Rebuilding the Altar

When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns,(A) the people assembled(B) together as one in Jerusalem. Then Joshua(C) son of Jozadak(D) and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel(E) and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses(F) the man of God. Despite their fear(G) of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices.(H) Then in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles(I) with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day. After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings, the New Moon(J) sacrifices and the sacrifices for all the appointed sacred festivals of the Lord,(K) as well as those brought as freewill offerings to the Lord. On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid.

Rebuilding the Temple

Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters,(L) and gave food and drink and olive oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs(M) by sea from Lebanon(N) to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus(O) king of Persia.

In the second month(P) of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel(Q) son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak and the rest of the people (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work. They appointed Levites twenty(R) years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord. Joshua(S) and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah[a]) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in supervising those working on the house of God.

10 When the builders laid(T) the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets,(U) and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise(V) the Lord, as prescribed by David(W) king of Israel.(X) 11 With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

“He is good;
    his love toward Israel endures forever.”(Y)

And all the people gave a great shout(Z) of praise to the Lord, because the foundation(AA) of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple,(AB) wept(AC) aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. 13 No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy(AD) from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.

Footnotes

  1. Ezra 3:9 Hebrew Yehudah, a variant of Hodaviah

12 [a]Ephraim(A) feeds on the wind;(B)
    he pursues the east wind all day
    and multiplies lies and violence.(C)
He makes a treaty with Assyria(D)
    and sends olive oil to Egypt.(E)
The Lord has a charge(F) to bring against Judah;(G)
    he will punish(H) Jacob[b] according to his ways
    and repay him according to his deeds.(I)
In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel;(J)
    as a man he struggled(K) with God.
He struggled with the angel and overcame him;
    he wept and begged for his favor.
He found him at Bethel(L)
    and talked with him there—
the Lord God Almighty,
    the Lord is his name!(M)
But you must return(N) to your God;
    maintain love and justice,(O)
    and wait for your God always.(P)

The merchant uses dishonest scales(Q)
    and loves to defraud.
Ephraim boasts,(R)
    “I am very rich; I have become wealthy.(S)
With all my wealth they will not find in me
    any iniquity or sin.”

“I have been the Lord your God
    ever since you came out of Egypt;(T)
I will make you live in tents(U) again,
    as in the days of your appointed festivals.
10 I spoke to the prophets,
    gave them many visions
    and told parables(V) through them.”(W)

11 Is Gilead wicked?(X)
    Its people are worthless!
Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?(Y)
    Their altars will be like piles of stones
    on a plowed field.(Z)
12 Jacob fled to the country of Aram[c];(AA)
    Israel served to get a wife,
    and to pay for her he tended sheep.(AB)
13 The Lord used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt,(AC)
    by a prophet he cared for him.(AD)
14 But Ephraim has aroused his bitter anger;
    his Lord will leave on him the guilt of his bloodshed(AE)
    and will repay him for his contempt.(AF)

The Lord’s Anger Against Israel

13 When Ephraim spoke, people trembled;(AG)
    he was exalted(AH) in Israel.
    But he became guilty of Baal worship(AI) and died.
Now they sin more and more;
    they make(AJ) idols for themselves from their silver,(AK)
cleverly fashioned images,
    all of them the work of craftsmen.(AL)
It is said of these people,
    “They offer human sacrifices!
    They kiss[d](AM) calf-idols!(AN)
Therefore they will be like the morning mist,
    like the early dew that disappears,(AO)
    like chaff(AP) swirling from a threshing floor,(AQ)
    like smoke(AR) escaping through a window.

“But I have been the Lord your God
    ever since you came out of Egypt.(AS)
You shall acknowledge(AT) no God but me,(AU)
    no Savior(AV) except me.
I cared for you in the wilderness,(AW)
    in the land of burning heat.
When I fed them, they were satisfied;
    when they were satisfied, they became proud;(AX)
    then they forgot(AY) me.(AZ)
So I will be like a lion(BA) to them,
    like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
Like a bear robbed of her cubs,(BB)
    I will attack them and rip them open;
like a lion(BC) I will devour them—
    a wild animal will tear them apart.(BD)

“You are destroyed, Israel,
    because you are against me,(BE) against your helper.(BF)
10 Where is your king,(BG) that he may save you?
    Where are your rulers in all your towns,
of whom you said,
    ‘Give me a king and princes’?(BH)
11 So in my anger I gave you a king,(BI)
    and in my wrath I took him away.(BJ)
12 The guilt of Ephraim is stored up,
    his sins are kept on record.(BK)
13 Pains as of a woman in childbirth(BL) come to him,
    but he is a child without wisdom;
when the time(BM) arrives,
    he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.(BN)

