Deuteronomy 22:13-30

English Standard Version

Laws Concerning Sexual Immorality

¹³“If any man takes a wife and ^(A)goes in to her and then hates her ¹⁴and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ ¹⁵then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. ¹⁶And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; ¹⁷and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. ¹⁸Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip^[a] him, ¹⁹and they shall fine him a hundred shekels^[b] of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a virgin^[c] of Israel. And she shall be his wife. ^(B)He may not divorce her all his days. ²⁰But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, ²¹then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and ^(C)the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has ^(D)done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father's house. ^(E)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

²²^(F)“If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. ^(G)So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

²³“If there is a ^(H)betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, ²⁴then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife. ^(I)So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

²⁵“But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. ²⁶But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, ²⁷because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.

²⁸^(J)“If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, ²⁹then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

³⁰^[d] ^(K)“A man shall not take his father's wife, so that he does not ^(L)uncover his father's nakedness.^[e]

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Footnotes

Deuteronomy 22:18 Or discipline
Deuteronomy 22:19 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
Deuteronomy 22:19 Or girl of marriageable age
Deuteronomy 22:30 Ch 23:1 in Hebrew
Deuteronomy 22:30 Hebrew uncover his father's skirt

Nehemiah 7:5-16

English Standard Version

Lists of Returned Exiles

⁵Then my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy. And I found the book of the genealogy of ^(A)those who came up at the first, and I found written in it:

⁶^(B)These were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried into exile. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his town. ⁷They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, ^(C)Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah.

The number of the men of the people of Israel: ⁸the sons of Parosh, 2,172. ⁹The sons of Shephatiah, 372. ¹⁰The sons of Arah, ^(D)652. ¹¹The sons of Pahath-moab, namely the sons of Jeshua and Joab, 2,818. ¹²The sons of ^(E)Elam, 1,254. ¹³The sons of Zattu, 845. ¹⁴The sons of Zaccai, 760. ¹⁵The sons of ^(F)Binnui, 648. ¹⁶The sons of Bebai, 628.

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Zephaniah 1:14-2:15

English Standard Version

¹⁴^(A)The great day of the Lord is near,
    near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter;
    ^(B)the mighty man cries aloud there.
¹⁵^(C)A day of wrath is that day,
    a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ^(D)ruin and devastation,
    ^(E)a day of darkness and gloom,
^(F)a day of clouds and thick darkness,
¹⁶    ^(G)a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
^(H)against the fortified cities
    and against the lofty battlements.

¹⁷^(I)I will bring distress on mankind,
    so that they shall walk ^(J)like the blind,
    because they have sinned against the Lord;
^(K)their blood shall be poured out like dust,
    and their flesh ^(L)like dung.
¹⁸^(M)Neither their silver nor their gold
    shall be able to deliver them
    on the day of the wrath of the Lord.
^(N)In the fire of his jealousy,
    ^(O)all the earth shall be consumed;
^(P)for a full and sudden end
    he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

Judgment on Judah's Enemies

2 Gather together, yes, gather,
    O ^(Q)shameless nation,
²^(R)before the decree takes effect^[a]
    —before the day passes away ^(S)like chaff—
^(T)before there comes upon you
    the burning anger of the Lord,
before there comes upon you
    the day of the anger of the Lord.
³^(U)Seek the Lord, ^(V)all you humble of the land,
    who do his just commands;^[b]
^(W)seek righteousness; seek humility;
    ^(X)perhaps ^(Y)you may be hidden
    on the day of the anger of the Lord.
⁴^(Z)For Gaza shall be deserted,
    and Ashkelon shall become a desolation;
Ashdod's people shall be driven out at noon,
    and Ekron shall be uprooted.

⁵Woe to ^(AA)you inhabitants of the seacoast,
    you nation of ^(AB)the Cherethites!
^(AC)The word of the Lord is against you,
    ^(AD)O Canaan, land of the Philistines;
    and I will destroy you ^(AE)until no inhabitant is left.
⁶^(AF)And you, O seacoast, ^(AG)shall be pastures,
    with meadows^[c] for shepherds
    and folds for flocks.
⁷^(AH)The seacoast shall become the possession
    of ^(AI)the remnant of the house of Judah,
    ^(AJ)on which they shall graze,
and in the houses of Ashkelon
    they shall lie down at evening.
For the Lord their God ^(AK)will be mindful of them
    and ^(AL)restore their fortunes.

