(A)For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law,

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(A)and with them the Levites, Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tobadonijah; and with these Levites, the priests Elishama and Jehoram. And (B)they taught in Judah, having the Book of the Law of the Lord with them. They went about through all the cities of Judah and taught among the people.

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11 and (A)you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.”

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and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where (A)the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

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For (A)the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people[a] should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.

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Footnotes

  1. Malachi 2:7 Hebrew they

11 (A)Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
    (B)its priests teach for a price;
    (C)its prophets practice divination for money;
(D)yet they lean on the Lord and (E)say,
    “Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
    (F)No disaster shall come upon us.”

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For the children of Israel (A)shall dwell many days (B)without king or prince, (C)without sacrifice or (D)pillar, without (E)ephod or (F)household gods.

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21 (A)No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court. 22 (B)They shall not marry a widow or a divorced woman, but only virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest. 23 (C)They shall teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and (D)show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean.

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10 (A)But the Lord is the true God;
    (B)he is the living God and the everlasting King.
At his wrath the earth quakes,
    and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

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This Day Is Holy

And Nehemiah, who was (A)the governor, and Ezra (B)the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, (C)“This day is holy to the Lord your God; (D)do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.

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God's Judgment and the Law

12 For all who have sinned (A)without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

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28 So the king took counsel and (A)made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. (B)Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 29 And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 30 Then (C)this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one.[a] 31 He also made (D)temples on high places and (E)appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. 32 And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like (F)the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel (G)the priests of the high places that he had made. 33 He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar (H)to make offerings.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 12:30 Septuagint went to the one at Bethel and to the other as far as Dan

10 (A)They shall teach Jacob your rules
    and Israel your law;
(B)they shall put incense before you
    and (C)whole burnt offerings on your altar.

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