Matthew Cross References - MSB

¹ This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham: ² Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. ³ Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. ⁴ Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon. ⁵ Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, ⁶ and Jesse the father of David the king. Next: David the king was the father of Solomon by Uriah’s wife, ⁷ Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. ⁸ Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah. ⁹ Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. ¹⁰ Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, ¹¹ and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. ¹² After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, ¹³ Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor. ¹⁴ Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud. ¹⁵ Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, ¹⁶ and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. ¹⁷ In all, then, there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ. ¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and was unwilling to disgrace her publicly, he resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means, “God with us”). ²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and embraced Mary as his wife. ²⁵ But he had no union with her until she gave birth to her firstborn Son. And he gave Him the name Jesus.

⁴ This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made them.

¹ This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in His own likeness.

³ I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

¹⁸ And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

³ Stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. ⁴ I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, ⁵ because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

¹³ And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie. ¹⁴ Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

¹² And when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He will build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be his Father, and he will be My son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. ¹⁵ But My loving devotion will never be removed from him as I removed it from Saul, whom I moved out of your way. ¹⁶ Your house and kingdom will endure forever before Me, and your throne will be established forever.”

³⁶ his offspring shall endure forever, and his throne before Me like the sun,

¹¹ The LORD swore an oath to David, a promise He will not revoke: “One of your descendants I will place on your throne.

⁶ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.

¹ Then a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit.

⁸ By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can recount His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was stricken for the transgression of My people.

⁵ Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign wisely as King and will administer justice and righteousness in the land.

¹⁵ In those days and at that time I will cause to sprout for David a righteous Branch, and He will administer justice and righteousness in the land. ¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness. ¹⁷ For this is what the LORD says: David will never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel,

²⁶ then I would also reject the descendants of Jacob and of My servant David, so as not to take from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore them from captivity and will have compassion on them.”

¹¹ “In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old,

⁸ On that day the LORD will defend the people of Jerusalem, so that the weakest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them.

¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

¹ After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, ² asking, “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

¹⁶ As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him.

²⁷ As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

²² And a Canaanite woman from that region came to Him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is miserably possessed by a demon.”

⁴² “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?” “David’s,” they answered. ⁴³ Jesus said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord’? For he says: ⁴⁴ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’ ⁴⁵ So if David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how can He be David’s son?”

³¹ Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David,

⁶⁹ He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, ⁷⁰ as He spoke through His holy prophets, those of ages past,

²³ Jesus Himself was about thirty years old when He began His ministry. He was regarded as the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, ²⁴ the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Janna, the son of Joseph, ²⁵ the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, ²⁶ the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semei, the son of Josech, the son of Judah, ²⁷ the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, ²⁸ the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Er, ²⁹ the son of Jose, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, ³⁰ the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonan, the son of Eliakim, ³¹ the son of Melea, the son of Mainan, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, ³² the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, ³³ the son of Amminadab, the son of Aram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, ³⁴ the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, ³⁵ the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, ³⁶ the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, ³⁷ the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalalel, the son of Cainan, ³⁸ the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

⁴² Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the line of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”

³⁰ But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that from his descendants according to the flesh He would raise up the Christ to seat Him on his throne.

²² After removing Saul, He raised up David as their king and testified about him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after My own heart; he will carry out My will in its entirety.’ ²³ From the descendants of this man, God has brought to Israel salvation, as He promised.

³ regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh,

¹³ For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world was not given through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.

⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen.

¹⁶ The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many, but “and to your seed,” meaning One, who is Christ.

¹⁶ “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star.”

² So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised. ³ And Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore to him. ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

²⁶ After this, his brother came out grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

³² And Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Reuben, for she said, “The LORD has seen my affliction. Surely my husband will love me now.” ³³ Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, “Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has given me this son as well.” So she named him Simeon. ³⁴ Once again Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi. ³⁵ And once more she conceived and gave birth to a son and said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” So she named him Judah. Then Leah stopped having children.

⁵ and Bilhah conceived and bore him a son. ⁶ Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; He has heard my plea and given me a son.” So she named him Dan. ⁷ And Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸ Then Rachel said, “In my great struggles, I have wrestled with my sister and won.” So she named him Naphtali. ⁹ When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰ And Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹ Then Leah said, “How fortunate!” So she named him Gad. ¹² When Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son, ¹³ Leah said, “How happy I am! For the women call me happy.” So she named him Asher. ¹⁴ Now during the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother, Rachel begged Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁵ But Leah replied, “Is it not enough that you have taken away my husband? Now you want to take my son’s mandrakes as well?” “Very well,” said Rachel, “he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁶ When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come with me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night. ¹⁷ And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore a fifth son to Jacob. ¹⁸ Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. ¹⁹ Again Leah conceived and bore a sixth son to Jacob. ²⁰ “God has given me a good gift,” she said. “This time my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” And she named him Zebulun.

¹⁶ Later, they set out from Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult. ¹⁷ During her severe labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you are having another son.” ¹⁸ And with her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni. But his father called him Benjamin. ¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

⁸ Now these are the names of the sons of Israel (Jacob and his descendants) who went to Egypt: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn. ⁹ The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. ¹⁰ The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. ¹¹ The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. ¹² The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul. ¹³ The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Job, and Shimron. ¹⁴ The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. ¹⁵ These are the sons of Leah born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, in addition to his daughter Dinah. The total number of sons and daughters was thirty-three. ¹⁶ The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli. ¹⁷ The children of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah. The sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel. ¹⁸ These are the sons of Jacob born to Zilpah—whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah—sixteen in all. ¹⁹ The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. ²⁰ Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. ²¹ The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. ²² These are the sons of Rachel born to Jacob—fourteen in all. ²³ The son of Dan: Hushim. ²⁴ The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem. ²⁵ These are the sons of Jacob born to Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel—seven in all. ²⁶ All those belonging to Jacob who came to Egypt—his direct descendants, besides the wives of Jacob’s sons—numbered sixty-six persons. ²⁷ And with the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family who went to Egypt were seventy in all.

⁸ Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down to you. ⁹ Judah is a young lion—my son, you return from the prey. Like a lion he crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to rouse him? ¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his. ¹¹ He ties his donkey to the vine, his colt to the choicest branch. He washes his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. ¹² His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk.

² Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; ³ Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; ⁴ Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. ⁵ The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt.

² And Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods. ³ But I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates and led him through all the land of Canaan, and I multiplied his descendants. I gave him Isaac, ⁴ and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau Mount Seir to possess, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

²⁸ The sons of Abraham were Isaac and Ishmael.

³⁴ Abraham was the father of Isaac. The sons of Isaac: Esau and Israel.

¹ These were the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, ² Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. ³ The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, and Shelah. These three were born to him by Bath-shua the Canaanite. Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, who put him to death. ⁴ Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, bore to him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all. ⁵ The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul. ⁶ The sons of Zerah: Zimri, Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and Dara—five in all. ⁷ The son of Carmi: Achar, who brought trouble upon Israel by violating the ban on devoted things. ⁸ The son of Ethan: Azariah.

