¹⁶ “‘Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife;^(A) that would dishonor your brother.

¹⁷ “‘Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter.^(B) Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.

¹⁸ “‘Do not take your wife’s sister^(C) as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.

¹⁹ “‘Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness^(D) of her monthly period.^(E)

²⁰ “‘Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife^(F) and defile yourself with her.

²¹ “‘Do not give any of your children^(G) to be sacrificed to Molek,^(H) for you must not profane the name of your God.^(I) I am the Lord.^(J)

²² “‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman;^(K) that is detestable.^(L)

²³ “‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.^(M)

²⁴ “‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you^(N) became defiled.^{(O) 25} Even the land was defiled;^(P) so I punished it for its sin,^(Q) and the land vomited out its inhabitants.^{(R) 26} But you must keep my decrees and my laws.^(S) The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, ²⁷ for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. ²⁸ And if you defile the land,^(T) it will vomit you out^(U) as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

²⁹ “‘Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people. ³⁰ Keep my requirements^(V) and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God.^(W)’”

Jehu Kills Joram and Ahaziah^(A)

¹⁴ So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram. (Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth Gilead^(B) against Hazael king of Aram, ¹⁵ but King Joram^[a] had returned to Jezreel to recover^(C) from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram.) Jehu said, “If you desire to make me king, don’t let anyone slip out of the city to go and tell the news in Jezreel.” ¹⁶ Then he got into his chariot and rode to Jezreel, because Joram was resting there and Ahaziah^(D) king of Judah had gone down to see him.

¹⁷ When the lookout^(E) standing on the tower in Jezreel saw Jehu’s troops approaching, he called out, “I see some troops coming.”

“Get a horseman,” Joram ordered. “Send him to meet them and ask, ‘Do you come in peace?^(F)’”

¹⁸ The horseman rode off to meet Jehu and said, “This is what the king says: ‘Do you come in peace?’”

“What do you have to do with peace?” Jehu replied. “Fall in behind me.”

The lookout reported, “The messenger has reached them, but he isn’t coming back.”

¹⁹ So the king sent out a second horseman. When he came to them he said, “This is what the king says: ‘Do you come in peace?’”

Jehu replied, “What do you have to do with peace? Fall in behind me.”

²⁰ The lookout reported, “He has reached them, but he isn’t coming back either. The driving is like^(G) that of Jehu son of Nimshi—he drives like a maniac.”

²¹ “Hitch up my chariot,” Joram ordered. And when it was hitched up, Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah rode out, each in his own chariot, to meet Jehu. They met him at the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth^(H) the Jezreelite. ²² When Joram saw Jehu he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?”

“How can there be peace,” Jehu replied, “as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel^(I) abound?”

²³ Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, “Treachery,^(J) Ahaziah!”

²⁴ Then Jehu drew his bow^(K) and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot. ²⁵ Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, “Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the Lord spoke this prophecy^(L) against him: ²⁶ ‘Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth^(M) and the blood of his sons, declares the Lord, and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the Lord.’^[b] Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the Lord.”^(N)

²⁷ When Ahaziah king of Judah saw what had happened, he fled up the road to Beth Haggan.^[c] Jehu chased him, shouting, “Kill him too!” They wounded him in his chariot on the way up to Gur near Ibleam,^(O) but he escaped to Megiddo^(P) and died there. ²⁸ His servants took him by chariot^(Q) to Jerusalem and buried him with his ancestors in his tomb in the City of David. ²⁹ (In the eleventh^(R) year of Joram son of Ahab, Ahaziah had become king of Judah.)

Jezebel Killed

³⁰ Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she put on eye makeup,^(S) arranged her hair and looked out of a window. ³¹ As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, “Have you come in peace, you Zimri,^(T) you murderer of your master?”^[d]

³² He looked up at the window and called out, “Who is on my side? Who?” Two or three eunuchs looked down at him. ³³ “Throw her down!” Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot.^(U)

³⁴ Jehu went in and ate and drank. “Take care of that cursed woman,” he said, “and bury her, for she was a king’s daughter.”^{(V) 35} But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands. ³⁶ They went back and told Jehu, who said, “This is the word of the Lord that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs^(W) will devour Jezebel’s flesh.^{[e](X) 37} Jezebel’s body will be like dung^(Y) on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, ‘This is Jezebel.’”

¹² When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, “Where is the whitewash you covered it with?”

¹³ “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones^(A) and torrents of rain^(B) will fall with destructive fury.^{(C) 14} I will tear down the wall^(D) you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation^(E) will be laid bare. When it^[a] falls,^(F) you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the Lord. ¹⁵ So I will pour out my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, “The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it, ¹⁶ those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Sovereign Lord.^(G)”’

¹⁷ “Now, son of man, set your face^(H) against the daughters^(I) of your people who prophesy out of their own imagination. Prophesy against them^{(J) 18} and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the women who sew magic charms on all their wrists and make veils of various lengths for their heads in order to ensnare people. Will you ensnare the lives of my people but preserve your own? ¹⁹ You have profaned^(K) me among my people for a few handfuls of barley and scraps of bread.^(L) By lying to my people, who listen to lies, you have killed those who should not have died and have spared those who should not live.^(M)

²⁰ “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against your magic charms with which you ensnare people like birds and I will tear them from your arms; I will set free the people that you ensnare like birds.^{(N) 21} I will tear off your veils and save my people from your hands, and they will no longer fall prey to your power. Then you will know that I am the Lord.^{(O) 22} Because you disheartened the righteous with your lies,^(P) when I had brought them no grief, and because you encouraged the wicked not to turn from their evil ways and so save their lives,^{(Q) 23} therefore you will no longer see false visions^(R) or practice divination.^(S) I will save^(T) my people from your hands. And then you will know that I am the Lord.^(U)’”

Psalm 101

Of David. A psalm.

A Lamp on a Stand

¹⁶ “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.^{(A) 17} For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.^{(B) 18} Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”^(C)

Jesus’ Mother and Brothers^(D)

¹⁹ Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. ²⁰ Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers^(E) are standing outside, wanting to see you.”

²¹ He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”^(F)

Jesus Calms the Storm^(G)(H)

²² One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. ²³ As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

²⁴ The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master,^(I) we’re going to drown!”

He got up and rebuked^(J) the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.^{(K) 25} “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.

In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

Ministers of the New Covenant

¹² Now when I went to Troas^(A) to preach the gospel of Christ^(B) and found that the Lord had opened a door^(C) for me, ¹³ I still had no peace of mind,^(D) because I did not find my brother Titus^(E) there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.^(F)

¹⁴ But thanks be to God,^(G) who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma^(H) of the knowledge^(I) of him everywhere. ¹⁵ For we are to God the pleasing aroma^(J) of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.^{(K) 16} To the one we are an aroma that brings death;^(L) to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?^{(M) 17} Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit.^(N) On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity,^(O) as those sent from God.^(P)