¹² And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law ^(A)before God.

¹³ The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. ¹⁴ When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” ¹⁵ And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because ^(B)the people come to me to inquire of God; ^16 (C)when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I ^(D)make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” ¹⁷ Moses' father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. ¹⁸ You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. ^(E)You are not able to do it alone. ¹⁹ Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall ^(F)represent the people before God and ^(G)bring their cases to God, ²⁰ and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know ^(H)the way in which they must walk and ^(I)what they must do. ²¹ Moreover, look for ^(J)able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. ²² And ^(K)let them judge the people at all times. ^(L)Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will ^(M)bear the burden with you. ²³ If you do this, God will direct you, you will be ^(N)able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”

²⁴ So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. ^25 (O)Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. ²⁶ And ^(P)they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. ²⁷ Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and ^(Q)he went away to his own country.

David and Bathsheba

11 ^(A)(B)In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged ^(C)Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

² It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on ^(D)the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. ³ And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this ^(E)Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of ^(F)Uriah the Hittite?” ⁴ So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (^(G)Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. ⁵ And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.”

⁶ So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and ^(H)wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. ¹⁰ When they told David, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” ¹¹ Uriah said to David, ^(I)“The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and ^(J)the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and ^(K)as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” ¹² Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³ And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, ^(L)so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with ^(M)the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴ In the morning David ^(N)wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. ¹⁵ In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, ^(O)that he may be struck down, and die.” ¹⁶ And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. ¹⁷ And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. ¹⁸ Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. ¹⁹ And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, ²⁰ then, if the king's anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? ^21 (P)Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’”

²² So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. ²³ The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. ²⁴ Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” ²⁵ David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.”

²⁶ When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. ²⁷ And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and ^(Q)she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

Seventy Years of Captivity

25 ^(A)The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), ² which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ³ “For twenty-three years, ^(B)from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken ^(C)persistently to you, ^(D)but you have not listened. ^4 (E)You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord ^(F)persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, ⁵ saying, ^(G)‘Turn now, every one of you, ^(H)from his evil way and evil deeds, and ^(I)dwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever. ^6 (J)Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, ^(K)or provoke me to anger ^(L)with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’ ^7 (M)Yet you have not listened to me, declares the Lord, ^(N)that you might provoke me to anger ^(O)with the work of your hands to your own harm.

⁸ “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, ^9 (P)behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, ^(Q)my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, ^(R)and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. ¹⁰ Moreover, ^(S)I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ^(T)the grinding of the millstones and ^(U)the light of the lamp. ^11 (V)This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and ^(W)these nations shall serve the king of Babylon ^(X)seventy years. ¹² Then after ^(Y)seventy years are completed, ^(Z)I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, ^(AA)the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, ^(AB)making the land an everlasting waste. ¹³ I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written ^(AC)in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. ^14 (AD)For many nations ^(AE)and great kings shall make slaves even of them, ^(AF)and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”

What Is the Measure of My Days?

To the choirmaster: to ^(A)Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

Jesus Heals the Sick in Gennesaret

^53 (A)When they had crossed over, they came to land at ^(B)Gennesaret and moored to the shore. ⁵⁴ And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately ^(C)recognized him ⁵⁵ and ran about the whole region and began to bring ^(D)the sick people ^(E)on their beds to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶ And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, ^(F)they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even ^(G)the fringe of his garment. And ^(H)as many as touched it were made well.

Longing to Go to Rome

⁸ First, ^(A)I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, ^(B)because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. ^9 (C)For God is my witness, ^(D)whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, ^(E)that without ceasing I mention you ¹⁰ always in my prayers, asking that somehow ^(F)by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. ¹¹ For ^(G)I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— ¹² that is, that we may be mutually encouraged ^(H)by each other's faith, both yours and mine. ¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,^[a] that ^(I)I have often intended to come to you (but ^(J)thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some ^(K)harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. ^14 (L)I am under obligation both to Greeks and to ^(M)barbarians,^[b] both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵ So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

¹⁶ For ^(N)I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is ^(O)the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew ^(P)first and also to ^(Q)the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it ^(R)the righteousness of God is revealed ^(S)from faith for faith,^{[c] (T)}as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”^[d]