Jeremiah 10

English Standard Version

Idols and the Living God

10 Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. ²Thus says the Lord:

“Learn not the way of the nations,
    nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens
    because the nations are dismayed at them,
³^(A)for the customs of the peoples are vanity.^[a]
^(B)A tree from the forest is cut down
    and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.
⁴^(C)They decorate it with silver and gold;
    ^(D)they fasten it with hammer and nails
    so that it cannot move.
⁵Their idols^[b] are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
    and ^(E)they cannot speak;
^(F)they have to be carried,
    for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
    ^(G)for they cannot do evil,
    neither is it in them to do good.”

⁶^(H)There is none like you, O Lord;
    you are great, and your name is great in might.
⁷^(I)Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
    For this is your due;
for among all the wise ones of the nations
    and in all their kingdoms
    there is none like you.
⁸^(J)They are both ^(K)stupid and foolish;
    the instruction of idols is but wood!
⁹^(L)Beaten silver is brought from ^(M)Tarshish,
    and gold from ^(N)Uphaz.
^(O)They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith;
    their clothing is violet and purple;
    ^(P)they are all the work of skilled men.
¹⁰^(Q)But the Lord is the true God;
    ^(R)he is the living God and the everlasting King.
At his wrath the earth quakes,
    and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

¹¹Thus shall you say to them: ^(S)“The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth ^(T)shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”^[c]

¹²^(U)It is he who ^(V)made the earth by his power,
    ^(W)who established the world by his wisdom,
    and ^(X)by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
¹³^(Y)When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
    ^(Z)and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
^(AA)He makes lightning ^(AB)for the rain,
    ^(AC)and he brings forth the wind ^(AD)from his storehouses.
¹⁴^(AE)Every man is stupid and without knowledge;
    ^(AF)every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,
for his images are false,
    ^(AG)and there is no breath in them.
¹⁵They are worthless, a work of delusion;
    at the time of their punishment they shall perish.
¹⁶Not like these is he who is ^(AH)the portion of Jacob,
    for he is the one who formed all things,
^(AI)and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;
    ^(AJ)the Lord of hosts is his name.

¹⁷^(AK)Gather up your bundle from the ground,
    O you who dwell under siege!
¹⁸For thus says the Lord:
^(AL)“Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land
    at this time,
^(AM)and I will bring distress on them,
    that they may feel it.”

¹⁹Woe is me because of my hurt!
    ^(AN)My wound is grievous.
But I said, “Truly this is an affliction,
    and I must bear it.”
²⁰^(AO)My tent is destroyed,
    and all my cords are broken;
my children have gone from me,
    ^(AP)and they are not;
there is no one to spread my tent again
    and ^(AQ)to set up my curtains.
²¹^(AR)For the shepherds ^(AS)are stupid
    and do not inquire of the Lord;
therefore they have not prospered,
    ^(AT)and all their flock is scattered.

²²A voice, a rumor! Behold, it comes!—
^(AU)a great commotion out of the north country
to make ^(AV)the cities of Judah a desolation,
^(AW)a lair of jackals.

²³^(AX)I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself,
that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
²⁴^(AY)Correct me, O Lord, but in justice;
not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

²⁵^(AZ)Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not,
    and on the peoples that call not on your name,
^(BA)for they have devoured Jacob;
    they have devoured him and consumed him,
    and have laid waste his habitation.

Footnotes

Jeremiah 10:3 Or vapor, or mist
Jeremiah 10:5 Hebrew They
Jeremiah 10:11 This verse is in Aramaic

John 4

English Standard Version

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and ^(A)baptizing more disciples than John ²(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), ³he left Judea and departed ^(B)again for Galilee. ⁴^(C)And he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field ^(D)that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, ^(E)wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.^[a]

⁷A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ^(F)“Give me a drink.” ⁸(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (^(G)For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you ^(H)living water.” ¹¹The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹²^(I)Are you greater than our father Jacob? ^(J)He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” ¹³Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but ^(K)whoever drinks of the water that I will give him ^(L)will never be thirsty again.^[b] The water that I will give him will become ^(M)in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, ^(N)give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Go, ^(O)call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that ^(P)you are ^(Q)a prophet. ²⁰^(R)Our fathers worshiped on ^(S)this mountain, but you say that ^(T)in Jerusalem is ^(U)the place where people ought to worship.” ²¹Jesus said to her, ^(V)“Woman, believe me, ^(W)the hour is coming when ^(X)neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²²^(Y)You worship what you do not know; ^(Z)we worship what we know, for ^(AA)salvation is ^(AB)from the Jews. ²³But ^(AC)the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father ^(AD)in spirit and ^(AE)truth, for the Father ^(AF)is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵The woman said to him, “I know that ^(AG)Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, ^(AH)he will tell us all things.” ²⁶Jesus said to her, ^(AI)“I who speak to you am he.”

²⁷Just then ^(AJ)his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹“Come, see a man ^(AK)who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰They went out of the town and were coming to him.

³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ^(AL)“Rabbi, eat.” ³²But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³So the disciples said to one another, ^(AM)“Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴Jesus said to them, ^(AN)“My food is ^(AO)to do the will of him who sent me and ^(AP)to accomplish his work. ³⁵Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that ^(AQ)the fields are white for harvest. ³⁶Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that ^(AR)sower and ^(AS)reaper ^(AT)may rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, ^(AU)‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸I sent you to reap ^(AV)that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, ^(AW)and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹Many Samaritans ^(AX)from that town believed in him ^(AY)because of ^(AZ)the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹And many more believed ^(BA)because of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, ^(BB)and we know that this is indeed ^(BC)the Savior ^(BD)of the world.”

⁴³After ^(BE)the two days he departed for Galilee. ⁴⁴(For Jesus himself had testified ^(BF)that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) ⁴⁵So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, ^(BG)having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For ^(BH)they too had gone to the feast.

Jesus Heals an Official's Son

⁴⁶So he came again to ^(BI)Cana in Galilee, ^(BJ)where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. ⁴⁷When this man heard that Jesus ^(BK)had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸So Jesus said to him, ^(BL)“Unless you^[c] see signs and wonders you will not believe.” ⁴⁹The official said to him, “Sir, come down ^(BM)before my child dies.” ⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. ⁵¹As he was going down, his servants^[d] met him and told him that his son was recovering. ⁵²So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour^[e] the fever left him.” ⁵³The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, ^(BN)and all his household. ⁵⁴^(BO)This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.