with them.

¹⁶ For you are our father, though Abraham has no knowledge of us, and Israel gives no thought to us: you, O Lord, are our father; from the earliest days you have taken up our cause.

⁸ But now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the earth, and you are our maker; and we are all the work of your hand.

³ He who puts an ox to death puts a man to death; he who makes an offering of a lamb puts a dog to death; he who makes a meal offering makes an offering of pig's blood; he who makes an offering of perfumes for a sign gives worship to an image: as they have gone after their desires, and their soul takes pleasure in their disgusting things;

³ Israel was holy to the Lord, the first-fruits of his increase: all who made attacks on him were judged as wrongdoers, evil came on them, says the Lord.

⁷ And I took you into a fertile land, where you were living on its fruit and its wealth; but when you came in, you made my land unclean, and made my heritage a disgusting thing. ⁸ The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? and those who were expert in the law had no knowledge of me: and the rulers did evil against me, and the prophets became prophets of the Baal, going after things without value.

²¹ But when you were planted by me, you were a noble vine, in every way a true seed: how then have you been changed into the branching plant of a strange vine?

²¹ But when you were planted by me, you were a noble vine, in every way a true seed: how then have you been changed into the branching plant of a strange vine? ²² For even if you are washed with soda and take much soap, still your evil-doing is marked before me, says the Lord God.

⁷ And I said, After she has done all these things she will come back to me; but she did not. And her false sister Judah saw it. ⁸ And though she saw that, because Israel, turning away from me, had been untrue to me, I had put her away and given her a statement in writing ending the relation between us, still Judah, her false sister, had no fear, but went and did the same. ⁹ So that through all her loose behaviour the land became unclean, and she was untrue, giving herself to stones and trees.

¹⁶ This is what the Lord has said: Take your place looking out on the ways; make search for the old roads, saying, Where is the good way? and go in it that you may have rest for your souls. But they said, We will not go in it. ¹⁷ And I put watchmen over you, saying, Give attention to the sound of the horn; but they said, We will not give attention. ¹⁸ So then, give ear, you nations, and (UNTRANSLATED TEXT) ¹⁹ Give ear, O earth: see, I will make evil come on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not given attention to my words, and they would have nothing to do with my law. ²⁰ To what purpose does sweet perfume come to me from Sheba, and spices from a far country? your burned offerings give me no pleasure, your offerings of beasts are not pleasing to me.

²⁰ To what purpose does sweet perfume come to me from Sheba, and spices from a far country? your burned offerings give me no pleasure, your offerings of beasts are not pleasing to me.

¹⁰ And come and take your place before me in this house, which is named by my name, and say, We have been made safe; so that you may do all these disgusting things?

² And they will put them out before the sun and the moon and all the stars of heaven, whose lovers and servants they have been, after whom they have gone, to whom they have made prayers, and to whom they have given worship: they will not be put together or placed in the earth; they will be waste on the face of the earth.

¹² Let them be put to shame because they have done disgusting things. They had no shame, they were not able to become red with shame: so they will come down with those who are falling: in the time of their punishment they will be made low, says the Lord.

⁴ Let everyone keep watch on his neighbour, and put no faith in any brother: for every brother will certainly be tricking his brother, and every neighbour will go about saying evil. ⁵ Everyone will make sport of his neighbour with deceit, not saying what is true: their tongues have been trained to say false words; they are twisted, hating to come back.

¹³ Then you are to say to them, The Lord has said, I will make all the people of this land, even the kings seated on David's seat, and the priests and the prophets and all the people of Jerusalem, overcome with strong drink.

¹⁶ Give glory to the Lord your God, before he makes it dark, and before your feet are slipping on the dark mountains, and, while you are looking for a light, he makes it into deep dark, into black night. ¹⁷ But if you do not give ear to it, my soul will be weeping in secret for your pride; my eye will be weeping bitterly, streaming with water, because the Lord's flock has been taken away as prisoners.

¹² When they go without food, I will not give ear to their cry; when they give burned offerings and meal offerings, I will not take pleasure in them: but I will put an end to them by the sword and by need of food and by disease.

⁶ You have given me up, says the Lord, you have gone back: so my hand is stretched out against you for your destruction; I am tired of changing my purpose.

¹⁹ For this cause the Lord has said, If you will come back, then I will again let you take your place before me; and if you give out what is of value and not that which has no value, you will be as my mouth: let them come back to you, but do not go back to them.

⁵ This is what the Lord has said: Cursed is the man who puts his faith in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart is turned away from the Lord.

¹³ O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who give you up will be put to shame; those who go away from you will be cut off from the earth, because they have given up the Lord, the fountain of living waters.

¹⁵ For my people have put me out of their memory, burning perfumes to that which is nothing; and because of this, I will put a cause of falling in their ways, even in the old roads, and will make them go on side-roads, in a way not lifted up;

¹⁸ Then they said, Come, let us make a design against Jeremiah; for teaching will never be cut off from the priest, or wisdom from the wise, or the word from the prophet. Come, let us make use of his words for an attack on him, and let us give attention with care to what he says.

¹¹ For the prophet as well as the priest is unclean; even in my house I have seen their evil-doing, says the Lord. ¹² For this cause their steps will be slipping on their way: they will be forced on into the dark and have a fall there: for I will send evil on them in the year of their punishment, says the Lord. ¹³ And I have seen ways without sense in the prophets of Samaria; they became prophets of the Baal, causing my people Israel to go wrong. ¹⁴ And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a shocking thing; they are untrue to their wives, walking in deceit, and they make strong the hands of evil-doers, so that a man may not be turned back from his evil-doing: they have all become like Sodom to me, and its people like Gomorrah. ¹⁵ So this is what the Lord of armies has said about the prophets: See, I will give them a bitter plant for their food, and bitter water for their drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem unclean behaviour has gone out into all the land.

²² But if they had been in my secret, then they would have made my people give ear to my words, turning them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

⁴ And the Lord has sent to you all his servants the prophets, getting up early and sending them; but you have not given attention and your ear has not been open to give hearing; ⁵ Saying, Come back now, everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your doings, and keep your place in the land which the Lord has given to you and to your fathers, from times long past even for ever: ⁶ Do not go after other gods to be their servants and to give them worship, and do not make me angry with the work of your hands, causing evil to yourselves. ⁷ But you have not given ear to me, says the Lord; so that you have made me angry with the work of your hands, causing evil to yourselves. ⁸ So this is what the Lord of armies has said: Because you have not given ear to my words, ⁹ See, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and make them come against this land, and against its people, and against all these nations on every side; and I will give them up to complete destruction, and make them a cause of fear and surprise and a waste place for ever.

⁹ The prophet whose words are of peace, when his words come true, will be seen to be a prophet whom the Lord has sent.

¹⁵ Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, Give ear, now, Hananiah; the Lord has not sent you; but you are making this people put their faith in what is false. ¹⁶ For this reason the Lord has said, See, I will send you away from off the face of the earth: this year death will overtake you, because you have said words against the Lord.

²⁰ And now, give ear to the word of the Lord, all you whom I have sent away prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon. ²¹ This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said about Ahab, the son of Kolaiah, and about Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who are saying to you what is false in my name: See, I will give them up into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and he will put them to death before your eyes. ²² And their fate will be used as a curse by all the prisoners of Judah who are in Babylon, who will say, May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, who were burned in the fire by the king of Babylon;

³¹ Send to all those who have been taken away, saying, This is what the Lord has said about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has been acting as a prophet to you, and I did not send him, and has made you put your faith in what is false; ³² For this cause the Lord has said, Truly I will send punishment on Shemaiah and on his seed; not a man of his family will have a place among this people, and he will not see the good which I am going to do to my people, says the Lord: because he has said words against the Lord.

¹⁷ And so the Lord has said, You have not given ear to me and undertaken publicly, every man to let loose his countryman and his neighbour: see, I undertake to let loose against you the sword and disease and need of food; and I will send you wandering among all the kingdoms of the earth.

⁵ Then they said to Jeremiah, May the Lord be a true witness against us in good faith, if we do not do everything which the Lord your God sends you to say to us.

¹³ It is because of the sins of her prophets and the evil-doing of her priests, by whom the blood of the upright has been drained out in her.

⁷ But the children of Israel will not give ear to you; for they have no mind to give ear to me: for all the children of Israel have a hard brow and a stiff heart.

¹² And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the responsible men of the children of Israel do in the dark, every man in his room of pictured images? for they say, The Lord does not see us; the Lord has gone away from the land.

⁹ Then he said to me, The sin of the children of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is full of blood and the town full of evil ways: for they say, The Lord has gone away from the land, and the Lord does not see.

¹² And when the wall has come down, will they not say to you, Where is the whitewash which you put on it? ¹³ For this reason, the Lord has said: I will have it broken in two by a storm-wind in my passion; and there will be an overflowing shower in my wrath, and you, O ice-drops, will come raining angrily down. ¹⁴ So I will let the wall, which you were covering with whitewash, be broken down; I will have it levelled to the earth so that its base is uncovered: it will come down, and destruction will come on you with it; and it will be clear to you that I am the Lord. ¹⁵ So I will let loose my passion on the wall in full measure, and on those who put whitewash on it; and I will say to you, Where is the wall, and where are those who put whitewash on it? ¹⁶ Even the prophets of Israel who say words to Jerusalem, who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace, says the Lord.

²¹ And I will have your veils violently parted in two, and will make my people free from your hands, and they will no longer be in your power for you to go after them; and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

¹⁰ And the punishment of their sin will be on them: the sin of the prophet will be the same as the sin of him who goes to him for directions;

⁸ Now when I went past you, looking at you, I saw that your time was the time of love; and I put my skirts over you, covering your unclothed body: and I gave you my oath and made an agreement with you, says the Lord, and you became mine.

⁴³ Because you have not kept in mind the days when you were young, but have been troubling me with all these things; for this reason I will make the punishment of your ways come on your head, says the Lord, because you have done this evil thing in addition to all your disgusting acts.

