²⁷ “Therefore ^(A)speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Again, in this your fathers have ^(B)blasphemed Me by ^(C)being disloyal to Me. ²⁸ When I had ^(D)brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, then they saw every ^(E)high hill and every tree thick with branches, and there they offered their sacrifices and there they presented the provocation of their offering. There also they made their soothing aroma and there they poured out their drink offerings. ²⁹ Then I said to them, ‘What is the high place to which you go?’ So its name is called ^[a]Bamah to this day.”’ ³⁰ Therefore, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Will you defile yourselves in the way of your ^(F)fathers and adulterously pursue their detestable things? ³¹ And ^[b]when you offer your gifts, when you ^(G)make your sons pass through the fire, you are defiling yourselves with all your idols to this day. So shall I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live,” declares the Lord God, “I certainly will not be inquired of by you. ³² And whatever ^(H)comes ^[c]into your mind certainly will not come about, when you say: ‘We will be like the nations, like the families of the lands, ^(I)serving wood and stone.’

God Will Restore Israel to Her Land

³³ “As I live,” declares the Lord God, “with a mighty hand and with an ^(J)outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I assuredly shall be ^(K)king over you. ³⁴ I will ^(L)bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with ^(M)wrath poured out; ³⁵ and I will bring you into the ^(N)wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. ³⁶ Just as I ^(O)entered into judgment with your fathers in the ^(P)wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” declares the Lord God. ³⁷ “I will make you ^(Q)pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; ³⁸ and I will ^(R)purge from you the rebels and those who revolt against Me; I will bring them out of the land where they reside, but they will ^(S)not enter the ^[d]land of Israel. So you will know that I am the Lord.

³⁹ “As for you, house of Israel,” this is what the Lord God says: “^(T)Go, serve, everyone of you his idols; ^[e]but later you will certainly listen to Me, and My holy name you will no longer ^(U)defile with your gifts and your idols. ⁴⁰ For on My holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel,” declares the Lord God, “there the entire house of Israel, ^(V)all of them, will serve Me in the land; there I will ^(W)accept them and there I will demand your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your holy things. ^41 [f]As a soothing aroma I will accept you when I ^(X)bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered; and I will show Myself to be ^(Y)holy among you in the sight of the nations. ⁴² And ^(Z)you will know that I am the Lord, ^(AA)when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the ^(AB)land which I swore to give to your forefathers. ⁴³ And there you will ^(AC)remember your ways and all your deeds by which you have defiled yourselves; and you will ^(AD)loathe yourselves in your own ^[g]sight for all the evil things that you have done. ⁴⁴ Then ^(AE)you will know that I am the Lord, when I have dealt with you ^(AF)in behalf of My name, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, house of Israel,” declares the Lord God.’”

Paul’s Ministry

2 For you yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our ^[a](A)reception among you ^(B)was not in vain, ² but after we had already suffered and been ^(C)treated abusively in ^(D)Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God ^(E)to speak to you the ^(F)gospel of God ^[b]amid much ^[c](G)opposition. ³ For our ^(H)exhortation does not come from ^(I)error or ^(J)impurity or ^[d]by way of ^(K)deceit; ^4 (L)but just as we have been approved by God to be ^(M)entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, ^(N)not intending to please people, but to please God, who ^[e](O)examines our hearts. ⁵ For we never came ^[f]with flattering speech, as you know, nor with ^(P)a pretext ^[g]for greed—^(Q)God is our witness— ⁶ nor did we ^(R)seek honor from people, either from you or from others, though ^[h]we could have ^[i]asserted our authority as ^(S)apostles of Christ. ⁷ But we ^[j]proved to be ^[k](T)gentle ^[l]among you. ^(U)As a nursing mother ^[m]tenderly cares for her own children, ⁸ in the same way we had a fond affection for you and were delighted to ^(V)share with you not only the ^(W)gospel of God, but also our own ^[n]lives, because you had become ^[o]very dear to us.

⁹ For you recall, brothers and sisters, our ^(X)labor and hardship: it was by ^(Y)working night and day so as not to be a ^(Z)burden to any of you, that we proclaimed to you the ^(AA)gospel of God. ¹⁰ You are witnesses, and so is ^(AB)God, of ^(AC)how devoutly and rightly and blamelessly we ^[p]behaved toward you ^[q]believers; ¹¹ just as you know how we were ^(AD)exhorting and encouraging and ^(AE)imploring each one of you as ^(AF)a father would his own children, ¹² so that you would ^(AG)walk in a manner worthy of the God who ^(AH)calls you into His own kingdom and ^(AI)glory.

¹³ For this reason we also constantly ^(AJ)thank God that when you received the ^(AK)word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it ^(AL)not as the word of mere men, but as what it really is, the word of God, ^(AM)which also is at work in you who believe. ¹⁴ For you, brothers and sisters, became ^(AN)imitators of ^(AO)the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are ^(AP)in Judea, for ^(AQ)you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, ^(AR)even as they did from the Jews, ^15 (AS)who both killed the Lord Jesus and ^(AT)the prophets, and ^[r]drove us out. ^[s]They are not pleasing to God, ^[t]but hostile to all people, ^16 (AU)hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles ^(AV)so that they may be saved; with the result that they always ^[u](AW)reach the limit of their sins. But ^(AX)wrath has come upon them ^[v]fully.

²³ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²⁴ “Son of man, say to her, ‘You are a land that is ^(A)not clean or rained on in the day of indignation.’ ²⁵ There is a ^(B)conspiracy of her prophets in her midst like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have ^(C)devoured lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many ^(D)widows in the midst of her. ²⁶ Her ^(E)priests have done violence to My Law and have ^(F)profaned My holy things; they have made no ^(G)distinction between the holy and the ^[a]common, and they have not taught the difference between the ^(H)unclean and the clean; and they have closed their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am defiled among them. ²⁷ Her leaders within her are like wolves tearing the prey, by shedding blood and ^(I)destroying lives in order to make ^(J)dishonest profit. ²⁸ And her prophets have coated with whitewash for them, seeing ^(K)false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have practiced ^(L)extortion and committed robbery, and they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have ^(M)oppressed the stranger without justice. ³⁰ I ^(N)searched for a man among them who would ^(O)build up a wall and ^(P)stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found ^[b]no one. ³¹ So I have poured out My ^(Q)indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; I have brought ^(R)their way upon their heads,” declares the Lord God.

Care of the Body of Jesus

³¹ Now then, since it was ^(A)the day of preparation, to prevent ^(B)the bodies from remaining on the cross on the Sabbath (^[a]for that Sabbath was a ^(C)high day), the Jews requested of Pilate that their legs be broken, and the bodies be taken away. ³² So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other who was ^(D)crucified with Him; ³³ but after they came to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. ³⁴ Yet one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately ^(E)blood and water came out. ³⁵ And he who has seen has ^(F)testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. ³⁶ For these things took place ^(G)so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “^(H)Not a bone of Him shall be ^[b]broken.” ³⁷ And again another Scripture says, “^(I)They will look at Him whom they pierced.”

³⁸ Now ^(J)after these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a ^(K)secret one for ^(L)fear of the ^[c]Jews, requested of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body. ^39 (M)Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, ^(N)bringing a ^[d]mixture of ^(O)myrrh and aloes, about a ^[e](P)hundred litras weight. ⁴⁰ So they took the body of Jesus and ^(Q)bound it in ^(R)linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. ⁴¹ Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden was a ^(S)new tomb ^(T)in which no one had yet been laid. ⁴² Therefore because of the Jewish day of ^(U)preparation, since the tomb was ^(V)nearby, they laid Jesus there.