⁸“I have heard ^(AM)the taunts of Moab
    and ^(AN)the revilings of the Ammonites,
how they have taunted my people
    and made boasts ^(AO)against their territory.
⁹Therefore, ^(AP)as I live,” declares the Lord of hosts,
    the God of Israel,
“Moab shall become ^(AQ)like Sodom,
    and the Ammonites ^(AR)like Gomorrah,
a land possessed by nettles and salt pits,
    and a waste forever.
The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
    and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”
¹⁰This shall be their lot in return ^(AS)for their pride,
    because they taunted and boasted
    against the people of the Lord of hosts.
¹¹The Lord will be awesome against them;
    ^(AT)for he will famish all the gods of the earth,
and ^(AU)to him shall bow down,
    each in its place,
    all ^(AV)the lands of the nations.

¹²^(AW)You also, O Cushites,
shall be slain by my sword.

¹³And he will stretch out his hand against the north
    ^(AX)and destroy Assyria,
and he ^(AY)will make Nineveh a desolation,
    a dry waste like the desert.
¹⁴^(AZ)Herds shall lie down in her midst,
    all kinds of beasts;^[d]
^(BA)even the owl and the hedgehog^[e]
    shall lodge in her capitals;
a voice shall hoot in the window;
    devastation will be on the threshold;
    for ^(BB)her cedar work will be laid bare.
¹⁵This is the exultant city
    ^(BC)that lived securely,
that said in her heart,
    “I am, and there is no one else.”
What a desolation she has become,
    ^(BD)a lair for wild beasts!
^(BE)Everyone who passes by her
    hisses and ^(BF)shakes his fist.

Footnotes

Zephaniah 2:2 Hebrew gives birth
Zephaniah 2:3 Or who carry out his judgment
Zephaniah 2:6 Or caves
Zephaniah 2:14 Hebrew beasts of every nation
Zephaniah 2:14 The identity of the animals rendered owl and hedgehog is uncertain

Ecclesiastes 2:12-26

English Standard Version

The Vanity of Living Wisely

¹²^(A)So I turned to consider ^(B)wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only ^(C)what has already been done. ¹³Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. ¹⁴^(D)The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the ^(E)same event happens to all of them. ¹⁵Then I said in my heart, ^(F)“What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. ¹⁶For of the wise as of the fool there is ^(G)no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. ^(H)How the wise dies just like the fool! ¹⁷So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for ^(I)all is vanity and a striving after wind.

The Vanity of Toil

¹⁸I hated ^(J)all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must ^(K)leave it to the man who will come after me, ¹⁹and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. ²⁰So I ^(L)turned about and gave my heart up to despair ^(M)over all the toil of my labors under the sun, ²¹because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. ²²What has a man from ^(N)all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? ²³For ^(O)all his days are full of sorrow, and his ^(P)work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

²⁴^(Q)There is nothing better for a person than that he should ^(R)eat and drink and find enjoyment^[a] in his toil. This also, I saw, is ^(S)from the hand of God, ²⁵for apart from him^[b] who can eat or who can have enjoyment? ²⁶For to the one who pleases him ^(T)God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given ^(U)the business of gathering and collecting, ^(V)only to give to one who pleases God. ^(W)This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

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Footnotes

Ecclesiastes 2:24 Or and make his soul see good
Ecclesiastes 2:25 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts apart from me

John 14:15-21

English Standard Version

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

¹⁵^(A)“If you love me, you will ^(B)keep my commandments. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another ^(C)Helper,^[a] to be with you forever, ¹⁷even ^(D)the Spirit of truth, ^(E)whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and ^(F)will be^[b] in you.

¹⁸“I will not leave you as orphans; ^(G)I will come to you. ¹⁹^(H)Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but ^(I)you will see me. ^(J)Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰^(K)In that day you will know that ^(L)I am in my Father, and ^(M)you in me, and ^(N)I in you. ²¹^(O)Whoever has my commandments and ^(P)keeps them, he it is who loves me. And ^(Q)he who loves me ^(R)will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and ^(S)manifest myself to him.”