¹³ And has given out his money at interest and taken great profits: he will certainly not go on living: he has done all these disgusting things: death will certainly be his fate; his blood will be on him.

³⁸ Clearing out from among you all those who are uncontrolled and who are sinning against me; I will take them out of the land where they are living, but they will not come into the land of Israel: and you will be certain that I am the Lord. ³⁹ As for you, O children of Israel, the Lord has said: Let every man completely put away his images and give ear to me: and let my holy name no longer be shamed by your offerings and your images. ⁴⁰ For in my holy mountain, in the high mountain of Israel, says the Lord, there all the children of Israel, all of them, will be my servants in the land; there I will take pleasure in them, and there I will be worshipped with your offerings and the first-fruits of the things you give, and with all your holy things. ⁴¹ I will take pleasure in you as in a sweet smell, when I take you out from the peoples and get you together from the countries where you have been sent in flight; and I will make myself holy in you before the eyes of the nations.

¹¹ And in you one man has done what was disgusting with his neighbour's wife; and another has made his daughter-in-law unclean; and another has done wrong to his sister, his father's daughter.

²¹ Say to the people of Israel, The Lord has said, See, I will make my holy place unclean, the pride of your strength, the pleasure of your eyes, and the desire of your soul; and your sons and daughters, who did not come with you here, will be put to the sword.

²⁴ Son of man, those who are living in these waste places in the land of Israel say, Abraham was but one, and he had land for his heritage: but we are a great number; the land is given to us for our heritage.

³³ And when this comes about see, it is coming, then it will be clear to them that a prophet has been among them.

²⁵ And I will make with them an agreement of peace, and will put an end to evil beasts through all the land: and they will be living safely in the waste land, sleeping in the woods.

²⁶ And I will make an agreement of peace with them: it will be an eternal agreement with them: and I will have mercy on them and make their numbers great, and will put my holy place among them for ever.

²³ And I will make my name great and make myself holy, and I will make myself clear to a number of nations; and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

⁹ For this cause the Lord has said, No man from a strange land, without circumcision of heart and flesh, of all those who are living among the children of Israel, is to come into my holy place. ¹⁰ But as for the Levites, who went far from me, when Israel went out of the right way, turning away from me to go after their images; their punishment will come on them.

¹⁰ But as for the Levites, who went far from me, when Israel went out of the right way, turning away from me to go after their images; their punishment will come on them. ¹¹ But they may be caretakers in my holy place, and overseers at the doors of the house, doing the work of the house: they will put to death the burned offering and the beasts offered for the people, and they will take their place before them as their servants. ¹² Because they did this work for them before their images, and became a cause of sin to the children of Israel; for this cause my hand has been lifted up against them, says the Lord, and their punishment will be on them. ¹³ And they will not come near me to do the work of priests to me, or come near any of my holy things, or the things which are most holy: but their shame will be on them, and the punishment for the disgusting things which they have done. ¹⁴ But I will make them responsible for the care of the house and all its work and everything which is done in it. ¹⁵ But as for the priests, the sons of Zadok, who took care of my holy place when the children of Israel were turned away from me, they are to come near me to do my work, they will take their places before me, offering to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord; ¹⁶ They are to come into my holy place and they are to come near to my table, to do my work and have the care of my house.

²³ And they are to make clear to my people the division between what is holy and what is common, and to give them the knowledge of what is clean and what is unclean. ²⁴ In any cause, they are to be in the position of judges, judging in harmony with my decisions: they are to keep my laws and my rules in all my fixed feasts; and they are to keep my Sabbaths holy.

⁵ We are sinners, acting wrongly and doing evil; we have gone against you, turning away from your orders and from your laws: ⁶ We have not given ear to your servants the prophets, who said words in your name to our kings and our rulers and our fathers and all the people of the land.

² And a number of those who are sleeping in the dust of the earth will come out of their sleep, some to eternal life and some to eternal shame. ³ And those who are wise will be shining like the light of the outstretched sky; and those by whom numbers have been turned to righteousness will be like the stars for ever and ever.

³ And those who are wise will be shining like the light of the outstretched sky; and those by whom numbers have been turned to righteousness will be like the stars for ever and ever.

¹⁰ But still the number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which may not be measured or numbered; and in place of its being said to them, You are not my people, it will be said to them, You are the sons of the living God

⁴ Let no man go to law or make protests, for your people are like those who go to law with a priest. ⁵ You will not be able to keep on your feet by day, and by night the prophet will be falling down with you, and I will give your mother to destruction. ⁶ Destruction has overtaken my people because they have no knowledge; because you have given up knowledge, I will give you up, so that you will be no priest to me, because you have not kept in mind the law of your God, I will not keep your children in my memory. ⁷ Even while they were increasing in number they were sinning against me; I will let their glory be changed into shame. ⁸ The sin of my people is like food to them; and their desire is for their wrongdoing. ⁹ And the priest will be like the people; I will give them punishment for their evil ways, and the reward of their acts. ¹⁰ They will have food, but they will not be full; they will be false to me, but they will not be increased, because they no longer give thought to the Lord.

