²⁴ Build cities for your women and children, and pens for your flocks,^(A) but do what you have promised.^(B)”

²⁵ The Gadites and Reubenites said to Moses, “We your servants will do as our lord commands.^{(C) 26} Our children and wives, our flocks and herds will remain here in the cities of Gilead.^{(D) 27} But your servants, every man who is armed for battle, will cross over to fight^(E) before the Lord, just as our lord says.”

²⁸ Then Moses gave orders about them^(F) to Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun^(G) and to the family heads of the Israelite tribes.^{(H) 29} He said to them, “If the Gadites and Reubenites, every man armed for battle, cross over the Jordan with you before the Lord, then when the land is subdued before you,^(I) you must give them the land of Gilead as their possession.^{(J) 30} But if they do not cross over^(K) with you armed, they must accept their possession with you in Canaan.^(L)”

Micaiah Prophesies Against Ahab^(A)

18 Now Jehoshaphat had great wealth and honor,^(B) and he allied^(C) himself with Ahab^(D) by marriage. ² Some years later he went down to see Ahab in Samaria. Ahab slaughtered many sheep and cattle for him and the people with him and urged him to attack Ramoth Gilead. ³ Ahab king of Israel asked Jehoshaphat king of Judah, “Will you go with me against Ramoth Gilead?”

Jehoshaphat replied, “I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will join you in the war.” ⁴ But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the Lord.”

⁵ So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—four hundred men—and asked them, “Shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I not?”

“Go,” they answered, “for God will give it into the king’s hand.”

⁶ But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of?”

⁷ The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one prophet through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.”

“The king should not say such a thing,” Jehoshaphat replied.

⁸ So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”

⁹ Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. ¹⁰ Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns, and he declared, “This is what the Lord says: ‘With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.’”

¹¹ All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. “Attack Ramoth Gilead^(E) and be victorious,” they said, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”

¹² The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, the other prophets without exception are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.”

¹³ But Micaiah said, “As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what my God says.”^(F)

¹⁴ When he arrived, the king asked him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I not?”

“Attack and be victorious,” he answered, “for they will be given into your hand.”

¹⁵ The king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?”

¹⁶ Then Micaiah answered, “I saw all Israel^(G) scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd,^(H) and the Lord said, ‘These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.’”

¹⁷ The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?”

¹⁸ Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne^(I) with all the multitudes of heaven standing on his right and on his left. ¹⁹ And the Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab king of Israel into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’

“One suggested this, and another that. ²⁰ Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him.’

“‘By what means?’ the Lord asked.

²¹ “‘I will go and be a deceiving spirit^(J) in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said.

“‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the Lord. ‘Go and do it.’

²² “So now the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of these prophets of yours.^(K) The Lord has decreed disaster for you.”

²³ Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped^(L) Micaiah in the face. “Which way did the spirit from^[a] the Lord go when he went from me to speak to you?” he asked.

²⁴ Micaiah replied, “You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room.”

²⁵ The king of Israel then ordered, “Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king’s son, ²⁶ and say, ‘This is what the king says: Put this fellow in prison^(M) and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.’”

²⁷ Micaiah declared, “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Mark my words, all you people!”

¹⁰ “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted.^(A) In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’^{(B) 11} The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together;^(C) they will appoint one leader^(D) and will come up out of the land,^(E) for great will be the day of Jezreel.^[a](F)

2 ^[b]“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’^(G)

Israel Punished and Restored

The Healing at the Pool

5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate^(A) a pool, which in Aramaic^(B) is called Bethesda^[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ^{[4] [b] 5} One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”^(C)

²³ It was necessary, then, for the copies^(A) of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one;^(B) he entered heaven itself,^(C) now to appear for us in God’s presence.^{(D) 25} Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place^(E) every year with blood that is not his own.^{(F) 26} Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world.^(G) But he has appeared^(H) once for all^(I) at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.^{(J) 27} Just as people are destined to die once,^(K) and after that to face judgment,^{(L) 28} so Christ was sacrificed once^(M) to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time,^(N) not to bear sin,^(O) but to bring salvation^(P) to those who are waiting for him.^(Q)

Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All

10 The law is only a shadow^(R) of the good things^(S) that are coming—not the realities themselves.^(T) For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect^(U) those who draw near to worship.^{(V) 2} Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.^{(W) 3} But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.^{(X) 4} It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats^(Y) to take away sins.^(Z)

⁵ Therefore, when Christ came into the world,^(AA) he said:

⁸ First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”^(AE)—though they were offered in accordance with the law.