14 “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;(BO)
    I will redeem them from death.(BP)
Where, O death, are your plagues?
    Where, O grave, is your destruction?(BQ)

“I will have no compassion,
15     even though he thrives(BR) among his brothers.
An east wind(BS) from the Lord will come,
    blowing in from the desert;
his spring will fail
    and his well dry up.(BT)
His storehouse will be plundered(BU)
    of all its treasures.
16 The people of Samaria(BV) must bear their guilt,(BW)
    because they have rebelled(BX) against their God.
They will fall by the sword;(BY)
    their little ones will be dashed(BZ) to the ground,
    their pregnant women(CA) ripped open.”[e]

Repentance to Bring Blessing

14 [f]Return,(CB) Israel, to the Lord your God.
    Your sins(CC) have been your downfall!(CD)
Take words with you
    and return to the Lord.
Say to him:
    “Forgive(CE) all our sins
and receive us graciously,(CF)
    that we may offer the fruit of our lips.[g](CG)
Assyria cannot save us;(CH)
    we will not mount warhorses.(CI)
We will never again say ‘Our gods’(CJ)
    to what our own hands have made,(CK)
    for in you the fatherless(CL) find compassion.”

“I will heal(CM) their waywardness(CN)
    and love them freely,(CO)
    for my anger has turned away(CP) from them.
I will be like the dew(CQ) to Israel;
    he will blossom like a lily.(CR)
Like a cedar of Lebanon(CS)
    he will send down his roots;(CT)
    his young shoots will grow.
His splendor will be like an olive tree,(CU)
    his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.(CV)
People will dwell again in his shade;(CW)
    they will flourish like the grain,
they will blossom(CX) like the vine—
    Israel’s fame will be like the wine(CY) of Lebanon.(CZ)
Ephraim, what more have I[h] to do with idols?(DA)
    I will answer him and care for him.
I am like a flourishing juniper;(DB)
    your fruitfulness comes from me.”

Who is wise?(DC) Let them realize these things.
    Who is discerning? Let them understand.(DD)
The ways of the Lord are right;(DE)
    the righteous walk(DF) in them,
    but the rebellious stumble in them.

Footnotes

  1. Hosea 12:1 In Hebrew texts 12:1-14 is numbered 12:2-15.
  2. Hosea 12:2 Jacob means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom for he takes advantage of or he deceives.
  3. Hosea 12:12 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia
  4. Hosea 13:2 Or “Men who sacrifice / kiss
  5. Hosea 13:16 In Hebrew texts this verse (13:16) is numbered 14:1.
  6. Hosea 14:1 In Hebrew texts 14:1-9 is numbered 14:2-10.
  7. Hosea 14:2 Or offer our lips as sacrifices of bulls
  8. Hosea 14:8 Or Hebrew; Septuagint What more has Ephraim

The Healing at the Pool

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate(A) a pool, which in Aramaic(B) is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] [b] One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”(C) At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,(D) 10 and so the Jewish leaders(E) said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”(F)

11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’

12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning(G) or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders(H) that it was Jesus who had made him well.

The Authority of the Son

16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father(I) is always at his work(J) to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him;(K) not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.(L)

19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself;(M) he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son(N) and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these,(O) so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life,(P) even so the Son gives life(Q) to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,(R) 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.(S)

24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me(T) has eternal life(U) and will not be judged(V) but has crossed over from death to life.(W) 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come(X) when the dead will hear(Y) the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life(Z) in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge(AA) because he is the Son of Man.

28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming(AB) when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.(AC) 30 By myself I can do nothing;(AD) I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just,(AE) for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.(AF)

Testimonies About Jesus

31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.(AG) 32 There is another who testifies in my favor,(AH) and I know that his testimony about me is true.

33 “You have sent to John and he has testified(AI) to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony;(AJ) but I mention it that you may be saved.(AK) 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light,(AL) and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John.(AM) For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing(AN)—testify that the Father has sent me.(AO) 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me.(AP) You have never heard his voice nor seen his form,(AQ) 38 nor does his word dwell in you,(AR) for you do not believe(AS) the one he sent.(AT) 39 You study[c] the Scriptures(AU) diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.(AV) These are the very Scriptures that testify about me,(AW) 40 yet you refuse to come to me(AX) to have life.

41 “I do not accept glory from human beings,(AY) 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God[d]?(AZ)

45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses,(BA) on whom your hopes are set.(BB) 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.(BC) 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”(BD)

Footnotes

  1. John 5:2 Some manuscripts Bethzatha; other manuscripts Bethsaida
  2. John 5:4 Some manuscripts include here, wholly or in part, paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.
  3. John 5:39 Or 39 Study
  4. John 5:44 Some early manuscripts the Only One

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