¹ Give ear to this, O priests; give attention, O Israel, and you, family of the king; for you are to be judged; you have been a deceit at Mizpah and a net stretched out on Tabor.

⁷ But like a man, they have gone against the agreement; there they were false to me.

¹¹ As for Ephraim, their glory will go in flight like a bird: there will be no birth and no one with child and no giving of life. ¹² Even though their children have come to growth I will take them away, so that not a man will be there; for their evil-doing will be complete and they will be put to shame because of it. ¹³ As I have seen a beast whose young have been taken from her, so Ephraim will give birth to children only for them to be put to death. ¹⁴ O Lord, what will you give them? Give them bodies which may not give birth and breasts without milk.

¹⁷ The grains have become small and dry under the spade; the store-houses are made waste, the grain-stores are broken down; for the grain is dry and dead.

¹³ See, I am crushing you down, as one is crushed under a cart full of grain.

²² Even if you give me your burned offerings and your meal offerings, I will not take pleasure in them: I will have nothing to do with the peace-offerings of your fat beasts.

² Give ear, you peoples, all of you; give attention, O earth and everything in it: let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy Temple.

⁶ For this cause it will be night for you, without a vision; and it will be dark for you, without knowledge of the future; the sun will go down over the prophets, and the day will be black over them. ⁷ And the seers will be shamed, and the readers of the future will be at a loss, all of them covering their lips; for there is no answer from God.

² The good man is gone from the earth, there is no one upright among men: they are all waiting secretly for blood, every man is going after his brother with a net.

² The good man is gone from the earth, there is no one upright among men: they are all waiting secretly for blood, every man is going after his brother with a net. ³ Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward; and the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the right is twisted.

³ Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward; and the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the right is twisted. ⁴ The best of them is like a waste plant, and their upright ones are like a wall of thorns. Sorrow! the day of their fate has come; now will trouble come on them. ⁵ Put no faith in a friend, do not let your hope be placed in a relation: keep watch on the doors of your mouth against her who is resting on your breast. ⁶ For the son puts shame on his father, the daughter goes against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's haters are those of his family.

⁶ I will make you completely disgusting and full of shame, and will put you up to be looked at by all.

¹² And it will come about at that time, that I will go searching through Jerusalem with lights; and I will send punishment on the men who have become like wine stored over-long, who say to themselves, The Lord will not do good and will not do evil.

⁶ Much has been planted, but little got in; you take food, but have not enough; you take drink, but are not full; you are clothed, but no one is warm; and he who gets payment for his work, gets it to put it into a bag full of holes.

⁹ You were looking for much, and it came to little; and when you got it into your house, I took it away with a breath. Why? says the Lord of armies. Because of my house which is a waste, while every man takes care of the house which is his.

¹³ Then Haggai, whom the Lord had sent to give his words to the people, said, I am with you, says the Lord.

¹¹ These are the words of the Lord of armies: Put now a point of law to the priests, saying, ¹² If anyone has some holy flesh folded in the skirt of his robe, will bread or soup or wine or oil or any other food be made holy if touched by his skirt? And the priests answering said, No. ¹³ Then Haggai said, Will any of these be made unclean by the touch of one who is unclean through touching a dead body? And the priests answering said, It will be made unclean.

¹⁶ How, when anyone came to a store of twenty measures, there were only ten: when anyone went to the wine-store to get fifty vessels full, there were only twenty. ¹⁷ And I sent burning and wasting and a rain of ice-drops on all the works of your hands; but still you were not turned to me, says the Lord.

³ And you are to say to them, These are the words of the Lord of armies: Come back to me, says the Lord of armies, and I will come back to you. ⁴ Be not like your fathers, to whom the voice of the earlier prophets came, saying, Be turned now from your evil ways and from your evil doings: but they did not give ear to me or take note, says the Lord. ⁵ Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they go on living for ever? ⁶ But my words and my orders, which I gave to my servants the prophets, have they not overtaken your fathers? and turning back they said, As it was the purpose of the Lord of armies to do to us, in reward for our ways and our doings, so has he done.

¹¹ But they would not give attention, turning their backs and stopping their ears from hearing; ¹² And they made their hearts like the hardest stone, so that they might not give ear to the law and the words which the Lord of armies had said by the earlier prophets: and there came great wrath from the Lord of armies. ¹³ And it came about that as they would not give ear to his voice, so I would not give ear to their voice, says the Lord of armies: ¹⁴ But with a storm-wind I sent them in flight among all the nations of whom they had no knowledge. So the land was waste after them, so that no man went through or came back: for they had made waste the desired land.

⁷ And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the family of David and the glory of the people of Jerusalem may not be greater than that of Judah.

⁶ A son gives honour to his father, and a servant has fear of his master: if then I am a father, where is my honour? and if I am a master, where is the fear of me? says the Lord of armies to you, O priests, who give no value to my name. And you say, How have we not given value to your name?

⁶ A son gives honour to his father, and a servant has fear of his master: if then I am a father, where is my honour? and if I am a master, where is the fear of me? says the Lord of armies to you, O priests, who give no value to my name. And you say, How have we not given value to your name? ⁷ You put unclean bread on my altar. And you say, How have we made it unclean? By your saying, The table of the Lord is of no value.

¹⁰ If only there was one among you who would see that the doors were shut, so that you might not put a light to the fire on my altar for nothing! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of armies, and I will not take an offering from your hands.

³ See, I will have your arm cut off, and will put waste on your faces, even the waste from your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.

⁵ My agreement with him was on my side life and peace, and I gave them to him; on his side fear, and he had fear of me and gave honour to my name.

⁸ But you are turned out of the way; you have made the law hard for numbers of people; you have made the agreement of Levi of no value, says the Lord of armies. ⁹ And so I have taken away your honour and made you low before all the people, even as you have not kept my ways, and have given no thought to me in using the law.

⁹ And so I have taken away your honour and made you low before all the people, even as you have not kept my ways, and have given no thought to me in using the law. ¹⁰ Have we not all one father? has not one God made us? why are we, every one of us, acting falsely to his brother, putting shame on the agreement of our fathers?

¹⁰ Have we not all one father? has not one God made us? why are we, every one of us, acting falsely to his brother, putting shame on the agreement of our fathers? ¹¹ Judah has been acting falsely, and a disgusting thing has been done in Jerusalem; for Judah has made unclean the holy place of the Lord which is dear to him, and has taken as his wife the daughter of a strange god.

¹⁴ But you say, For what reason? Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your early years, to whom you have been untrue, though she is your friend and the wife to whom you have given your word.

¹⁴ But you say, For what reason? Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your early years, to whom you have been untrue, though she is your friend and the wife to whom you have given your word. ¹⁵ (UNTRANSLATED TEXT) So give thought to your spirit, and let no one be false to the wife of his early years.

¹⁵ (UNTRANSLATED TEXT) So give thought to your spirit, and let no one be false to the wife of his early years.

¹ See, I am sending my servant, and he will make ready the way before me; and the Lord, whom you are looking for, will suddenly come to his Temple; and the angel of the agreement, in whom you have delight, see, he is coming, says the Lord of armies.

⁵ And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies.

⁸ Will a man keep back from God what is right? But you have kept back what is mine. But you say, What have we kept back from you? Tenths and offerings. ⁹ You are cursed with a curse; for you have kept back from me what is mine, even all this nation.

¹³ Your words have been strong against me, says the Lord. And still you say, What have we said against you? ¹⁴ You have said, It is no use worshipping God: what profit have we had from keeping his orders, and going in clothing of sorrow before the Lord of armies? ¹⁵ And now to us the men of pride seem happy; yes, the evil-doers are doing well; they put God to the test and are safe.

⁹ And say not to yourselves, We have Abraham for our father; because I say to you that God is able from these stones to make children for Abraham.

¹² In whose hand is the instrument with which he will make clean his grain; he will put the good grain in his store, but the waste will be burned up in the fire which will never be put out.

²¹ You have knowledge that it was said in old times, You may not put to death; and, Whoever puts to death will be in danger of being judged: ²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be in danger of being judged; and he who says to his brother, Raca, will be in danger from the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, You foolish one, will be in danger of the hell of fire.

²⁷ You have knowledge that it was said, You may not have connection with another man's wife: ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone whose eyes are turned on a woman with desire has had connection with her in his heart.

²⁸ But I say to you that everyone whose eyes are turned on a woman with desire has had connection with her in his heart. ²⁹ And if your right eye is a cause of trouble to you, take it out and put it away from you; because it is better to undergo the loss of one part, than for all your body to go into hell.

³¹ Again, it was said, Whoever puts away his wife has to give her a statement in writing for this purpose: ³² But I say to you that everyone who puts away his wife for any other cause but the loss of her virtue, makes her false to her husband; and whoever takes her as his wife after she is put away, is no true husband to her. ³³ Again, you have knowledge that it was said in old times, Do not take false oaths, but give effect to your oaths to the Lord: ³⁴ But I say to you, Take no oaths at all: not by the heaven, because it is the seat of God; ³⁵ Or by the earth, because it is the resting-place for his foot; or by Jerusalem, because it is the town of the great King. ³⁶ You may not take an oath by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black. ³⁷ But let your words be simply, Yes or No: and whatever is more than these is of the Evil One.

⁴³ You have knowledge that it was said, Have love for your neighbour, and hate for him who is against you: ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Have love for those who are against you, and make prayer for those who are cruel to you;

²¹ And brother will give up brother to death, and the father his child: and children will go against their fathers and mothers, and put them to death.

¹⁸ For John came, taking no food or drink, and they say, He has an evil spirit. ¹⁹ The Son of man has come feasting, and they say, See, a lover of food and wine, a friend of tax-farmers and sinners! And wisdom is judged to be right by her works.

² Why do your disciples go against the teaching of the fathers? for they take food with unwashed hands. ³ And in answer he said to them, Why do you, yourselves, go against the word of God on account of the teaching which has been handed down to you? ⁴ For God said, Give honour to your father and mother: and, He who says evil of father or mother will be put to death. ⁵ But you say, If a man says to his father or his mother, That by which you might have had profit from me is given to God;

¹⁴ Let them be: they are blind guides. And if a blind man is guiding a blind man, the two will go falling into a hole together.

¹⁹ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, the taking of life, broken faith between the married, unclean desires of the flesh, taking of property, false witness, bitter words:

³ And certain Pharisees came to him, testing him, and saying, Is it right for a man to put away his wife for every cause? ⁴ And he said in answer, Have you not seen in the Writings, that he who made them at the first made them male and female, and said,

⁴ And he said in answer, Have you not seen in the Writings, that he who made them at the first made them male and female, and said, ⁵ For this cause will a man go away from his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and the two will become one flesh?

⁵ For this cause will a man go away from his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and the two will become one flesh? ⁶ So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Then let not that which has been joined by God be parted by man.

⁶ So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Then let not that which has been joined by God be parted by man. ⁷ They say to him, Why then did Moses give orders that a husband might give her a statement in writing and be free from her? ⁸ He says to them, Moses, because of your hard hearts, let you put away your wives: but it has not been so from the first. ⁹ And I say to you, Whoever puts away his wife for any other cause than the loss of her virtue, and takes another, is a false husband: and he who takes her as his wife when she is put away, is no true husband to her.

¹⁷ And he said to him, Why are you questioning me about what is good? One there is who is good: but if you have a desire to go into life, keep the rules of the law. ¹⁸ He says to him, Which? And Jesus said, Do not put anyone to death, Do not be untrue in married life, Do not take what is not yours, Do not give false witness,

¹⁶ And they sent to him their disciples, with the Herodians, saying, Master, we see that you are true, and that you are teaching the true way of God, and have no fear of anyone, because you have no respect for a man's position.

¹⁶ A curse is on you, blind guides, who say, Whoever takes an oath by the Temple, it is nothing; but whoever takes an oath by the gold of the Temple, he is responsible. ¹⁷ You foolish ones and blind: which is greater, the gold, or the Temple which makes the gold holy? ¹⁸ And, Whoever takes an oath by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever takes an oath by the offering which is on it, he is responsible. ¹⁹ You blind ones: which is greater, the offering, or the altar which makes the offering holy? ²⁰ He, then, who takes an oath by the altar, takes it by the altar and by all things on it. ²¹ And he who takes an oath by the Temple, takes it by the Temple and by him whose house it is. ²² And he who takes an oath by heaven, takes it by the seat of God, and by him who is seated on it. ²³ A curse is on you, scribes and Pharisees, false ones! for you make men give a tenth of all sorts of sweet-smelling plants, but you give no thought to the more important things of the law, righteousness, and mercy, and faith; but it is right for you to do these, and not to let the others be undone. ²⁴ You blind guides, who take out a fly from your drink, but make no trouble over a camel.

⁸ For, turning away from the law of God, you keep the rules of men. ⁹ And he said to them, Truly you put on one side the law of God, so that you may keep the rules which have been handed down to you. ¹⁰ For Moses said, Give honour to your father and mother, and, He who says evil of father or mother, let him have the punishment of death: ¹¹ But you say, If a man says to his father or his mother, That by which you might have had profit from me is Corban, that is to say, Given to God, ¹² You no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother; ¹³ Making the word of God of no effect by your rule, which you have given: and a number of other such things you do. ¹⁴ And turning to the people again, he said to them, Give ear to me all of you, and let my words be clear to you:

² And Pharisees came to him, testing him with the question, Is it right for a man to put away his wife? ³ And he said to them in answer, What did Moses say you were to do? ⁴ And they said to him, Moses let us give her a statement in writing, and be free from her. ⁵ But Jesus said to them, Because of your hard hearts he gave you this law. ⁶ But from the first, male and female made he them.

⁶ But from the first, male and female made he them. ⁷ For this cause will a man go away from his father and mother, and be joined to his wife;

⁷ For this cause will a man go away from his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; ⁸ And the two will become one flesh; so that they are no longer two, but one flesh.

⁸ And the two will become one flesh; so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹ Let not that which has been joined together by God be parted by man. ¹⁰ And in the house the disciples put questions to him again about this thing. ¹¹ And he said to them, Whoever puts away his wife and takes another, is false to his wife; ¹² And if she herself puts away her husband and takes another, she is false to her husband.

¹⁴ And when they had come, they said to him, Master, we are certain that you are true, and have no fear of anyone: you have no respect for a man's position, but you are teaching the true way of God: Is it right to give taxes to Caesar or not?

⁶ They were upright in the eyes of God, keeping all the rules and orders of God, and doing no wrong.

¹⁶ And through him great numbers of the children of Israel will be turned to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah, turning the hearts of fathers to their children, and wrongdoers to the way of righteousness; to make ready a people whose hearts have been turned to the Lord.