¹ These were the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel. Though he was the firstborn, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel, because Reuben defiled his father’s bed. So he is not reckoned according to birthright. ² And though Judah prevailed over his brothers and a ruler came from him, the birthright belonged to Joseph.

⁸ “But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend—

² Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him, he was but one; then I blessed him and multiplied him.

² “I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you ask, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved, ³ but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

³³ the son of Amminadab, the son of Aram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, ³⁴ the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,

⁸ Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

⁷ Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.” ⁸ So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring. ⁹ For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁰ Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac. ¹¹ Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or evil, in order that God’s plan of election might stand, ¹² not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” ¹³ So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

¹⁴ For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, a tribe as to which Moses said nothing about priesthood.

¹¹ By faith Sarah, even though she was beyond the proper age, received power and was enabled to conceive a child, because she considered Him faithful who had promised.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac on the altar. He who had received the promises was ready to offer his one and only son, ¹⁸ even though God had said to him, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

⁵ From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000,

⁶ Now Judah acquired a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

¹¹ Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

²⁴ About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!” ²⁵ As she was being brought out, Tamar sent a message to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Please examine them. Whose seal and cord and staff are these?” ²⁶ Judah recognized the items and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again. ²⁷ When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twins in her womb.

²⁹ But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez. ³⁰ Then his brother came out with the scarlet thread around his wrist, and he was named Zerah.

¹² The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.

²⁰ These were the descendants of Judah by their clans: The Shelanite clan from Shelah, the Perezite clan from Perez, and the Zerahite clan from Zerah. ²¹ And these were the descendants of Perez: the Hezronite clan from Hezron and the Hamulite clan from Hamul.

¹⁸ Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, ¹⁹ Hezron was the father of Ram, Ram was the father of Amminadab, ²⁰ Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, Nahshon was the father of Salmon, ²¹ Salmon was the father of Boaz, Boaz was the father of Obed, ²² Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David.

¹ These were the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, ² Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. ³ The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, and Shelah. These three were born to him by Bath-shua the Canaanite. Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, who put him to death. ⁴ Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, bore to him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all. ⁵ The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul. ⁶ The sons of Zerah: Zimri, Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and Dara—five in all. ⁷ The son of Carmi: Achar, who brought trouble upon Israel by violating the ban on devoted things. ⁸ The son of Ethan: Azariah. ⁹ The sons who were born to Hezron: Jerahmeel, Ram, and Caleb. ¹⁰ Ram was the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, a leader of the descendants of Judah. ¹¹ Nahshon was the father of Salmon, and Salmon was the father of Boaz. ¹² Boaz was the father of Obed, and Obed was the father of Jesse. ¹³ Jesse was the father of Eliab his firstborn; Abinadab was born second, Shimea third, ¹⁴ Nethanel fourth, Raddai fifth, ¹⁵ Ozem sixth, and David seventh.

¹ The descendants of Judah: Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal.

⁶ From the Zerahites: Jeuel and 690 relatives.

³³ the son of Amminadab, the son of Aram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah,

⁷ from Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab;

³ On the east side, toward the sunrise, the divisions of Judah are to camp under their standard: The leader of the descendants of Judah is Nahshon son of Amminadab,

¹² On the first day Nahshon son of Amminadab from the tribe of Judah drew near with his offering.

¹⁷ and a peace offering of two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nahshon son of Amminadab.

¹⁴ First, the divisions of the camp of Judah set out under their standard, with Nahshon son of Amminadab in command.

¹⁹ Hezron was the father of Ram, Ram was the father of Amminadab, ²⁰ Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, Nahshon was the father of Salmon,

¹⁰ Ram was the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, a leader of the descendants of Judah. ¹¹ Nahshon was the father of Salmon, and Salmon was the father of Boaz. ¹² Boaz was the father of Obed, and Obed was the father of Jesse.

³² the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon,

¹ Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, inspect the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. ² And it was reported to the king of Jericho: “Behold, some men of Israel have come here tonight to spy out the land.” ³ So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab and said, “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they have come to spy out the whole land.” ⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. So she said, “Yes, the men did come to me, but I did not know where they had come from. ⁵ At dusk, when the gate was about to close, the men went out, and I do not know which way they went. Pursue them quickly, and you may catch them!” ⁶ (But Rahab had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had laid out there.) ⁷ So the king’s men set out in pursuit of the spies along the road to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as they had gone out, the gate was shut. ⁸ Before the spies lay down for the night, Rahab went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given you this land and that the fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of you. ¹⁰ For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction. ¹¹ When we heard this, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below. ¹² Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD that you will indeed show kindness to my family, because I showed kindness to you. Give me a sure sign ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will deliver us from death.” ¹⁴ “Our lives for your lives!” the men agreed. “If you do not report our mission, we will show you kindness and faithfulness when the LORD gives us the land.” ¹⁵ Then Rahab let them down by a rope through the window, since the house where she lived was built into the wall of the city. ¹⁶ “Go to the hill country,” she said, “so that your pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there for three days until they have returned; then go on your way.” ¹⁷ The men said to her, “We will not be bound by this oath you made us swear ¹⁸ unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother and brothers and all your family into your house. ¹⁹ If anyone goes out the door of your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head, and we will be innocent. But if a hand is laid on anyone with you in the house, his blood will be on our heads. ²⁰ And if you report our mission, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.” ²¹ “Let it be as you say,” she replied, and she sent them away. And when they had gone, she tied the scarlet cord in the window. ²² So the spies went out into the hill country and stayed there three days, until their pursuers had returned without finding them, having searched all along the road.

²² Meanwhile, Joshua told the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the house of the prostitute and bring out the woman and all who are with her, just as you promised her.” ²³ So the young spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and settled them outside the camp of Israel. ²⁴ Then the Israelites burned up the city and everything in it. However, they put the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’s house. ²⁵ And Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her father’s household and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho. So she has lived among the Israelites to this day.

⁴ who took Moabite women as their wives, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth. And after they had lived in Moab about ten years,

¹⁶ But Ruth replied: “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. ¹⁷ Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”

²² So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

²¹ Salmon was the father of Boaz, Boaz was the father of Obed,

³¹ By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies in peace, did not perish with those who were disobedient.

²⁵ In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute justified by her actions when she welcomed the spies and sent them off on another route?

²² Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David.

¹ Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have selected from his sons a king for Myself.”

¹¹ And Samuel asked him, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” Jesse replied, “but he is tending the sheep.” “Send for him,” Samuel replied. “For we will not sit down to eat until he arrives.” ¹² So Jesse sent for his youngest son and brought him in. He was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him, for he is the one.” ¹³ So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah.

¹² Now David was the son of a man named Jesse, an Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah who had eight sons in the days of Saul. And Jesse was old and well along in years.

⁵⁸ “Whose son are you, young man?” asked Saul. “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem,” David replied.

³⁰ Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the disgrace of the mother who bore you? ³¹ For as long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingship shall be established. Now send for him and bring him to me, for he must surely die!”

⁸ Is that why all of you have conspired against me? Not one of you told me that my own son had made a covenant with the son of Jesse. Not one of you has shown concern for me or revealed to me that my son has stirred up my own servant to lie in wait against me, as is the case today.”

