³¹ And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ^(A)he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the ^(B)Sidonians, ^(C)and went and served Baal and worshiped him. ³² He erected an altar for Baal in ^(D)the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. ³³ And Ahab made an ^(E)Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger ^(F)than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

²¹ And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long ^(A)will you go limping between two different opinions? ^(B)If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.

³⁹ And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ^(A)“The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”

The Sermon on the Mount

5 Seeing the crowds, ^(A)he went up on the mountain, and when he ^(B)sat down, his disciples came to him.

The Beatitudes

² And ^(C)he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

^24 (A)“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and ^(B)money.^[a]

^13 (A)“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy^[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and ^(B)the way is hard that leads to life, and ^(C)those who find it are few.

Build Your House on the Rock

^24 (A)“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like ^(B)a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like ^(C)a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

The Authority of Jesus

²⁸ And when Jesus finished these sayings, ^(D)the crowds were astonished at his teaching,