⁷³ The oath which he made to Abraham, our father,

⁸ Make clear by your acts that your hearts have been changed; and do not say to yourselves, We have Abraham for our father: for I say to you that God is able from these stones to make children of Abraham.

¹¹ Even the dust of your town, which is on our feet, we put off as a witness against you; but be certain of this, that the kingdom of God is near.

²⁹ But he, desiring to put himself in the right, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

⁴² But a curse is on you, Pharisees! for you make men give a tenth of every sort of plant, and give no thought to right and the love of God; but it is right for you to do these things, and not let the others be undone.

⁴⁵ And one of the teachers of the law, answering, said to him, Master, in saying this, you give a bad name to us as to them. ⁴⁶ And he said, A curse is on you, teachers of the law! for while other men are crushed under the weight of the rules you make for them, you yourselves do not put so much as one finger to them.

³⁵ It is no good for the land or for the place of waste; no one has a use for it. He who has ears, let him give ear.

¹⁸ Everyone who puts away his wife and takes another, is a false husband: and he who is married to a woman whose husband has put her away, is no true husband to her.

¹⁸ Have not any of them come back to give glory to God, but only this one from a strange land?

²¹ And they put a question to him, saying, Master, we are certain that your teaching and your words are right, and that you have no respect for a man's position, but you are teaching the true way of God:

⁴⁵ And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, ⁴⁶ Keep away from the scribes, whose pleasure it is to go about in long robes, and to have words of respect said to them in the market-places, and to take the chief seats in the Synagogues and the first places at feasts; ⁴⁷ Who take the property of widows and before the eyes of men make long prayers; they will get a greater punishment.

²⁸ But Jesus, turning to them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, let not your weeping be for me, but for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹ For the days are coming in which they will say, Happy are those who have had no children, whose bodies have never given birth, whose breasts have never given milk. ³⁰ And they will say to the mountains, Come down on us, and to the hills, Be a cover over us.

³⁹ In answer they said to him, Our father is Abraham. Jesus said to them, If you were Abraham's children you would do what Abraham did.

⁴¹ You are doing the works of your father. They said to him, We are true sons of Abraham; we have one Father, who is God.

⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead: who do you say that you are?

⁵⁶ Your father Abraham was full of joy at the hope of seeing my day: he saw it and was glad.

²⁰ Truly I say to you, He who takes to his heart anyone whom I send, takes me to his heart; and he who so takes me, takes him who sent me.

² He takes away every branch in me which has no fruit, and every branch which has fruit he makes clean, so that it may have more fruit.

²¹ And Jesus said to them again, May peace be with you! As the Father sent me, even so I now send you. ²² And when he had said this, breathing on them, he said to them, Let the Holy Spirit come on you:

²⁵ You are the sons of the prophets, and of the agreement which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, Through your seed a blessing will come on all the families of the earth.

² And he said, My brothers and fathers, give hearing. The God of glory came to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he was living in Haran,

²⁶ And the day after, he came to them, while they were having a fight, and would have made peace between them, saying, Sirs, you are brothers; why do you do wrong to one another?

¹⁷ She came after Paul and us, crying out and saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, who are giving you news of the way of salvation.

²⁵ And he is not dependent on the work of men's hands, as if he had need of anything, for he himself gives to all life and breath and all things;

¹⁸ To make their eyes open, turning them from the dark to the light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may have forgiveness of sins and a heritage among those who are made holy by faith in me.

¹⁹ In the belief that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those in the dark, ²⁰ A teacher of the foolish, having in the law the form of knowledge and of what is true; ²¹ You who give teaching to others, do you give it to yourself? you who say that a man may not take what is not his, do you take what is not yours? ²² You who say that a man may not be untrue to his wife, are you true to yours? you who are a hater of images, do you do wrong to the house of God? ²³ You who take pride in the law, are you doing wrong to the honour of God by behaviour which is against the law? ²⁴ For the name of God is shamed among the Gentiles because of you, as it is said in the holy Writings.

¹ What, then, may we say that Abraham, our father after the flesh, has got?

⁷ What then is to be said? is the law sin? in no way. But I would not have had knowledge of sin but for the law: for I would not have been conscious of desire if the law had not said, You may not have a desire for what is another's. ⁸ But sin, taking its chance through that which was ordered by the law, was working in me every form of desire: because without the law sin is dead. ⁹ And there was a time when I was living without the law: but when the law gave its orders, sin came to life and put me to death; ¹⁰ And I made the discovery that the law whose purpose was to give life had become a cause of death:

¹⁰ And not only so, but Rebecca being about to have a child by our father Isaac--

²¹ It is better not to take meat or wine or to do anything which might be a cause of trouble to your brother.

¹³ When evil things are said about us we give gentle answers: we are made as the unclean things of the world, as that for which no one has any use, even till now.

⁶ But a brother who has a cause at law against another takes it before Gentile judges. ⁷ More than this, it is not to your credit to have causes at law with one another at all. Why not put up with wrong? why not undergo loss? ⁸ So far from doing this, you yourselves do wrong and take your brothers' property.