³ So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”

²⁶ When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. ²⁷ And when the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.

²⁴ Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. So she gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. Now the LORD loved the child ²⁵ and sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah because the LORD loved him.

¹ These are the last words of David: “The oracle of David son of Jesse, the oracle of the man raised on high, the one anointed by the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel:

³⁹ and Uriah the Hittite. There were thirty-seven in all.

¹¹ Then Nathan said to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, “Have you not heard that Adonijah son of Haggith has become king, and our lord David does not know it? ¹² Now please, come and let me advise you. Save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. ¹³ Go at once to King David and say, ‘My lord the king, did you not swear to your maidservant, “Surely your son Solomon will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne”? Why then has Adonijah become king?’ ¹⁴ Then, while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.” ¹⁵ So Bathsheba went to see the king in his bedroom. Since the king was very old, Abishag the Shunammite was serving him. ¹⁶ And Bathsheba bowed down in homage to the king, who asked, “What is your desire?” ¹⁷ “My lord,” she replied, “you yourself swore to your maidservant by the LORD your God: ‘Surely your son Solomon will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne.’

²⁸ Then King David said, “Call in Bathsheba for me.” So she came into the king’s presence and stood before him. ²⁹ And the king swore an oath, saying, “As surely as the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress, ³⁰ I will carry out this very day exactly what I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel: Surely your son Solomon will reign after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place.” ³¹ Bathsheba bowed facedown in homage to the king and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”

⁵ For David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and had not turned aside from anything the LORD commanded all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

¹⁵ Ozem sixth, and David seventh.

⁵ and these sons were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon. These four were born to him by Bathsheba daughter of Ammiel.

⁴¹ Uriah the Hittite, Zabad son of Ahlai,

⁴ These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

⁵ And of all my sons—for the LORD has given me many sons—He has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel.

²⁰ Thus conclude the prayers of David son of Jesse.

³ For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,

⁴³ And Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.

³¹ And Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David; his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. And his son Abijam reigned in his place.

⁸ And Abijam rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David, and his son Asa reigned in his place. ⁹ In the twentieth year of Jeroboam’s reign over Israel, Asa became king of Judah, ¹⁰ and he reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His grandmother’s name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. ¹¹ And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as his father David had done. ¹² He banished the male shrine prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. ¹³ He also removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made a detestable Asherah pole. Asa chopped down the pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁴ The high places were not removed, but Asa’s heart was fully devoted to the LORD all his days. ¹⁵ And he brought into the house of the LORD the silver and gold and other articles that he and his father had dedicated. ¹⁶ Now there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their days. ¹⁷ Baasha king of Israel went to war against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah. ¹⁸ So Asa withdrew all the silver and gold that remained in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the royal palace. He entrusted it to his servants and sent them with this message to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus: ¹⁹ “Let there be a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. See, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Now go and break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.” ²⁰ And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, conquering Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and the whole land of Naphtali, including the region of Chinnereth. ²¹ When Baasha learned of this, he stopped fortifying Ramah and withdrew to Tirzah. ²² Then King Asa summoned all the men of Judah, with no exceptions, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had used for building. And with these materials King Asa built up Geba of Benjamin, as well as Mizpah. ²³ Now the rest of the acts of Asa, along with all his might, all his accomplishments, and the cities he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? In his old age, however, he became diseased in his feet.

¹⁰ Solomon’s son was Rehoboam: Abijah was his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son, ¹¹ Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, ¹² Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son, ¹³ Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son, ¹⁴ Amon his son, and Josiah his son.

³¹ And Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.

¹ After Rehoboam had established his sovereignty and royal power, he and all Israel with him forsook the Law of the LORD.

⁷ Then worthless and wicked men gathered around him to resist Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young, inexperienced, and unable to resist them.

¹ Then Abijah rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. And his son Asa reigned in his place, and in his days the land was at peace for ten years. ² And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God. ³ He removed the foreign altars and high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and chopped down the Asherah poles. ⁴ He commanded the people of Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandments. ⁵ He also removed the high places and incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and under him the kingdom was at peace. ⁶ Because the land was at peace, Asa built fortified cities in Judah. In those days no one made war with him, because the LORD had given him rest. ⁷ So he said to the people of Judah, “Let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, with doors and bars. The land is still ours because we have sought the LORD our God. We have sought Him and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered. ⁸ Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah bearing large shields and spears, and 280,000 men from Benjamin bearing small shields and drawing the bow. All these were mighty men of valor. ⁹ Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots, and they advanced as far as Mareshah. ¹⁰ So Asa marched out against him and lined up in battle formation in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah. ¹¹ Then Asa cried out to the LORD his God: “O LORD, there is no one besides You to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on You, and in Your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God. Do not let a mere mortal prevail against You.” ¹² So the LORD struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah, and the Cushites fled. ¹³ Then Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. The Cushites fell and could not recover, for they were crushed before the LORD and His army. So the people of Judah carried off a great amount of plunder ¹⁴ and attacked all the cities around Gerar, because the terror of the LORD had fallen upon them. They plundered all the cities, since there was much plunder there. ¹⁵ They also attacked the tents of the herdsmen and carried off many sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

²⁴ And Asa rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of his father David, and his son Jehoshaphat reigned in his place.

