The Rewards of Wisdom

Mattathias and His Sons

2 In those days Mattathi′as the son of John, son of Sim′eon, a priest of the sons of Jo′arib, moved from Jerusalem and settled in Mo′de-in. ² He had five sons, John surnamed Gaddi, ³ Simon called Thassi, ⁴ Judas called Maccabe′us, ⁵ Elea′zar called Av′aran, and Jonathan called Apphus. ⁶ He saw the blasphemies being committed in Judah and Jerusalem, ⁷ and said,

¹⁴ And Mattathi′as and his sons rent their clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned greatly.

Pagan Worship Refused

¹⁵ Then the king’s officers who were enforcing the apostasy came to the city of Mo′de-in to make them offer sacrifice. ¹⁶ Many from Israel came to them; and Mattathi′as and his sons were assembled. ¹⁷ Then the king’s officers spoke to Mattathi′as as follows: “You are a leader, honored and great in this city, and supported by sons and brothers. ¹⁸ Now be the first to come and do what the king commands, as all the Gentiles and the men of Judah and those that are left in Jerusalem have done. Then you and your sons will be numbered among the friends of the king, and you and your sons will be honored with silver and gold and many gifts.”

¹⁹ But Mattathi′as answered and said in a loud voice: “Even if all the nations that live under the rule of the king obey him, and have chosen to do his commandments, departing each one from the religion of his fathers, ²⁰ yet I and my sons and my brothers will live by the covenant of our fathers. ²¹ Far be it from us to desert the law and the ordinances. ²² We will not obey the king’s words by turning aside from our religion to the right hand or to the left.”

Feeding the Five Thousand

¹³ Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ As he went ashore he saw a great throng; and he had compassion on them, and healed their sick. ¹⁵ When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a lonely place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” ¹⁶ Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” ¹⁷ They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” ¹⁸ And he said, “Bring them here to me.” ¹⁹ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ²⁰ And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. ²¹ And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Jesus Walks on the Water

²² Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. ²³ And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴ but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land,^[a] beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. ²⁵ And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. ²⁶ But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out for fear. ²⁷ But immediately he spoke to them, saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.”

²⁸ And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.” ²⁹ He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; ³⁰ but when he saw the wind,^[b] he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” ³¹ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” ³² And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. ³³ And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Salutation

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.

To the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Acha′ia:

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

Paul’s Thanksgiving after Affliction

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵ For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.^{[a] 6} If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. ⁷ Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

⁸ For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. ⁹ Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead; ¹⁰ he delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. ¹¹ You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us in answer to many prayers.

The Postponement of Paul’s Visit

¹² For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we have behaved in the world, and still more toward you, with holiness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God. ¹³ For we write you nothing but what you can read and understand; I hope you will understand fully, ¹⁴ as you have understood in part, that you can be proud of us as we can be of you, on the day of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁵ Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a double pleasure;^{[b] 16} I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedo′nia, and to come back to you from Macedo′nia and have you send me on my way to Judea. ¹⁷ Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans like a worldly man, ready to say Yes and No at once? ¹⁸ As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. ¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you, Silva′nus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes. ²⁰ For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God. ²¹ But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has commissioned us; ²² he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.