² But because of the desires of the flesh, let every man have his wife, and every woman her husband.

¹⁴ For the husband who has not faith is made holy through his Christian wife, and the wife who is not a Christian is made holy through the brother: if not, your children would be unholy, but now are they holy.

⁶ There is for us only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we are for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we have our being through him.

²⁰ So we are the representatives of Christ, as if God was making a request to you through us: we make our request to you, in the name of Christ, be at peace with God.

¹⁴ Do not keep company with those who have not faith: for what is there in common between righteousness and evil, or between light and dark? ¹⁵ And what agreement is there between Christ and the Evil One? or what part has one who has faith with one who has not? ¹⁶ And what agreement has the house of God with images? for we are a house of the living God; even as God has said, I will be living among them, and walking with them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people. ¹⁷ For which cause, Come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and let no unclean thing come near you; and I will take you for myself, ¹⁸ And will be a Father to you; and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord, the Ruler of all.

¹⁸ And will be a Father to you; and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord, the Ruler of all.

⁶ But from those who seemed to be important whatever they were has no weight with me: God does not take man's person into account: those who seemed to be important gave nothing new to me;

¹⁴ And you did not have a poor opinion of me because of the trouble in my flesh, or put shame on it; but you took me to your hearts as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

⁶ One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

²⁵ And so, putting away false words, let everyone say what is true to his neighbour: for we are parts one of another.

⁴ And, you fathers, do not make your children angry: but give them training in the teaching and fear of the Lord.

⁹ For they themselves give the news of how we came among you; and how you were turned from images to God, to the worship of a true and living God, ¹⁰ Waiting for his Son from heaven, who came back from the dead, even Jesus, our Saviour from the wrath to come.

⁶ And that no man may make attempts to get the better of his brother in business: for the Lord is the judge in all these things, as we said to you before and gave witness.

⁸ Whoever, then, goes against this word, goes against not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

⁴ Ruling his house well, having his children under control with all serious behaviour; ⁵ For if a man has not the art of ruling his house, how will he take care of the church of God?

¹¹ Women are to be serious in behaviour, saying no evil of others, controlling themselves, true in all things. ¹² Let Deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their houses well.

¹⁵ Let it be your care to get the approval of God, as a workman who has no cause for shame, giving the true word in the right way. ¹⁶ But take no part in wrong and foolish talk, for those who do so will go farther into evil,

²⁴ For it is not right for the Lord's servant to make trouble, but he is to be gentle to all, ready in teaching, putting up with wrong, ²⁵ Gently guiding those who go against the teaching; if by chance God may give them a change of heart and true knowledge,

¹³ Evil and false men will become worse and worse, using deceit and themselves overcome by deceit.

⁶ Men having a good record, husbands of one wife, whose children are of the faith, children of whom it may not be said that they are given to loose living or are uncontrolled. ⁷ For it is necessary for a Bishop to be a man of virtue, as God's servant; not pushing himself forward, not quickly moved to wrath or blows, not desiring profit for himself; ⁸ But opening his house freely to guests; a lover of what is good, serious-minded, upright, holy, self-controlled; ⁹ Keeping to the true word of the teaching, so that he may be able to give comfort by right teaching and overcome the arguments of the doubters.

¹² My brothers, take care that there is not by chance in any one of you an evil heart without belief, turning away from the living God:

⁹ And again, if the fathers of our flesh gave us punishment and had our respect, how much more will we be under the authority of the Father of spirits, and have life?

¹⁴ But every man is tested when he is turned out of the right way by the attraction of his desire. ¹⁵ Then when its time comes, desire gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is of full growth, gives birth to death.

¹⁹ My brothers, if one of you has gone out of the way of the true faith and another has made him see his error, ²⁰ Be certain that he through whom a sinner has been turned from the error of his way, keeps a soul from death and is the cause of forgiveness for sins without number.

¹¹ If anyone has anything to say, let it be as the words of God; if anyone has the desire to be the servant of others, let him do it in the strength which is given by God; so that in all things God may have the glory through Jesus Christ, whose are the glory and the power for ever.

³ Having first of all the knowledge that in the last days there will be men who, ruled by their evil desires, will make sport of holy things, ⁴ Saying, Where is the hope of his coming? From the death of the fathers till now everything has gone on as it was from the making of the world.

⁵ And in their mouth there was no false word, for they are untouched by evil.

⁷ Saying with a loud voice, Have fear of God and give him glory; because the hour of his judging is come; and give worship to him who made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of water.

⁹ And men were burned with great heat: and they said evil things against the name of the God who has authority over these punishments; and they were not turned from their evil ways to give him glory.

²⁰ And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who did the signs before him, by which they were turned from the true way who had the mark of the beast, and who gave worship to his image: these two were put living into the sea of ever-burning fire.

⁸ But those who are full of fear and without faith, the unclean and takers of life, those who do the sins of the flesh, and those who make use of evil powers or who give worship to images, and all those who are false, will have their part in the sea of ever-burning fire which is the second death.