The Righteous Branch
1 “Woe to the zshepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. 2 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. 3 Then I will agather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will set bshepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.
5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous cBranch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute djustice and righteousness in the land. 6 eIn his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
7 f“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 8 but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel gout of the north country and out of all the countries where he1 had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”
Lying Prophets
9 Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me;
all my bones shake;
I am like a drunken man,
like a man overcome by wine,
because of the Lord
and because of his holy words.
10 For the land is full of hadulterers;
because of the curse the land mourns,
and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course is evil,
and their might is not right.
11 “Both iprophet and priest are ungodly;
even in my house I have found their evil,
declares the Lord.
12 Therefore their way shall be to them
like slippery paths in the darkness,
into which they shall be driven and fall,
for I will bring disaster upon them
in the year of their punishment,
declares the Lord.
13 In the prophets of Samaria
I saw an unsavory thing:
they jprophesied by Baal
and kled my people Israel astray.
14 But in the prophets of Jerusalem
I have seen a horrible thing:
they commit adultery land walk in lies;
they mstrengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one turns from his evil;
nall of them have become like oSodom to me,
and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
15 pTherefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
“Behold, I will feed them with bitter food
and give them poisoned water to drink,
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”
16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions qof their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, r‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, s‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”
18 For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord
to see and to hear his word,
or who has paid attention to his word and listened?
19 tBehold, the storm of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth,
a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished
the intents of his heart.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly.
21 u“I did not send the prophets,
yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have vturned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their deeds.
23 “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy wlies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27 who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers xforgot my name for Baal? 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. 29 Is not my word like yfire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, zbehold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from one another. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the Lord.’ 32 Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the Lord, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord.
33 “When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden,2 and I will cast you off, declares the Lord.’ 34 And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ I will punish that man and his household. 35 Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 36 But ‘the burden of the Lord’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man’s own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. 37 Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 38 But if you say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have said these words, “The burden of the Lord,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’” 39 therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up3 and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. 40 And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which ashall not be forgotten.’”
Impending Disaster for Jerusalem
1 Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin,
from the midst of Jerusalem!
rBlow the trumpet in Tekoa,
and sraise a signal on Beth-haccherem,
for disaster looms out of the tnorth,
and great destruction.
2 The lovely and delicately bred I will destroy,
the daughter of Zion.1
3 uShepherds with their flocks shall come against her;
they shall pitch their tents around her;
they shall pasture, each in his place.
4 v“Prepare war against her;
arise, and let us attack wat noon!
Woe to us, for the day declines,
for the shadows of evening lengthen!
5 Arise, and let us attack by night
and destroy her palaces!”
6 For thus says the Lord of hosts:
x“Cut down her trees;
ycast up a siege mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city that must be punished;
there is nothing but oppression within her.
7 As a well keeps its water fresh,
so she keeps fresh her evil;
zviolence and destruction are heard within her;
sickness and wounds are ever before me.
8 Be warned, O Jerusalem,
lest I aturn from you in disgust,
lest I make you a desolation,
an uninhabited land.”
9 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“They shall glean thoroughly as a vine
the remnant of Israel;
like a grape gatherer pass your hand again
over its branches.”
10 bTo whom shall I speak and give warning,
that they may hear?
Behold, their cears are uncircumcised,
they cannot listen;
behold, dthe word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn;
they take no pleasure in it.
11 Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord;
eI am weary of holding it in.
“Pour it out upon the fchildren in the street,
and upon the gatherings of young men, also;
both husband and wife shall be taken,
the elderly and the very aged.
12 Their houses shall be turned over to others,
gtheir fields and wives together,
for I will stretch out my hand
against the inhabitants of the land,”
declares the Lord.
13 “For hfrom the least to the greatest of them,
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from iprophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
14 jThey have healed the wound of my people lightly,
ksaying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
15 lWere they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were mnot at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”
says the Lord.
16 Thus says the Lord:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for the nancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
oand find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
17 I set pwatchmen over you, saying,
‘Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!’
But they said, ‘We will not pay attention.’
18 Therefore hear, O nations,
and know, O congregation, what will happen to them.
19 Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people,
the fruit of their devices,
because they have not paid attention to my words;
and as for my law, they have rejected it.
20 qWhat use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba,
or sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are rnot acceptable,
nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.
21 Therefore thus says the Lord:
‘Behold, I will lay before this people
sstumbling blocks against which they shall stumble;
fathers and sons together,
neighbor and friend shall perish.’”
22 Thus says the Lord:
“Behold, a people is coming from the north country,
a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
23 tThey lay hold on bow and javelin;
they are cruel and have no mercy;
the sound of them is like the roaring sea;
they ride on horses,
set in array as a man for battle,
against you, O daughter of Zion!”
24 We have uheard the report of it;
our hands fall helpless;
anguish has taken hold of us,
pain as of a woman in labor.
25 Go not out into the field,
nor walk on the road,
for the enemy has a sword;
vterror is on every side.
26 O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth,
and roll in ashes;
make mourning as wfor an only son,
most bitter lamentation,
for suddenly the destroyer
will come upon us.
27 “I have made you a xtester of metals among my people,
that you may know and test their ways.
28 They are all stubbornly rebellious,
going about with yslanders;
zthey are bronze and iron;
all of them act corruptly.
29 The bellows blow fiercely;
the lead is consumed by the fire;
in vain the arefining goes on,
for the wicked are not removed.
30 Rejected silver they are called,
for the Lord has brejected them.”
Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath
1 dOn a Sabbath,1 while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples eplucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing fwhat is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” 3 And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read gwhat David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate hthe bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” 5 And he said to them, “The iSon of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
A Man with a Withered Hand
6 jOn another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees kwatched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, lis it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with mfury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
The Twelve Apostles
12 nIn these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them otwelve, whom he named apostles: 14 pSimon, whom he qnamed Peter, and rAndrew his brother, and sJames and John, and tPhilip, and uBartholomew, 15 and vMatthew, and wThomas, and xJames the son of Alphaeus, and ySimon who was called the Zealot, 16 and zJudas the son of James, and aJudas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Jesus Ministers to a Great Multitude
17 bAnd he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and chealed them all.
The Beatitudes
20 dAnd he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you who are epoor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be fsatisfied.
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
22 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 23 Rejoice in that day, and gleap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the hprophets.
Jesus Pronounces Woes
24 “But iwoe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25 “Woe to you who are full now, for jyou shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who klaugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for lso their fathers did to the false prophets.
Love Your Enemies
27 m“But I say to you who hear, nLove your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 obless those who curse you, ppray for those who abuse you. 29 qTo one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic2 either. 30 rGive to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And sas you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, texpecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is umerciful.
Judging Others
37 v“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; wforgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For xwith the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
39 He also told them a parable: “Can a yblind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 zA disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. 41 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
A Tree and Its Fruit
43 a“For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. bFor figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for cout of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Build Your House on the Rock
46 d“Why do you call me e‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 fEveryone who comes to me and ghears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.3 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
