²¹ and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land.^{(A) 22} I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel.^(B) There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms.^{(C) 23} They will no longer defile^(D) themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding,^[a](E) and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.^(F)

²⁴ “‘My servant David^(G) will be king^(H) over them, and they will all have one shepherd.^(I) They will follow my laws and be careful to keep my decrees.^{(J) 25} They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your ancestors lived.^(K) They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever,^(L) and David my servant will be their prince forever.^{(M) 26} I will make a covenant of peace^(N) with them; it will be an everlasting covenant.^(O) I will establish them and increase their numbers,^(P) and I will put my sanctuary among them^(Q) forever.^{(R) 27} My dwelling place^(S) will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.^{(T) 28} Then the nations will know that I the Lord make Israel holy,^(U) when my sanctuary is among them forever.^(V)’”

The Plot to Kill Jesus

⁴⁵ Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary,^(A) and had seen what Jesus did,^(B) believed in him.^{(C) 46} But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷ Then the chief priests and the Pharisees^(D) called a meeting^(E) of the Sanhedrin.^(F)

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs.^{(G) 48} If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

⁴⁹ Then one of them, named Caiaphas,^(H) who was high priest that year,^(I) spoke up, “You know nothing at all! ⁵⁰ You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”^(J)

⁵¹ He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, ⁵² and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.^{(K) 53} So from that day on they plotted to take his life.^(L)

⁵⁴ Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea.^(M) Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

⁵⁵ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover,^(N) many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing^(O) before the Passover. ⁵⁶ They kept looking for Jesus,^(P) and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?”