Jeremiah 16

English Standard Version

Famine, Sword, and Death

16 The word of the Lord came to me: ²“You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. ³For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: ⁴^(A)They shall die of deadly diseases. ^(B)They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. ^(C)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ^(D)They shall perish by the sword and by famine, ^(E)and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

⁵“For thus says the Lord: ^(F)Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the Lord. ⁶Both great and small shall die in this land. ^(G)They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or ^(H)cut himself ^(I)or make himself bald for them. ⁷No one shall ^(J)break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. ⁸You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. ⁹For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(K)Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰“And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ^(L)‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ ¹¹then you shall say to them: ^(M)‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and ^(N)have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, ¹²and because ^(O)you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, ^(P)every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. ¹³Therefore ^(Q)I will hurl you out of this land into ^(R)a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, ^(S)and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

The Lord Will Restore Israel

¹⁴^(T)“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ^(U)‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵but ^(V)‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel ^(W)out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For ^(X)I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶“Behold, ^(Y)I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out ^(Z)of the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷For ^(AA)my eyes are on all their ways. ^(AB)They are not hidden from me, ^(AC)nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸But first ^(AD)I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and ^(AE)have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

¹⁹^(AF)O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
    ^(AG)my refuge in the day of trouble,
^(AH)to you shall the nations come
    from the ends of the earth and say:
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
    ^(AI)worthless things in which there is no profit.
²⁰Can man make for himself ^(AJ)gods?
    Such are not gods!”

²¹“Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that ^(AK)my name is the Lord.”

John 10

English Standard Version

I Am the Good Shepherd

10 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. ²But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. ³To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. ⁵^(A)A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” ⁶This figure of speech Jesus ^(B)used with them, but they ^(C)did not understand what he was saying to them.

⁷So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, ^(D)I am the door of the sheep. ⁸All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the door. If anyone enters by me, ^(E)he will be saved and will go in and out and ^(F)find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and ^(G)kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. ¹¹^(H)I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd ^(I)lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²He who is ^(J)a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and ^(K)leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and ^(L)scatters them. ¹³He flees because ^(M)he is a hired hand and ^(N)cares nothing for the sheep. ¹⁴^(O)I am the good shepherd. ^(P)I know my own and ^(Q)my own know me, ¹⁵^(R)just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and ^(S)I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶And ^(T)I have other sheep that are not of this fold. ^(U)I must bring them also, and ^(V)they will listen to my voice. So there will be ^(W)one flock, ^(X)one shepherd. ¹⁷^(Y)For this reason the Father loves me, ^(Z)because ^(AA)I lay down my life that I may take it up again. ¹⁸^(AB)No one takes it from me, but ^(AC)I lay it down ^(AD)of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and ^(AE)I have authority to take it up again. ^(AF)This charge I have received from my Father.”

¹⁹^(AG)There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. ²⁰Many of them said, ^(AH)“He has a demon, and ^(AI)is insane; why listen to him?” ²¹Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. ^(AJ)Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

I and the Father Are One

²²At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³and Jesus was walking in the temple, ^(AK)in the colonnade of Solomon. ²⁴So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are ^(AL)the Christ, ^(AM)tell us plainly.” ²⁵Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. ^(AN)The works that I do ^(AO)in my Father's name bear witness about me, ²⁶but ^(AP)you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. ²⁷^(AQ)My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸^(AR)I give them eternal life, and ^(AS)they will never perish, and ^(AT)no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, ^(AU)who has given them to me,^[a] ^(AV)is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of ^(AW)the Father's hand. ³⁰^(AX)I and the Father are one.”

³¹^(AY)The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. ³²Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” ³³The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but ^(AZ)for blasphemy, because you, being a man, ^(BA)make yourself God.” ³⁴Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in ^(BB)your Law, ^(BC)‘I said, you are gods’? ³⁵If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be ^(BD)broken— ³⁶do you say of him whom ^(BE)the Father consecrated and ^(BF)sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because ^(BG)I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? ³⁷^(BH)If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; ³⁸but if I do them, ^(BI)even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that ^(BJ)the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” ³⁹^(BK)Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

⁴⁰He went away again across the Jordan to the place ^(BL)where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. ⁴¹And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but ^(BM)everything that John said about this man was true.” ⁴²And ^(BN)many believed in him there.