The Humiliation of Babylon
1 Come down and sit in the dust,
O virgin daughter of Babylon;
sit on the ground without a throne,
O daughter of the Chaldeans!
For you shall no more be called
tender and delicate.
2 Take the millstones and grind flour,
put off your veil,
strip off your robe, uncover your legs,
pass through the rivers.
3 eYour nakedness shall be uncovered,
and your disgrace shall be seen.
I will take vengeance,
and I will spare no one.
4 Our fRedeemer—gthe Lord of hosts is his name—
is the Holy One of Israel.
5 Sit in silence, and go into darkness,
O daughter of the Chaldeans;
for you shall no more be called
the mistress of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people;
I profaned my heritage;
I gave them into your hand;
you showed them no mercy;
on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy.
7 You said, “I shall be mistress forever,”
so that you did not lay these things to heart
or remember their end.
8 Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures,
who sit securely,
who hsay in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me;
I shall not sit as a iwidow
or know the loss of children”:
9 These two things shall come to you
in a moment, in one day;
the loss of children and widowhood
shall come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries
and the great power of your enchantments.
10 You felt secure in your wickedness;
you said, j“No one sees me”;
your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray,
and you said in your heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me.”
11 But evil shall come upon you,
which you will not know how to charm away;
disaster shall fall upon you,
for which you will not be able to atone;
and ruin shall come upon you suddenly,
of which you know nothing.
12 Stand fast in your enchantments
and your many sorceries,
with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed;
perhaps you may inspire terror.
13 You are wearied with your many counsels;
let them stand forth and save you,
those who divide the heavens,
who gaze at the stars,
who at the new moons make known
what shall come upon you.
14 Behold, they are like stubble;
the fire consumes them;
they cannot deliver themselves
from the power of the flame.
No coal for warming oneself is this,
no fire to sit before!
15 Such to you are those with whom you have labored,
who have done business with you from your youth;
they wander about, each in his own direction;
there is no one to save you.
The Full Assurance of Faith
19 Therefore, brothers,1 since we have dconfidence to eenter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living fway that he opened for us through the gcurtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the hhouse of God, 22 let us idraw near with a true heart in jfull assurance of faith, with our hearts ksprinkled clean from an evil lconscience and our bodies mwashed with pure water. 23 Let us nhold fast the oconfession of our phope without wavering, for he who promised is qfaithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but rencouraging one another, and all the more as you see the sDay drawing near.
26 For tif we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the uknowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a vfury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy won the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 xHow much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has ytrampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the zblood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, a“Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, b“The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a cfearful thing to fall into the hands of the dliving God.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the iSheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic1 called Bethesda,2 which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.3 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, jtake up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.
kNow that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews4 said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and lit is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! mSin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were npersecuting Jesus, obecause he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
Jesus Is Equal with God
18 This was why the Jews were pseeking all the more qto kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, rmaking himself sequal with God.