² However, in the third year, Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to visit the king of Israel, ³ who said to his servants, “Do you not know that Ramoth-gilead is ours, but we have failed to take it from the hand of the king of Aram?” ⁴ So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “I am like you, my people are your people, and my horses are your horses.” ⁵ But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for the word of the LORD.” ⁶ So the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Should I go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I refrain?” “Go up,” they replied, “and the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.” ⁷ But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not still a prophet of the LORD here of whom we can inquire?” ⁸ The king of Israel answered, “There is still one man who can ask the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” “The king should not say that!” Jehoshaphat replied. ⁹ So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.” ¹⁰ Dressed in royal attire, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. ¹¹ Now Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had made for himself iron horns and declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you shall gore the Arameans until they are finished off.’” ¹² And all the prophets were prophesying the same, saying, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king.” ¹³ Then the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah instructed him, “Behold now, with one accord the words of the prophets are favorable to the king. So please let your words be like theirs, and speak favorably.” ¹⁴ But Micaiah said, “As surely as the LORD lives, I will speak whatever the LORD tells me.” ¹⁵ When Micaiah arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should we refrain?” “Go up and triumph,” Micaiah replied, “for the LORD will give it into the hand of the king.” ¹⁶ But the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear not to tell me anything but the truth in the name of the LORD?” ¹⁷ So Micaiah declared: “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These people have no master; let each one return home in peace.’” ¹⁸ Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you that he never prophesies good for me, but only bad?” ¹⁹ Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left. ²⁰ And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to march up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one suggested this, and another that. ²¹ Then a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ‘By what means?’ asked the LORD. ²² And he replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ ‘You will surely entice him and prevail,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’ ²³ So you see, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has pronounced disaster against you.” ²⁴ Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah went up, struck Micaiah in the face, and demanded, “Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go when He departed from me to speak with you?” ²⁵ Micaiah replied, “You will soon see, on that day when you go and hide in an inner room.” ²⁶ And the king of Israel declared, “Take Micaiah and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son, ²⁷ and tell them that this is what the king says: ‘Put this man in prison and feed him only bread and water until I return safely.’” ²⁸ But Micaiah replied, “If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Take heed, all you people!” ²⁹ So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead. ³⁰ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you wear your royal robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle. ³¹ Now the king of Aram had ordered his thirty-two chariot commanders, “Do not fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel.” ³² When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “Surely this is the king of Israel!” So they turned to fight against him, but Jehoshaphat cried out. ³³ And when the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him. ³⁴ However, a certain man drew his bow without taking special aim, and he struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. So the king said to his charioteer, “Turn around and take me out of the battle, for I am badly wounded!” ³⁵ The battle raged throughout that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. And the blood from his wound ran out onto the floor of the chariot, and that evening he died. ³⁶ As the sun was setting, the cry rang out in the army: “Every man to his own city, and every man to his own land!” ³⁷ So the king died and was brought to Samaria, where they buried him. ³⁸ And the chariot was washed at the pool of Samaria where the prostitutes bathed, and the dogs licked up Ahab’s blood, according to the word that the LORD had spoken. ³⁹ As for the rest of the acts of Ahab, along with all his accomplishments and the ivory palace and all the cities he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ⁴⁰ And Ahab rested with his fathers, and his son Ahaziah reigned in his place. ⁴¹ In the fourth year of Ahab’s reign over Israel, Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah. ⁴² Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-five years. His mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi. ⁴³ And Jehoshaphat walked in all the ways of his father Asa; he did not turn away from them, but did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. The high places, however, were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. ⁴⁴ Jehoshaphat also made peace with the king of Israel. ⁴⁵ As for the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, along with the might he exercised and how he waged war, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ⁴⁶ He banished from the land the male shrine prostitutes who remained from the days of his father Asa. ⁴⁷ And there was no king in Edom; a deputy served as king. ⁴⁸ Jehoshaphat built ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they never set sail, because they were wrecked at Ezion-geber. ⁴⁹ At that time Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants sail with your servants,” but Jehoshaphat refused. ⁵⁰ And Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the city of his father David. And his son Jehoram reigned in his place.

¹ In the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat’s reign over Judah, Jehoram son of Ahab became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria twelve years.

¹⁶ In the fifth year of the reign of Joram son of Ahab over Israel, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat succeeded his father as king of Judah.

²¹ Then all the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

¹ In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam’s reign over Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah became king of Judah. ² He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem. ³ And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done. ⁴ Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense there. ⁵ And the LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, so that he lived in a separate house while his son Jotham had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land. ⁶ As for the rest of the acts of Azariah, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

¹¹ Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son,

¹ Asa’s son Jehoshaphat reigned in his place, and he strengthened himself against Israel. ² He stationed troops in every fortified city of Judah and put garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that his father Asa had captured. ³ Now the LORD was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek out the Baals, ⁴ but he sought the God of his father and walked by His commandments rather than the practices of Israel. ⁵ So the LORD established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought him tribute, so that he had an abundance of riches and honor. ⁶ And his heart took delight in the ways of the LORD; furthermore, he removed the high places and Asherah poles from Judah. ⁷ In the third year of his reign, Jehoshaphat sent his officials Ben-hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah to teach in the cities of Judah, ⁸ accompanied by certain Levites—Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tob-adonijah—along with the priests Elishama and Jehoram. ⁹ They taught throughout Judah, taking with them the Book of the Law of the LORD. They went throughout the towns of Judah and taught the people. ¹⁰ And the dread of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that surrounded Judah, so that they did not make war against Jehoshaphat. ¹¹ Some Philistines also brought gifts and silver as tribute to Jehoshaphat, and the Arabs brought him 7,700 rams and 7,700 goats from their flocks. ¹² Jehoshaphat grew stronger and stronger, and he built fortresses and store cities in Judah ¹³ and kept vast supplies in the cities of Judah. He also had warriors in Jerusalem who were mighty men of valor. ¹⁴ These are their numbers according to the houses of their fathers: From Judah, the commanders of thousands: Adnah the commander, and with him 300,000 mighty men of valor; ¹⁵ next to him, Jehohanan the commander, and with him 280,000; ¹⁶ and next to him, Amasiah son of Zichri, the volunteer for the LORD, and with him 200,000 mighty men of valor. ¹⁷ From Benjamin: Eliada, a mighty man of valor, and with him 200,000 armed with bows and shields; ¹⁸ and next to him, Jehozabad, and with him 180,000 armed for battle. ¹⁹ These were the men who served the king, besides those he stationed in the fortified cities throughout Judah.

¹ And Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David. And his son Jehoram reigned in his place.

¹ All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. ² Uzziah was the one who rebuilt Eloth and restored it to Judah after King Amaziah rested with his fathers. ³ Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem. ⁴ And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done. ⁵ He sought God throughout the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. And as long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success. ⁶ Uzziah went out to wage war against the Philistines, and he tore down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. Then he built cities near Ashdod and among the Philistines. ⁷ God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs living in Gur-baal, and against the Meunites. ⁸ The Ammonites brought tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the border of Egypt, for he had become exceedingly powerful. ⁹ Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate, and the angle in the wall, and he fortified them. ¹⁰ Since he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hill country and in the fertile fields. ¹¹ Uzziah had an army ready for battle that went out to war by assigned divisions, as recorded by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer under the direction of Hananiah, one of the royal officers. ¹² The total number of family leaders of the mighty men of valor was 2,600. ¹³ Under their authority was an army of 307,500 trained for war, a powerful force to support the king against his enemies. ¹⁴ Uzziah supplied the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, and slingstones. ¹⁵ And in Jerusalem he made skillfully designed devices to shoot arrows and catapult large stones from the towers and corners. So his fame spread far and wide, for he was helped tremendously so that he became powerful. ¹⁶ But when Uzziah grew powerful, his arrogance led to his own destruction. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. ¹⁷ Then Azariah the priest, along with eighty brave priests of the LORD, went in after him. ¹⁸ They took their stand against King Uzziah and said, “Uzziah, you have no right to offer incense to the LORD. Only the priests, the descendants of Aaron, are consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully; you will not receive honor from the LORD God.” ¹⁹ Uzziah, with a censer in his hand to offer incense, was enraged. But while he raged against the priests in their presence in the house of the LORD before the altar of incense, leprosy broke out on his forehead. ²⁰ When Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him and saw his leprous forehead, they rushed him out. Indeed, he himself hurried to get out, because the LORD had afflicted him. ²¹ So King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He lived in isolation, leprous and cut off from the house of the LORD, while his son Jotham had charge of the royal palace to govern the people of the land. ²² As for the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from beginning to end, they are recorded by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. ²³ And Uzziah rested with his fathers and was buried near them in a field of burial that belonged to the kings; for the people said, “He was a leper.” And his son Jotham reigned in his place.

