1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:

² Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

⁴ Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

⁵ For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

⁶ And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

⁷ And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

⁸ For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:

⁹ But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

¹⁰ Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

¹¹ Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.

¹² For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

¹³ For we write none other things unto you, that what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end;

¹⁴ As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are our's in the day of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁵ And in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before, that ye might have a second benefit;

¹⁶ And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way toward Judaea.

¹⁷ When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay?

¹⁸ But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay.

¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.

²⁰ For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

²¹ Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;

²² Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

²³ Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.

²⁴ Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

33 These are the journeys of the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt with their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron.

² And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the Lord: and these are their journeys according to their goings out.

³ And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the passover the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians.

⁴ For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the Lord had smitten among them: upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments.

⁵ And the children of Israel removed from Rameses, and pitched in Succoth.

⁶ And they departed from Succoth, and pitched in Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness.

⁷ And they removed from Etham, and turned again unto Pihahiroth, which is before Baalzephon: and they pitched before Migdol.

⁸ And they departed from before Pihahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and went three days'journey in the wilderness of Etham, and pitched in Marah.

⁹ And they removed from Marah, and came unto Elim: and in Elim were twelve fountains of water, and threescore and ten palm trees; and they pitched there.

¹⁰ And they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red sea.

¹¹ And they removed from the Red sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin.

¹² And they took their journey out of the wilderness of Sin, and encamped in Dophkah.

¹³ And they departed from Dophkah, and encamped in Alush.

¹⁴ And they removed from Alush, and encamped at Rephidim, where was no water for the people to drink.

¹⁵ And they departed from Rephidim, and pitched in the wilderness of Sinai.

¹⁶ And they removed from the desert of Sinai, and pitched at Kibrothhattaavah.

¹⁷ And they departed from Kibrothhattaavah, and encamped at Hazeroth.

¹⁸ And they departed from Hazeroth, and pitched in Rithmah.

¹⁹ And they departed from Rithmah, and pitched at Rimmonparez.

²⁰ And they departed from Rimmonparez, and pitched in Libnah.

²¹ And they removed from Libnah, and pitched at Rissah.

²² And they journeyed from Rissah, and pitched in Kehelathah.

²³ And they went from Kehelathah, and pitched in mount Shapher.

²⁴ And they removed from mount Shapher, and encamped in Haradah.

²⁵ And they removed from Haradah, and pitched in Makheloth.

²⁶ And they removed from Makheloth, and encamped at Tahath.

²⁷ And they departed from Tahath, and pitched at Tarah.

²⁸ And they removed from Tarah, and pitched in Mithcah.

²⁹ And they went from Mithcah, and pitched in Hashmonah.

³⁰ And they departed from Hashmonah, and encamped at Moseroth.

³¹ And they departed from Moseroth, and pitched in Benejaakan.

³² And they removed from Benejaakan, and encamped at Horhagidgad.

³³ And they went from Horhagidgad, and pitched in Jotbathah.

³⁴ And they removed from Jotbathah, and encamped at Ebronah.

³⁵ And they departed from Ebronah, and encamped at Eziongaber.

³⁶ And they removed from Eziongaber, and pitched in the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh.

³⁷ And they removed from Kadesh, and pitched in mount Hor, in the edge of the land of Edom.

³⁸ And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of the Lord, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month.

³⁹ And Aaron was an hundred and twenty and three years old when he died in mount Hor.

⁴⁰ And king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.

⁴¹ And they departed from mount Hor, and pitched in Zalmonah.

⁴² And they departed from Zalmonah, and pitched in Punon.

⁴³ And they departed from Punon, and pitched in Oboth.

⁴⁴ And they departed from Oboth, and pitched in Ijeabarim, in the border of Moab.

⁴⁵ And they departed from Iim, and pitched in Dibongad.

⁴⁶ And they removed from Dibongad, and encamped in Almondiblathaim.

⁴⁷ And they removed from Almondiblathaim, and pitched in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo.

⁴⁸ And they departed from the mountains of Abarim, and pitched in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.

⁴⁹ And they pitched by Jordan, from Bethjesimoth even unto Abelshittim in the plains of Moab.

⁵⁰ And the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,

⁵¹ Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan;

⁵² Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:

⁵³ And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it.

⁵⁴ And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit.

⁵⁵ But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.

⁵⁶ Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.

7 Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,

² The son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,

³ The son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth,

⁴ The son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,

⁵ The son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest:

⁶ This Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given: and the king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.

⁷ And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.

⁸ And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king.

⁹ For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.

¹⁰ For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

¹¹ Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord, and of his statutes to Israel.

¹² Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time.

¹³ I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.

¹⁴ Forasmuch as thou art sent of the king, and of his seven counsellors, to enquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thine hand;

¹⁵ And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counsellors have freely offered unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem,

¹⁶ And all the silver and gold that thou canst find in all the province of Babylon, with the freewill offering of the people, and of the priests, offering willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem:

¹⁷ That thou mayest buy speedily with this money bullocks, rams, lambs, with their meat offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them upon the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.

¹⁸ And whatsoever shall seem good to thee, and to thy brethren, to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, that do after the will of your God.

¹⁹ The vessels also that are given thee for the service of the house of thy God, those deliver thou before the God of Jerusalem.

²⁰ And whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure house.

²¹ And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily,

²² Unto an hundred talents of silver, and to an hundred measures of wheat, and to an hundred baths of wine, and to an hundred baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much.

²³ Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven: for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?

²⁴ Also we certify you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom, upon them.

²⁵ And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not.

²⁶ And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.

²⁷ Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem:

²⁸ And hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the king's mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.

11 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

² Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.

³ If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.

⁴ He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.

⁵ As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

⁶ In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

⁷ Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:

⁸ But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity.

⁹ Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

¹⁰ Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.