3 [Adonai] says:

⁶ In the days of Yoshiyahu the king, Adonai asked me, “Have you seen the things that backsliding Isra’el has been doing? She goes up on every bare hill and under every green tree and prostitutes herself there. ⁷ I said that after she had done all these things, she would return to me; but she hasn’t returned. Meanwhile, her unfaithful sister Y’hudah has been watching. ⁸ I saw that even though backsliding Isra’el had committed adultery, so that I had sent her away and given her a divorce document, unfaithful Y’hudah her sister was not moved to fear — instead she too went and prostituted herself. ⁹ The ease with which Isra’el prostituted herself defiled the land, as she committed adultery with stones and with logs. ¹⁰ Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Y’hudah has not returned to me wholeheartedly; she only makes a pretense of it,” said Adonai.

¹¹ Then Adonai said to me, “Backsliding Isra’el has proved herself more righteous than unfaithful Y’hudah. ¹² Go and proclaim these words toward the north:

¹⁶ “‘“And,” says Adonai, “in those days, when your numbers have increased in the land, people will no longer talk about the ark for the covenant of Adonai — they won’t think about it, they won’t miss it, and they won’t make another one. ¹⁷ When that time comes, they will call Yerushalayim the throne of Adonai. All the nations will be gathered there to the name of Adonai, to Yerushalayim. No longer will they live according to their stubbornly evil hearts. ¹⁸ In those days, the house of Y’hudah will live together with the house of Isra’el; they will come together from the lands in the north to the land I gave your ancestors as their heritage.

¹⁹ “‘“I thought that I would like to put you among the sons [with inheritance rights] and give you a pleasant land, the best heritage of all the nations. I thought that you would call me ‘My father’ and never stop following me. ²⁰ But like a faithless woman who betrays her husband, you, house of Isra’el, have betrayed me,” says Adonai.’”

¹⁰ Then I said, “Oh, Adonai Elohim! Surely you have sadly deceived this people and Yerushalayim by saying, ‘You will have peace,’ when the sword is at our very throats!”

²⁷ For here is what Adonai says:

11 There was a man who had fallen sick. His name was El‘azar, and he came from Beit-Anyah, the village where Miryam and her sister Marta lived. ² (This Miryam, whose brother El‘azar had become sick, is the one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) ³ So the sisters sent a message to Yeshua, “Lord, the man you love is sick.” ⁴ On hearing it, he said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may receive glory through it.”

⁵ Yeshua loved Marta and her sister and El‘azar; ⁶ so when he heard he was sick, first he stayed where he was two more days; ⁷ then, after this, he said to the talmidim, “Let’s go back to Y’hudah.” ⁸ The talmidim replied, “Rabbi! Just a short while ago the Judeans were out to stone you — and you want to go back there?” ⁹ Yeshua answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a person walks during daylight, he doesn’t stumble; because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if a person walks at night, he does stumble; because he has no light with him.”

¹¹ Yeshua said these things, and afterwards he said to the talmidim, “Our friend El‘azar has gone to sleep; but I am going in order to wake him up.” ¹² The talmidim said to him, “Lord, if he has gone to sleep, he will get better.” ¹³ Now Yeshua had used the phrase to speak about El‘azar’s death, but they thought he had been talking literally about sleep. ¹⁴ So Yeshua told them in plain language, “El‘azar has died. ¹⁵ And for your sakes, I am glad that I wasn’t there, so that you may come to trust. But let’s go to him.” ¹⁶ Then T’oma (the name means “twin”) said to his fellow talmidim, “Yes, we should go, so that we can die with him!”

¹⁷ On arrival, Yeshua found that El‘azar had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸ Now Beit-Anyah was about two miles from Yerushalayim, ¹⁹ and many of the Judeans had come to Marta and Miryam in order to comfort them at the loss of their brother. ²⁰ So when Marta heard that Yeshua was coming, she went out to meet him; but Miryam continued sitting shiv‘ah in the house.

²¹ Marta said to Yeshua, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” ²³ Yeshua said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Marta said, “I know that he will rise again at the Resurrection on the Last Day.” ²⁵ Yeshua said to her, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life! Whoever puts his trust in me will live, even if he dies; ²⁶ and everyone living and trusting in me will never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

²⁸ After saying this, she went off and secretly called Miryam, her sister: “The Rabbi is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹ When she heard this, she jumped up and went to him. ³⁰ Yeshua had not yet come into the village but was still where Marta had met him; ³¹ so when the Judeans who had been with Miryam in the house comforting her saw her get up quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

³² When Miryam came to where Yeshua was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³ When Yeshua saw her crying, and also the Judeans who came with her crying, he was deeply moved and also troubled. ³⁴ He said, “Where have you buried him?” They said, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Yeshua cried; ³⁶ so the Judeans there said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “He opened the blind man’s eyes. Couldn’t he have kept this one from dying?”

³⁸ Yeshua, again deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying in front of the entrance. ³⁹ Yeshua said, “Take the stone away!” Marta, the sister of the dead man, said to Yeshua, “By now his body must smell, for it has been four days since he died!” ⁴⁰ Yeshua said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you keep trusting, you will see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they removed the stone. Yeshua looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I myself know that you always hear me, but I say this because of the crowd standing around, so that they may believe that you have sent me.” ⁴³ Having said this, he shouted, “El‘azar! Come out!” ⁴⁴ The man who had been dead came out, his hands and feet wrapped in strips of linen and his face covered with a cloth. Yeshua said to them, “Unwrap him, and let him go!” ⁴⁵ At this, many of the Judeans who had come to visit Miryam, and had seen what Yeshua had done, trusted in him.

⁴⁶ But some of them went off to the P’rushim and told them what he had done. ⁴⁷ So the head cohanim and the P’rushim called a meeting of the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? — for this man is performing many miracles. ⁴⁸ If we let him keep going on this way, everyone will trust in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both the Temple and the nation.” ⁴⁹ But one of them, Kayafa, who was cohen gadol that year, said to them, “You people don’t know anything! ⁵⁰ You don’t see that it’s better for you if one man dies on behalf of the people, so that the whole nation won’t be destroyed.” ⁵¹ Now he didn’t speak this way on his own initiative; rather, since he was cohen gadol that year, he was prophesying that Yeshua was about to die on behalf of the nation, ⁵² and not for the nation alone, but so that he might gather into one the scattered children of God.

⁵³ From that day on, they made plans to have him put to death. ⁵⁴ Therefore Yeshua no longer walked around openly among the Judeans but went away from there into the region near the desert, to a town called Efrayim, and stayed there with his talmidim.

⁵⁵ The Judean festival of Pesach was near, and many people went up from the country to Yerushalayim to perform the purification ceremony prior to Pesach. ⁵⁶ They were looking for Yeshua, and as they stood in the Temple courts they said to each other, “What do you think? that he simply won’t come to the festival?” ⁵⁷ Moreover, the head cohanim and the P’rushim had given orders that anyone knowing Yeshua’s whereabouts should inform them, so that they could have him arrested.