Israel’s Unfaithfulness

¹¹ Then the children of Israel did ^(A)evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; ¹² and they ^(B)forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed ^(C)other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they ^(D)bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. ¹³ They forsook the Lord ^(E)and served ^[a]Baal and the ^[b]Ashtoreths. ^14 (F)And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So He ^(G)delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and ^(H)He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they ^(I)could no longer stand before their enemies. ¹⁵ Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had ^(J)sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.

¹⁶ Nevertheless, ^(K)the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. ¹⁷ Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they ^(L)played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so. ¹⁸ And when the Lord raised up judges for them, ^(M)the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; ^(N)for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. ¹⁹ And it came to pass, ^(O)when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.

²⁰ Then the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He said, “Because this nation has ^(P)transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice, ²¹ I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua ^(Q)left when he died, ²² so ^(R)that through them I may ^(S)test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the Lord, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not.” ²³ Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.

End of the Babylonian Captivity^(A)

1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord ^(B)by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, ^(C)so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,

⁵ Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits ^(F)God ^[b]had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. ⁶ And all those who were around them ^[c]encouraged them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with precious things, besides all that was ^(G)willingly offered.

^7 (H)King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, ^(I)which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the ^[d]temple of his gods; ⁸ and Cyrus king of Persia brought them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to ^(J)Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. ⁹ This is the number of them: thirty gold platters, one thousand silver platters, twenty-nine knives, ¹⁰ thirty gold basins, four hundred and ten silver basins of a similar kind, and one thousand other articles. ¹¹ All the articles of gold and silver were five thousand four hundred. All these Sheshbazzar took with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Matthew the Tax Collector^(A)

^9 (B)As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him.

^10 (C)Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with ^(D)tax collectors and ^(E)sinners?”

¹² When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ^(F)‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, ^(G)but sinners, ^[a]to repentance.”

Jesus Is Questioned About Fasting^(H)

¹⁴ Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, ^(I)“Why do we and the Pharisees fast ^[b]often, but Your disciples do not fast?”

¹⁵ And Jesus said to them, “Can ^(J)the ^[c]friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and ^(K)then they will fast. ¹⁶ No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for ^[d]the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. ¹⁷ Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins ^[e]break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”