⁷ And Azariah rested with his fathers and was buried near them in the City of David. And his son Jotham reigned in his place.

³² In the second year of the reign of Pekah son of Remaliah over Israel, Jotham son of Uzziah became king of Judah.

¹ In the third year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah. ² He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abi, the daughter of Zechariah. ³ And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. ⁴ He removed the high places, shattered the sacred pillars, and cut down the Asherah poles. He also demolished the bronze snake called Nehushtan that Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had burned incense to it. ⁵ Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. No king of Judah was like him, either before him or after him. ⁶ He remained faithful to the LORD and did not turn from following Him; he kept the commandments that the LORD had given Moses. ⁷ And the LORD was with Hezekiah, and he prospered wherever he went. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him. ⁸ He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city. ⁹ In the fourth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which was the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it. ¹⁰ And at the end of three years, the Assyrians captured it. So Samaria was captured in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. ¹¹ The king of Assyria exiled the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes. ¹² This happened because they did not listen to the voice of the LORD their God, but violated His covenant—all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded—and would neither listen nor obey. ¹³ In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah. ¹⁴ So Hezekiah king of Judah sent word to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand from me.” And the king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. ¹⁵ Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace. ¹⁶ At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold with which he had plated the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and he gave it to the king of Assyria. ¹⁷ Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh, along with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced up to Jerusalem and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. ¹⁸ Then they called for the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebnah the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to them. ¹⁹ The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah that this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is the basis of this confidence of yours? ²⁰ You claim to have a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. In whom are you now trusting, that you have rebelled against me?

¹¹ Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, ¹² Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son, ¹³ Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son,

²¹ So King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He lived in isolation, leprous and cut off from the house of the LORD, while his son Jotham had charge of the royal palace to govern the people of the land.

¹ Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. His mother’s name was Jerushah daughter of Zadok. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done. In addition, he did not enter the temple of the LORD. But the people still behaved corruptly. ³ Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the house of the LORD, and he worked extensively on the wall at the hill of Ophel. ⁴ He also built cities in the hill country of Judah and fortresses and towers in the forests. ⁵ Jotham waged war against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them, and that year they gave him a hundred talents of silver, ten thousand cors of wheat, and ten thousand cors of barley. They paid him the same in the second and third years. ⁶ So Jotham grew powerful because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God. ⁷ As for the rest of the acts of Jotham, along with all his wars and his ways, they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. ⁸ He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. ⁹ And Jotham rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. And his son Ahaz reigned in his place.

¹ Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. And unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD. ² Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even made cast images of the Baals. ³ Moreover, Ahaz burned incense in the Valley of Hinnom and sacrificed his sons in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. ⁴ And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. ⁵ So the LORD his God delivered Ahaz into the hand of the king of Aram, who attacked him and took many captives to Damascus. Ahaz was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force. ⁶ For in one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 valiant men in Judah. This happened because they had forsaken the LORD, the God of their fathers. ⁷ Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the son of the king, Azrikam the governor of the palace, and Elkanah the second to the king. ⁸ Then the Israelites took 200,000 captives from their kinsmen—women, sons, and daughters. They also carried off a great deal of plunder and brought it to Samaria. ⁹ But a prophet of the LORD named Oded was there, and he went out to meet the army that returned to Samaria. “Look,” he said to them, “because of His wrath against Judah, the LORD, the God of your fathers, has delivered them into your hand. But you have slaughtered them in a rage that reaches up to heaven. ¹⁰ And now you intend to reduce to slavery the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem. But are you not also guilty before the LORD your God? ¹¹ Now therefore, listen to me and return the captives you took from your kinsmen, for the fierce anger of the LORD is upon you.” ¹² Then some of the leaders of the Ephraimites—Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai—stood in opposition to those arriving from the war. ¹³ “You must not bring the captives here,” they said, “for you are proposing to bring guilt upon us from the LORD and to add to our sins and our guilt. For our guilt is great, and fierce anger is upon Israel.” ¹⁴ So the armed men left the captives and the plunder before the leaders and all the assembly. ¹⁵ Then the men who were designated by name arose, took charge of the captives, and provided from the plunder clothing for the naked. They clothed them, gave them sandals and food and drink, anointed their wounds, and put all the feeble on donkeys. So they brought them to Jericho, the City of Palms, to their brothers. Then they returned to Samaria. ¹⁶ At that time King Ahaz sent for help from the king of Assyria. ¹⁷ The Edomites had again come and attacked Judah and carried away captives. ¹⁸ The Philistines had also raided the cities of the foothills and the Negev of Judah, capturing and occupying Beth-shemesh, Aijalon, and Gederoth, as well as Soco, Timnah, and Gimzo with their villages. ¹⁹ For the LORD humbled Judah because Ahaz king of Israel had thrown off restraint in Judah and had been most unfaithful to the LORD. ²⁰ Then Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came to Ahaz but afflicted him rather than strengthening him. ²¹ Although Ahaz had taken a portion from the house of the LORD, from the royal palace, and from the princes and had presented it to the king of Assyria, it did not help him. ²² In the time of his distress, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD. ²³ Since Damascus had defeated him, he sacrificed to their gods and said, “Because the gods of the kings of Aram have helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But these gods were the downfall of Ahaz and of all Israel. ²⁴ Then Ahaz gathered up the articles of the house of God, cut them into pieces, shut the doors of the house of the LORD, and set up altars of his own on every street corner in Jerusalem. ²⁵ In every city of Judah he built high places to offer incense to other gods, and so he provoked the LORD, the God of his fathers. ²⁶ As for the rest of the acts of Ahaz and all his ways, from beginning to end, they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷ And Ahaz rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of Jerusalem, but he was not placed in the tombs of the kings of Israel. And his son Hezekiah reigned in his place.

¹ Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. ² And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. ³ In the first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah opened and repaired the doors of the house of the LORD. ⁴ Then he brought in the priests and Levites and gathered them in the square on the east side. ⁵ “Listen to me, O Levites,” he said. “Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers. Remove from the Holy Place every impurity. ⁶ For our fathers were unfaithful and did evil in the sight of the LORD our God. They abandoned Him, turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the LORD, and turned their backs on Him. ⁷ They also shut the doors of the portico and extinguished the lamps. They did not burn incense or present burnt offerings in the Holy Place of the God of Israel. ⁸ Therefore, the wrath of the LORD has fallen upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, horror, and mockery, as you can see with your own eyes. ⁹ For behold, this is why our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and daughters and wives are in captivity. ¹⁰ Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, so that His fierce anger will turn away from us. ¹¹ Now, my sons, do not be negligent, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, to minister before Him, and to burn incense.” ¹² Then the Levites set to work: Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah from the Kohathites; Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallelel from the Merarites; Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah from the Gershonites; ¹³ Shimri and Jeuel from the Elizaphanites; Zechariah and Mattaniah from the Asaphites; ¹⁴ Jehiel and Shimei from the Hemanites; and Shemaiah and Uzziel from the Jeduthunites. ¹⁵ When they had assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves, they went in to cleanse the house of the LORD, according to the command of the king by the words of the LORD. ¹⁶ So the priests went inside the house of the LORD to cleanse it, and they brought out to the courtyard all the unclean things that they found in the temple of the LORD. Then the Levites took these things and carried them out to the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of the LORD. For eight more days they consecrated the house of the LORD itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month. ¹⁸ Then they went in to King Hezekiah and reported, “We have cleansed the entire house of the LORD, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table of the showbread with all its utensils. ¹⁹ Moreover, we have prepared and consecrated all the articles that King Ahaz in his unfaithfulness cast aside during his reign. They are now in front of the altar of the LORD.” ²⁰ Early the next morning King Hezekiah gathered the city officials and went up to the house of the LORD. ²¹ They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And the king commanded the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the LORD. ²² So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. They slaughtered the rams and sprinkled the blood on the altar. And they slaughtered the lambs and sprinkled the blood on the altar. ²³ Then they brought the goats for the sin offering before the king and the assembly, who laid their hands on them. ²⁴ And the priests slaughtered the goats and put their blood on the altar for a sin offering, to make atonement for all Israel, because the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sin offering for all Israel. ²⁵ Hezekiah stationed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres according to the command of David, of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet. For the command had come from the LORD through His prophets. ²⁶ The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. ²⁷ And Hezekiah ordered that the burnt offering be sacrificed on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD and the trumpets began as well, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel. ²⁸ The whole assembly was worshiping, the singers were singing, and the trumpeters were playing. All this continued until the burnt offering was completed. ²⁹ When the offerings were completed, the king and all those present with him bowed down and worshiped. ³⁰ Then King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to sing praises to the LORD in the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed their heads and worshiped. ³¹ Then Hezekiah said, “Now that you have consecrated yourselves to the LORD, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.” So the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings. ³² The number of burnt offerings the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams, and two hundred lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the LORD.

¹ Now in the days that Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram marched up to wage war against Jerusalem. He was accompanied by Pekah son of Remaliah the king of Israel, but he could not overpower the city. ² When it was reported to the house of David that Aram was in league with Ephraim, the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled like trees in the forest shaken by the wind. ³ Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct that feeds the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field, ⁴ and say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Do not be afraid or disheartened over these two smoldering stubs of firewood—over the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. ⁵ For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted your ruin, saying: ⁶ ‘Let us invade Judah, terrorize it, and divide it among ourselves. Then we can install the son of Tabeal over it as king.’ ⁷ But this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘It will not arise; it will not happen. ⁸ For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered as a people. ⁹ The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.’” ¹⁰ Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, ¹¹ “Ask for a sign from the LORD your God, whether from the depths of Sheol or the heights of heaven.” ¹² But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask; I will not test the LORD.” ¹³ Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God as well?

¹ In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked and captured all the fortified cities of Judah. ² And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh, with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And he stopped by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. ³ Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder, went out to him. ⁴ The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah that this is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is the basis of this confidence of yours? ⁵ You claim to have a strategy and strength for war, but these are empty words. In whom are you now trusting, that you have rebelled against me? ⁶ Look now, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ⁷ But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the LORD our God,’ is He not the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship before this altar’? ⁸ Now, therefore, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them! ⁹ For how can you repel a single officer among the least of my master’s servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? ¹⁰ So now, was it apart from the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD Himself said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’” ¹¹ Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.” ¹² But the Rabshakeh replied, “Has my master sent me to speak these words only to you and your master, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?” ¹³ Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴ This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot deliver you. ¹⁵ Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the LORD when he says, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ ¹⁶ Do not listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and drink water from his own cistern, ¹⁷ until I come and take you away to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸ Do not let Hezekiah mislead you when he says, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ²⁰ Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” ²¹ But the people remained silent and did not answer a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, “Do not answer him.” ²² Then Hilkiah’s son Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they relayed to him the words of the Rabshakeh.

² And he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, “O altar, O altar, this is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David, and upon you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’”

²¹ And Hezekiah rested with his fathers, and his son Manasseh reigned in his place.

²¹ He walked in all the ways of his father, and he served and worshiped the idols his father had served. ²² He abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD. ²³ Then the servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his palace. ²⁴ But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place. ²⁵ As for the rest of the acts of Amon, along with his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁶ And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza, and his son Josiah reigned in his place.

²¹ The king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover of the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ²² No such Passover had been observed from the days of the judges who had governed Israel through all the days of the kings of Israel and Judah. ²³ But in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, this Passover was observed to the LORD in Jerusalem. ²⁴ Furthermore, Josiah removed the mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to carry out the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the LORD. ²⁵ Neither before nor after Josiah was there any king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the Law of Moses. ²⁶ Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn away from the fury of His burning anger, which was kindled against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to provoke Him to anger. ²⁷ For the LORD had said, “I will remove Judah from My sight, just as I removed Israel. I will reject this city Jerusalem, which I chose, and the temple of which I said, ‘My Name shall be there.’” ²⁸ As for the rest of the acts of Josiah, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ²⁹ At the end of Josiah’s reign, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched up to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went out to confront him, but Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo. ³⁰ From Megiddo his servants carried his body in a chariot, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.

³ Surely this happened to Judah at the LORD’s command, to remove them from His presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all that he had done, ⁴ and also for the innocent blood he had shed. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was unwilling to forgive.

¹³ Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son, ¹⁴ Amon his son, and Josiah his son. ¹⁵ The sons of Josiah: Johanan was the firstborn, Jehoiakim the second, Zedekiah the third, and Shallum the fourth.

³³ And Hezekiah rested with his fathers and was buried in the upper tombs of David’s descendants. All Judah and the people of Jerusalem paid him honor at his death. And his son Manasseh reigned in his place.

² The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, ³ and through the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.

³¹ Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.

¹¹ Then Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon and the rest of the population.

¹⁵ The sons of Josiah: Johanan was the firstborn, Jehoiakim the second, Zedekiah the third, and Shallum the fourth. ¹⁶ The successors of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, and Zedekiah. ¹⁷ The descendants of Jeconiah the captive: Shealtiel his son,

¹ Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father. ² Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. ³ And the king of Egypt dethroned him in Jerusalem and imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. ⁴ Then Neco king of Egypt made Eliakim brother of Jehoahaz king over Judah and Jerusalem, and he changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Eliakim’s brother Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt. ⁵ Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD his God. ⁶ Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jehoiakim and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon. ⁷ Nebuchadnezzar also took to Babylon some of the articles from the house of the LORD, and he put them in his temple in Babylon. ⁸ As for the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, the abominations he committed, and all that was found against him, they are indeed written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And his son Jehoiachin reigned in his place.

¹⁰ In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar summoned Jehoiachin and brought him to Babylon, along with the articles of value from the house of the LORD. And he made Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

²⁰ Those who escaped the sword were carried by Nebuchadnezzar into exile in Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.

¹⁰ Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and take a look; send to Kedar and consider carefully; see if there has ever been anything like this: ¹¹ Has a nation ever changed its gods, though they are no gods at all? Yet My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols. ¹² Be stunned by this, O heavens; be shocked and utterly appalled,” declares the LORD. ¹³ “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water. ¹⁴ Is Israel a slave? Was he born into slavery? Why then has he become prey? ¹⁵ The young lions have roared at him; they have growled with a loud voice. They have laid waste his land; his cities lie in ruins, without inhabitant. ¹⁶ The men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have shaved the crown of your head. ¹⁷ Have you not brought this on yourself by forsaking the LORD your God when He led you in the way? ¹⁸ Now what will you gain on your way to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? What will you gain on your way to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? ¹⁹ Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts. ²⁰ “For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute. ²¹ I had planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. How could you turn yourself before Me into a rotten, wild vine? ²² Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD. ²³ “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there, ²⁴ a wild donkey at home in the wilderness, sniffing the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can restrain her passion? All who seek her need not weary themselves; in mating season they will find her. ²⁵ You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’ ²⁶ As the thief is ashamed when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets ²⁷ say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces, yet in the time of trouble they beg, ‘Rise up and save us!’ ²⁸ But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O Judah.

²⁰ which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he carried Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.

⁹ Then Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried away to Babylon the remnant of the people who had remained in the city, along with the deserters who had defected to him.

¹¹ Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day. ¹² On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign over Babylon, Nebuzaradan captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. ¹³ He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building. ¹⁴ And the whole army of the Chaldeans under the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Then Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest people and those who remained in the city, along with the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon and the rest of the craftsmen.

²⁸ These are the people Nebuchadnezzar carried away: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; ²⁹ in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; ³⁰ in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried away 745 Jews. So in all, 4,600 people were taken away.

² And the Lord delivered into his hand Jehoiakim king of Judah, along with some of the articles from the house of God. He carried these off to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, where he put them in the treasury of his god.

²⁷ On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, in the year Evil-merodach became king of Babylon, he released King Jehoiachin of Judah from prison.

¹⁷ The descendants of Jeconiah the captive: Shealtiel his son,

¹⁹ The sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei. The children of Zerubbabel: Meshullam and Hananiah, their sister Shelomith, ²⁰ and five others: Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah, and Jushab-hesed. ²¹ The descendants of Hananiah: Pelatiah, Jeshaiah, and the sons of Rephaiah, of Arnan, of Obadiah, and of Shecaniah. ²² The six descendants of Shecaniah were Shemaiah and his sons: Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, and Shaphat. ²³ The sons of Neariah: Elioenai, Hizkiah, and Azrikam—three in all. ²⁴ The sons of Elioenai: Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah, and Anani—seven in all.

² Then Jeshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests, along with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates, began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God.

² Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak rose up and began to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, helping them.

¹ Now these are the priests and Levites who went up with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and with Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,

²⁴ “As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “even if you, Coniah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, I would pull you off.

²⁸ Is this man Coniah a despised and shattered pot, a jar that no one wants? Why are he and his descendants hurled out and cast into a land they do not know?

¹ In the second year of the reign of Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, stating

¹² Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. So the people feared the LORD.

¹⁴ So the LORD stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and began the work on the house of the LORD of Hosts, their God,

² “Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and also to the remnant of the people. Ask them,

²³ On that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, I will take you, My servant, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and I will make you like My signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of Hosts.”

²⁷ the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,

¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and was unwilling to disgrace her publicly, he resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to embrace Mary as your wife, for the One conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means, “God with us”). ²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and embraced Mary as his wife. ²⁵ But he had no union with her until she gave birth to her firstborn Son. And he gave Him the name Jesus.

¹³ When the Magi had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.”

¹⁷ So when the crowd had assembled, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?”

²² “What then should I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify Him!”

³ Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? Aren’t His sisters here with us as well?” And they took offense at Him.

²⁷ to a virgin pledged in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.

³¹ Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, ³³ and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end!” ³⁴ “How can this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” ³⁵ The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, since he was from the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to him in marriage and was expecting a child.

⁷ And she gave birth to her firstborn, a Son. She wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: ¹¹ Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!

⁴⁸ When His parents saw Him, they were astonished. “Child, why have You done this to us?” His mother asked. “Your father and I have been anxiously searching for You.”

²³ Jesus Himself was about thirty years old when He began His ministry. He was regarded as the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,

²² All spoke well of Him and marveled at the gracious words that came from His lips. “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” they asked.

²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

¹⁴ He carried into exile all Jerusalem—all the commanders and mighty men of valor, all the craftsmen and metalsmiths—ten thousand captives in all. Only the poorest people of the land remained.

¹¹ and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. ¹² After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

² Meanwhile John heard in prison about the works of Christ, and he sent two of his disciples

⁴¹ He first found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated as Christ).

¹⁵ And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

⁴ Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!

¹⁴ What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?

¹ This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

²⁵ “The Lord has done this for me. In these days He has shown me favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

²⁷ to a virgin pledged in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women!” ²⁹ When she saw this, Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰ So the angel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, ³³ and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end!” ³⁴ “How can this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” ³⁵ The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Look, even Elizabeth your relative has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is in her sixth month. ³⁷ For no word from God will ever fail.” ³⁸ “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.

⁴ But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons.

²⁶ Such a high priest truly befits us—One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

⁵ Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me.

⁹ This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.

²⁴ About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”

²⁰ If a man lies carnally with a slave girl promised to another man but who has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there must be due punishment. But they are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed.

¹⁰ If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.

²¹ she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you. ²² If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. ²³ If there is a virgin pledged in marriage to a man, and another man encounters her in the city and sleeps with her, ²⁴ you must take both of them out to the gate of that city and stone them to death—the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. So you must purge the evil from among you.

¹ If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house. ² If, after leaving his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife, ³ and the second man hates her, writes her a certificate of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house, or if he dies, ⁴ then the husband who divorced her first may not remarry her after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination to the LORD. You must not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

⁴ Light dawns in the darkness for the upright—for the gracious, compassionate, and righteous. ⁵ It is well with the man who is generous and lends freely, whose affairs are guided by justice.

²⁰ because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man. When he heard John’s words, he did many things, and he listened to him gladly.

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

²⁵ Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

⁴ and to test Him they said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do You say?”

²² “Cornelius the centurion has sent us,” they said. “He is a righteous and God-fearing man with a good reputation among the whole Jewish nation. A holy angel instructed him to request your presence in his home so he could hear a message from you.”

¹¹ In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Here I am.’

³ “I am God,” He said, “the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

⁶ He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, will reveal Myself to him in a vision; I will speak to him in a dream.

³ The angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are barren and have no children; but you will conceive and give birth to a son.

⁸ Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, “Please, O Lord, let the man of God You sent us come to us again to teach us how to raise the boy who is to be born.” ⁹ And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God returned to the woman as she was sitting in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her.

¹³ “Do not be afraid,” Elijah said to her. “Go and do as you have said. But first make me a small cake of bread from what you have, and bring it out to me. Afterward, make some for yourself and your son,

¹³ In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men, ¹⁴ fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shudder. ¹⁵ Then a spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body bristled. ¹⁶ It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes, and I heard a whispering voice:

¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision in the night, when deep sleep falls upon men as they slumber on their beds, ¹⁶ He opens their ears and terrifies them with warnings ¹⁷ to turn a man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride,

⁸ Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He shows sinners the way. ⁹ He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.

