The Genealogy of Jesus Christ

1 ^(A)The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, ^(B)the son of David, ^(C)the son of Abraham.

^2 (D)Abraham was the father of Isaac, and ^(E)Isaac the father of Jacob, and ^(F)Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, ³ and ^(G)Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,^{[a] 4} and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, ⁵ and Salmon the father of Boaz by ^(H)Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, ⁶ and ^(I)Jesse the father of David the king.

And ^(J)David was the father of Solomon by ^(K)the wife of Uriah, ⁷ and ^(L)Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,^{[b] 8} and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, ^(M)and Joram the father of Uzziah, ⁹ and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, ¹⁰ and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos,^[c] and Amos the father of Josiah, ¹¹ and ^(N)Josiah the father of ^(O)Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

¹² And after the deportation to Babylon: ^(P)Jechoniah was the father of ^(Q)Shealtiel,^[d] and ^(R)Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, ¹³ and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, ¹⁴ and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, ¹⁵ and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, ¹⁶ and Jacob the father of ^(S)Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

¹⁷ So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to ^(T)the Christ fourteen generations.

The Birth of Jesus Christ

¹⁸ Now the birth of ^(U)Jesus Christ^[e] took place in this way. ^(V)When his mother Mary had been betrothed^[f] to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child ^(W)from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling ^(X)to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But as he considered these things, behold, ^(Y)an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and ^(Z)you shall call his name Jesus, ^(AA)for he will save his people from their sins.” ^22 (AB)All this took place ^(AC)to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

(which means, God ^(AF)with us). ²⁴ When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵ but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And ^(AG)he called his name Jesus.

The Visit of the Wise Men

2 Now ^(AH)after Jesus was born in ^(AI)Bethlehem of Judea ^(AJ)in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men^[g] from ^(AK)the east came to Jerusalem, ² saying, “Where is he who has been born ^(AL)king of the Jews? For we saw ^(AM)his star when it rose^[h] and have come to ^(AN)worship him.” ³ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; ⁴ and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where ^(AO)the Christ was to be born. ⁵ They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

⁷ Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. ⁸ And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” ⁹ After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. ¹¹ And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, ^(AR)they offered him gifts, ^(AS)gold and ^(AT)frankincense and ^(AU)myrrh. ¹² And ^(AV)being warned ^(AW)in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

The Flight to Egypt

¹³ Now when they had departed, behold, ^(AX)an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴ And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt ¹⁵ and remained there until the death of Herod. ^(AY)This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ^(AZ)“Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Herod Kills the Children

¹⁶ Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. ^17 (BA)Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

The Return to Nazareth

¹⁹ But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, ²⁰ saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for ^(BD)those who sought the child's life are dead.” ²¹ And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and ^(BE)being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. ²³ And he went and lived in a city called ^(BF)Nazareth, ^(BG)so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Water from the Rock

17 ^(A)All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. ^2 (B)Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you ^(C)test the Lord?” ³ But the people thirsted there for water, and ^(D)the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” ⁴ So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready ^(E)to stone me.” ⁵ And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with ^(F)which you struck the Nile, and go. ^6 (G)Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷ And he called the name of the place ^(H)Massah^[a] and ^(I)Meribah,^[b] because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Israel Defeats Amalek

^8 (J)Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. ⁹ So Moses said to ^(K)Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with ^(L)the staff of God in my hand.” ¹⁰ So ^(M)Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and ^(N)Hur went up to the top of the hill. ¹¹ Whenever Moses ^(O)held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. ¹² But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and ^(P)Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. ¹³ And ^(Q)Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.

¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of ^(R)Joshua, that ^(S)I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” ¹⁵ And Moses ^(T)built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, ¹⁶ saying, “A hand upon the throne^[c] of the Lord! ^(U)The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

Jethro's Advice

18 ^(V)Jethro, ^(W)the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. ² Now Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, had taken Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her home, ³ along with her ^(X)two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (^(Y)for he said, ^(Z)“I have been a sojourner^[d] in a foreign land”), ⁴ and the name of the other, Eliezer^[e] (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”). ⁵ Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was encamped at the ^(AA)mountain of God. ⁶ And when he sent word to Moses, “I,^[f] your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her,” ⁷ Moses ^(AB)went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and ^(AC)kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent. ⁸ Then Moses told his father-in-law ^(AD)all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the Lord had delivered them. ⁹ And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

¹⁰ Jethro said, ^(AE)“Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. ¹¹ Now I know that ^(AF)the Lord is greater than all gods, because in this affair they ^(AG)dealt arrogantly with the people.”^{[g] 12} And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law ^(AH)before God.

¹³ The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. ¹⁴ When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand around you from morning till evening?” ¹⁵ And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because ^(AI)the people come to me to inquire of God; ^16 (AJ)when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I ^(AK)make them know the statutes of God and his laws.” ¹⁷ Moses' father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. ¹⁸ You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. ^(AL)You are not able to do it alone. ¹⁹ Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall ^(AM)represent the people before God and ^(AN)bring their cases to God, ²⁰ and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know ^(AO)the way in which they must walk and ^(AP)what they must do. ²¹ Moreover, look for ^(AQ)able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. ²² And ^(AR)let them judge the people at all times. ^(AS)Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will ^(AT)bear the burden with you. ²³ If you do this, God will direct you, you will be ^(AU)able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”

²⁴ So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. ^25 (AV)Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. ²⁶ And ^(AW)they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. ²⁷ Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and ^(AX)he went away to his own country.

Book One

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked