²⁴ For ^(A)the Lord your God is a consuming fire, ^(B)a jealous God.

²⁵ “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and ^(C)do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, ^26 (D)I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not ^[a]prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. ²⁷ And the Lord ^(E)will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ And ^(F)there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, ^(G)which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. ^29 (H)But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. ³⁰ When you are in ^[b]distress, and all these things come upon you in the ^(I)latter days, when you ^(J)turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice ³¹ (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor ^(K)destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

³² “For ^(L)ask now concerning the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask ^(M)from one end of heaven to the other, whether any great thing like this has happened, or anything like it has been heard. ^33 (N)Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? ³⁴ Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, ^(O)by trials, ^(P)by signs, by wonders, by war, ^(Q)by a mighty hand and ^(R)an outstretched arm, ^(S)and by great ^[c]terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? ³⁵ To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord Himself is God; ^(T)there is none other besides Him. ^36 (U)Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you; on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire. ³⁷ And because ^(V)He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their ^[d]descendants after them; and ^(W)He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power, ^38 (X)driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land as an inheritance, as it is this day. ³⁹ Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that ^(Y)the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. ^40 (Z)You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that ^[e]it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may ^[f]prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

⁸ “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may ^(A)be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, ⁹ and ^(B)that you may prolong your days in the land ^(C)which the Lord ^[a]swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ^(D)‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ ¹⁰ For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; ^11 (E)but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹² a land for which the Lord your God cares; ^(F)the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

¹³ ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly ^[b]obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹⁴ then ^(G)I^[c] will give you the rain for your land in its season, ^(H)the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. ^15 (I)And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may ^(J)eat and be ^[d]filled.’ ¹⁶ Take heed to yourselves, ^(K)lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and ^(L)serve other gods and worship them, ¹⁷ lest ^(M)the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He ^(N)shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and ^(O)you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “Therefore ^(P)you shall ^[e]lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your ^(Q)soul, and ^(R)bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ^19 (S)You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. ^20 (T)And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ that ^(U)your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like ^(V)the days of the heavens above the earth.

The Prophet Mourns for the People

Disobedience Brings God’s Judgment

⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:

^12 (AE)Who is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?

¹³ And the Lord said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have ^(AF)not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, ¹⁴ but they have ^(AG)walked according to the ^[h]dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, ^(AH)which their fathers taught them,” ¹⁵ therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will ^(AI)feed them, this people, ^(AJ)with wormwood, and give them ^[i]water of gall to drink. ¹⁶ I will ^(AK)scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. ^(AL)And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”

The People Mourn in Judgment

¹⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts:

²² Speak, “Thus says the Lord:

²³ Thus says the Lord:

^11 (A)I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. ^(B)He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit ^[a]and fire. ^12 (C)His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will ^(D)burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

John Baptizes Jesus^(E)

^13 (F)Then Jesus came ^(G)from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?”

¹⁵ But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.

^16 (H)When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and ^[b]He saw ^(I)the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. ^17 (J)And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ^(K)“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

¹⁶ “Woe to you, ^(A)blind guides, who say, ^(B)‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ ¹⁷ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold ^(C)or the temple that ^[a]sanctifies the gold? ¹⁸ And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ ¹⁹ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift ^(D)or the altar that sanctifies the gift? ²⁰ Therefore he who ^[b]swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. ²¹ He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by ^(E)Him who ^[c]dwells in it. ²² And he who swears by heaven, swears by ^(F)the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.

²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^(G)For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and ^(H)have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

Jesus Predicts the Destruction of the Temple^(A)

24 Then ^(B)Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. ² And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, ^(C)not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”