¹⁹ When anxiety overwhelms me, Your consolation delights my soul.

¹²⁵ I am Your servant; give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies.

⁸ Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning, for I have put my trust in You. Teach me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul.

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; ⁶ in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

⁵ The plans of the righteous are just, but the counsel of the wicked leads to deceit.

² When it was reported to the house of David that Aram was in league with Ephraim, the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled like trees in the forest shaken by the wind.

¹³ Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God as well?

³ You will keep in perfect peace the steadfast of mind, because he trusts in You.

²¹ And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”

⁷ Listen to Me, you who know what is right, you people with My law in your hearts: Do not fear the scorn of men; do not be broken by their insults.

²² How long will you wander, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the land—a woman will shelter a man.”

⁹ Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore an oath to them and their men, assuring them, “Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.

²⁸ And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.

¹⁹ After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt.

²² But when he learned that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee,

⁵ But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

¹⁰ And at the hour of the incense offering, the whole congregation was praying outside. ¹¹ Just then an angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and gripped with fear. ¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.

¹⁹ “I am Gabriel,” replied the angel. “I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

²⁶ In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,

⁴ So Joseph also went up from Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, since he was from the house and line of David.

⁸ And there were shepherds residing in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night. ⁹ Just then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid! For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: ¹¹ Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord! ¹² And this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there appeared with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying: ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men!”

¹⁹ But God replied, “Your wife Sarah will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

²¹ But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.”

¹⁰ Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was behind him, listening at the entrance to the tent.

¹⁶ And Elisha declared, “At this time next year, you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord,” she said. “Do not lie to your maidservant, O man of God.” ¹⁷ But the woman did conceive, and at that time the next year she gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

⁷ O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is loving devotion, and with Him is redemption in abundance. ⁸ And He will redeem Israel from all iniquity.

¹ In that day you will say: “O LORD, I will praise You. Although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me. ² Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.”

²¹ Speak up and present your case—yes, let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago? Who announced it from ancient times? Was it not I, the LORD? There is no other God but Me, a righteous God and Savior; there is none but Me. ²² Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

⁶ In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is His name by which He will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.

¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.

²⁵ I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances. ²⁸ Then you will live in the land that I gave your forefathers; you will be My people, and I will be your God. ²⁹ I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will summon the grain and make it plentiful, and I will not bring famine upon you.

²⁴ Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city to stop their transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.

⁹ Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.

³¹ Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus.

³⁵ The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Look, even Elizabeth your relative has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is in her sixth month.

¹¹ Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!

²¹ When the eight days until His circumcision had passed, He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He had been conceived.

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

²⁶ When God raised up His Servant Jesus, He sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

¹² Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name given to men by which we must be saved.”

³¹ God exalted Him to His right hand as Prince and Savior, in order to grant repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.

²³ From the descendants of this man, God has brought to Israel salvation, as He promised.

³⁸ Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. ³⁹ Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her ²⁶ to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

²⁰ and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross. ²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds. ²² But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence— ²³ if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

¹⁴ He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

²⁵ Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.

⁷ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

¹ My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ² He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

⁵ But you know that Christ appeared to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.

⁵ and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has washed us from our sins by His blood, ⁶ who has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen.

¹⁴ “Sir,” I answered, “you know.” So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

¹⁵ and said: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His own hand what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying,

²⁴ You have kept Your promise to Your servant, my father David. What You spoke with Your mouth You have fulfilled with Your hand this day.

¹ In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows:

¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

²³ and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

¹⁷ Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took on our infirmities and carried our diseases.”

¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

²¹ But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

³⁵ So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.”

²² For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.

⁴⁴ Jesus said to them, “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”

³⁵ If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken—

³⁸ This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” ³⁹ For this reason they were unable to believe. For again, Isaiah says: ⁴⁰ “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”

²⁵ But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’

¹² While I was with them in the world, I protected and preserved by Your name those You gave Me. Not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

⁹ This was to fulfill the word He had spoken: “I have not lost one of those You have given Me.”

³⁶ Now these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of His bones will be broken.” ³⁷ And, as another Scripture says: “They will look on the One they have pierced.”

¹⁸ But in this way God has fulfilled what He foretold through all the prophets, saying that His Christ would suffer.

²⁷ The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning Him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. ²⁸ And though they found no ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have Him executed. ²⁹ When they had carried out all that was written about Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.

¹⁷ For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose by uniting to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.

⁷ The LORD of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

¹¹ The LORD of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.

⁸ It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel! ⁹ Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered! ¹⁰ Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us.”

² Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.”

²⁰ and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.”

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

⁹ One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking; do not be silent.

³ regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh, ⁴ and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

¹⁶ By common confession, the mystery of godliness is great: God appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the nations, was believed in throughout the world, was taken up in glory.

¹⁷ But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion.

²² The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you all. Amen.

²² So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him.

⁵ And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.

² “Take your son,” God said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.” ³ So Abraham got up early the next morning, saddled his donkey, and took along two of his servants and his son Isaac. He split the wood for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had designated.

¹⁶ Moses did everything just as the LORD had commanded him.

¹⁹ Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering over the tent, just as the LORD had commanded him.

²⁵ and set up the lamps before the LORD, just as the LORD had commanded him.

²⁷ and he burned fragrant incense on it, just as the LORD had commanded him.

³² They washed whenever they entered the Tent of Meeting or approached the altar, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹¹ But Naaman went away angry, saying, “I thought that he would surely come out, stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the spot to cure my leprosy. ¹² Are not the Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not have washed in them and been cleansed?” So he turned and went away in a rage. ¹³ Naaman’s servants, however, approached him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’?” ¹⁴ So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored and became like that of a little child, and he was clean.

⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” ⁶ Now six stone water jars had been set there for the Jewish rites of purification. Each could hold from twenty to thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. ⁸ “Now draw some out,” He said, “and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so,

¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command you.

⁷ By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. ⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he was grown, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵ He chose to suffer oppression with God’s people rather than to experience the fleeting enjoyment of sin. ²⁶ He valued disgrace for Christ above the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his reward. ²⁷ By faith Moses left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch Israel’s own firstborn. ²⁹ By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were drowned. ³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days. ³¹ By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies in peace, did not perish with those who were disobedient.

²¹ Was not our father Abraham justified by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that his faith was working with his actions, and his faith was perfected by what he did. ²³ And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God. ²⁴ As you can see, then, a man is justified by his deeds and not by faith alone. ²⁵ In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute justified by her actions when she welcomed the spies and sent them off on another route? ²⁶ As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

² “Consecrate to Me every firstborn male. The firstborn from every womb among the Israelites belongs to Me, both of man and beast.”

²⁹ You must not hold back offerings from your granaries or vats. You are to give Me the firstborn of your sons.

²¹ She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

²⁹ For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.