²⁷ Therefore, mortal, speak to the house of Israel and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: In this again your ancestors blasphemed me by dealing treacherously with me.^{(A) 28} For when I had brought them into the land that I swore to give them, then wherever they saw any high hill or any leafy tree, there they offered their sacrifices and presented the provocation of their offering; there they sent up their pleasing odors, and there they poured out their drink offerings.^{(B) 29} (I said to them, “What is the high place to which you go? So it is called Bamah^[a] to this day.”) ³⁰ Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Will you defile yourselves after the manner of your ancestors and go astray after their detestable things? ³¹ When you offer your gifts and make your children pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. And shall I be consulted by you, O house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord God, I will not be consulted by you.^(C)

³² What is in your mind shall never happen—the thought, “Let us be like the nations, like the tribes of the countries, and worship wood and stone.”

God Will Restore Israel

³³ As I live, says the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you.^{(D) 34} I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, ³⁵ and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.^{(E) 36} As I entered into judgment with your ancestors in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, says the Lord God.^{(F) 37} I will make you pass under the staff and will bring you within the bond of the covenant.^{(G) 38} I will purge out the rebels among you and those who transgress against me; I will bring them out of the land where they reside as aliens, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.^(H)

³⁹ As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: Go serve your idols, every one of you now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me, but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols.^(I)

⁴⁰ For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, says the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land; there I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred things.^{(J) 41} As a pleasing odor I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations.^{(K) 42} You shall know that I am the Lord when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your ancestors.^{(L) 43} There you shall remember your ways and all the deeds by which you have polluted yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed.^{(M) 44} And you shall know that I am the Lord when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways or corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, says the Lord God.^(N)

Paul’s Ministry in Thessalonica

2 You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, ² but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition.^{(A) 3} For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, ⁴ but, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals but to please God, who tests our hearts.^{(B) 5} As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed,^{(C) 6} nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others,^{(D) 7} though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle^[a] among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. ⁸ So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

⁹ You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.^{(E) 10} You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers.^{(F) 11} As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, ¹² urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.^(G)

¹³ We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.^{(H) 14} For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own compatriots as they did from the Jews^{(I) 15} who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets^[b] and drove us out; they displease God and oppose everyone^{(J) 16} by hindering us from speaking to the gentiles so that they may be saved. Thus they have constantly been filling up the measure of their sins, but wrath^[c] has overtaken them at last.^[d](K)

²³ The word of the Lord came to me: ²⁴ Mortal, say to it: You are a land that is not cleansed, not rained upon in the day of indignation. ²⁵ Its princes^[a] within it are like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows within it.^{(A) 26} Its priests have done violence to my teaching and have profaned my holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.^{(B) 27} Its officials within it are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain.^{(C) 28} Its prophets have smeared whitewash on their behalf, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, “Thus says the Lord God,” when the Lord has not spoken.^{(D) 29} The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy and have extorted from the alien without justice.^{(E) 30} And I sought for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.^{(F) 31} Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; I have returned their conduct upon their heads, says the Lord God.^(G)

Jesus’s Side Is Pierced

³¹ Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the Sabbath, especially because that Sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed.^{(A) 32} Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him.^{(B) 33} But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.^{(C) 35} (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows^[a] that he tells the truth, so that you also may continue^[b] to believe.)^{(D) 36} These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, “None of his bones shall be broken.”^{(E) 37} And again another passage of scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced.”^(F)

The Burial of Jesus

³⁸ After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission, so he came and removed his body. ³⁹ Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.^{(G) 40} They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews.^{(H) 41} Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. ⁴² And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.