¹⁶ Then ^(A)the anointed priest shall bring some of the blood of the bull into the tent of meeting, ¹⁷ and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil. ¹⁸ And he shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is in the tent of meeting before the Lord, and the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. ¹⁹ And all its fat he shall take from it and burn on the altar. ²⁰ Thus shall he do with the bull. As he did ^(B)with the bull of the sin offering, so shall he do with this. ^(C)And the priest shall make atonement for them, and they shall be forgiven. ²¹ And he shall carry the bull ^(D)outside the camp and burn it up as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering for the assembly.

²² “When a leader sins, ^(E)doing unintentionally any one of all the things that by the commandments of the Lord his God ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, ²³ or ^(F)the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring as his offering a goat, a male without blemish, ²⁴ and ^(G)shall lay his hand on the head of the goat and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the Lord; it is a sin offering. ^25 (H)Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering. ²⁶ And all its fat he shall burn on the altar, like ^(I)the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings. So ^(J)the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin, and he shall be forgiven.

²⁷ “If ^(K)anyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, ^28 (L)or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. ^29 (M)And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill the sin offering in the place of burnt offering. ³⁰ And the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. ³¹ And ^(N)all its fat he shall remove, ^(O)as the fat is removed from the peace offerings, and the priest shall burn it on the altar for a ^(P)pleasing aroma to the Lord. ^(Q)And the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven.

³² “If he brings a lamb as his offering for a sin offering, he shall bring ^(R)a female without blemish ^33 (S)and lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering. ³⁴ Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. ³⁵ And all its fat he shall remove ^(T)as the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of peace offerings, and the priest shall burn it on the altar, on top of the Lord's food offerings. ^(U)And the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven.

¹⁵ Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” ¹⁶ And he said, ^(A)“I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, ¹⁷ for it was said to me ^(B)by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’” ¹⁸ And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he lied to him. ¹⁹ So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.

²⁰ And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. ²¹ And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you, ²² but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’” ²³ And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴ And as he went away ^(C)a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. ²⁵ And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where ^(D)the old prophet lived.

²⁶ And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the Lord spoke to him.” ²⁷ And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. ²⁸ And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. ²⁹ And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city^[a] to mourn and to bury him. ³⁰ And he laid the body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, saying, ^(E)“Alas, my brother!” ³¹ And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; ^(F)lay my bones beside his bones. ^32 (G)For the saying that he called out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against ^(H)all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of ^(I)Samaria shall surely come to pass.”

³³ After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. ^34 (J)And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, ^(K)so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.

¹⁴ And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. ¹⁵ And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive some of the poorest of the people and the rest of the people who were left in the city and ^(A)the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the artisans. ¹⁶ But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.

¹⁷ And the ^(B)pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord, and the stands and the ^(C)bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and ^(D)carried all the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸ And they took away ^(E)the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the basins and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service; ^19 (F)also the small bowls and the fire pans and the basins and the pots and ^(G)the lampstands and ^(H)the dishes for incense ^(I)and the bowls for drink offerings. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver. ²⁰ As for the two pillars, the one sea, ^(J)the twelve bronze bulls that were under the sea,^[a] and the stands, which Solomon the king had made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these things was beyond weight. ²¹ As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits,^{[b] (K)}its circumference was twelve cubits, and its thickness was four fingers, and it was hollow. ²² On it was a capital of bronze. The height of the one capital was ^(L)five cubits. A network and pomegranates, all of bronze, were around the capital. And the second pillar had the same, with pomegranates. ²³ There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were a hundred upon the network all around.

The People Exiled to Babylon

²⁴ And the captain of the guard took ^(M)Seraiah the chief priest, and ^(N)Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold; ²⁵ and from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the men of war, and ^(O)seven men of the king's council, who were found in the city; and the secretary of the commander of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city. ²⁶ And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at ^(P)Riblah. ²⁷ And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at ^(Q)Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.

²⁸ This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: ^(R)in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans; ^29 (S)in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem 832 persons; ³⁰ in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Judeans 745 persons; all the persons were 4,600.

Zechariah's Prophecy

⁶⁷ And his father Zechariah ^(A)was filled with the Holy Spirit and ^(B)prophesied, saying,

^80 (AF)And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was ^(AG)in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

Live as You Are Called

¹⁷ Only let each person lead the life^{[a] (A)}that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. ^(B)This is my rule in ^(C)all the churches. ¹⁸ Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? ^(D)Let him not seek circumcision. ^19 (E)For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but ^(F)keeping the commandments of God. ^20 (G)Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. ²¹ Were you a bondservant^[b] when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) ²² For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is ^(H)a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is ^(I)a bondservant of Christ. ^23 (J)You were bought with a price; ^(K)do not become bondservants of men. ²⁴ So, brothers,^{[c] (L)}in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.