Faithless Israel Called to Repentance

6 The Lord said to me ^cin the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up ^don every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous ^esister Judah saw it. 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a ^fdecree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. 9 Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with ^gstone and tree. 10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, ^hbut in pretense, declares the Lord.”

11 And the Lord said to me, ⁱ“Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,

15 “‘And I will give you ^lshepherds ^mafter my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ⁿark of the covenant of the Lord.” ^oIt shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. 17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the ^pthrone of the Lord, and ^qall nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. 18 In those days ^rthe house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come ^sfrom the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, ^yhaughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s ^zrighteous decree that those who practice such things ^adeserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

God’s Righteous Judgment

1 ^bTherefore you have ^cno excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For ^din passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the ^ejudgment of God rightly falls on ^fthose who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and ^gforbearance and ^hpatience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up ⁱwrath for yourself on the ^jday of wrath when God’s ^krighteous judgment will be revealed.

6 He will render to each one ^laccording to his works: 7 to those who by ^mpatience ⁿin well-doing ^oseek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking¹ and ^pdo not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, ^qthe Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God ^rshows no partiality.

The Healing at the Pool on the Sabbath

1 After this there was ^ha feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

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.