The Tower of Babel

11 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. ² And as they migrated from the east,^[a] they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.^{(A) 3} And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”^{(B) 5} The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built.^{(C) 6} And the Lord said, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.^{(D) 7} Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”^{(E) 8} So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.^{(F) 9} Therefore it was called Babel,^[b] because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.^(G)

Isaac Blesses Jacob

27 When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called his elder son Esau and said to him, “My son,” and he answered, “Here I am.” ² He said, “See, I am old; I do not know the day of my death.^{(A) 3} Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt game for me.^{(B) 4} Then prepare for me savory food, such as I like, and bring it to me to eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”^(C)

⁵ Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game for his father,^{[a] 6} Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father say to your brother Esau, ⁷ ‘Bring me game, and prepare for me savory food to eat, that I may bless you before the Lord before I die.’ ⁸ Now therefore, my son, obey my word as I command you.^{(D) 9} Go to the flock, and get me two choice kids, so that I may prepare from them savory food for your father, such as he likes, ¹⁰ and you shall take it to your father to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.” ¹¹ But Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, “Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a man of smooth skin.^{(E) 12} Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse on myself and not a blessing.”^{(F) 13} His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word, and go, get them for me.”^{(G) 14} So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared savory food, such as his father loved. ¹⁵ Then Rebekah took the best garments of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob,^{(H) 16} and she put the skins of the kids on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. ¹⁷ Then she handed the savory food and the bread that she had prepared to her son Jacob.

¹⁸ So he went in to his father and said, “My father,” and he said, “Here I am; who are you, my son?” ¹⁹ Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.”^{(I) 20} But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” He answered, “Because the Lord your God granted me success.” ²¹ Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come near, that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not.”^{(J) 22} So Jacob went up to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” ²³ He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands, so he blessed him.^{(K) 24} He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am.” ²⁵ Then he said, “Bring it to me, that I may eat of my son’s game and bless you.” So he brought it to him, and he ate, and he brought him wine, and he drank.^{(L) 26} Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near and kiss me, my son.” ²⁷ So he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said,

Esau’s Lost Blessing

³⁰ As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, his brother Esau came in from his hunting. ³¹ He also prepared savory food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, “Let my father sit up and eat of his son’s game, so that you may bless me.”^{(P) 32} His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am your firstborn son, Esau.”^{(Q) 33} Then Isaac trembled violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him?—yes, and blessed he shall be!”^{(R) 34} When Esau heard his father’s words, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me, me also, father!”^{(S) 35} But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken away your blessing.” ³⁶ Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob?^[b] For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and look, now he has taken away my blessing.” Then he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”^{(T) 37} Isaac answered Esau, “I have already made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?”^{(U) 38} Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, father? Bless me, me also, father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.^(V)

³⁹ Then his father Isaac answered him:

Jacob Escapes Esau’s Fury

⁴¹ Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”^{(Y) 42} But the words of her elder son Esau were told to Rebekah, so she sent and called her younger son Jacob and said to him, “Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you. ⁴³ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; flee at once to my brother Laban in Haran,^{(Z) 44} and stay with him a while, until your brother’s fury turns away— ⁴⁵ until your brother’s anger against you turns away, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?”^(AA)

Jesus and the Temple Tax

²⁴ When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?”^{(A) 25} He said, “Yes, he does.” And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?”^{(B) 26} When Peter^[a] said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the children are free. ²⁷ However, so that we do not give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.”^(C)

True Greatness

18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ² He called a child, whom he put among them, ³ and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.^{(D) 4} Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.^(E)

Temptations to Sin

⁶ “If any of you cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,^[b] it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.^{(F) 7} Woe to the world because of things that cause sin!^[c] Such things are bound to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!^(G)

⁸ “If your hand or your foot causes you to sin,^[d] cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the eternal fire.^{(H) 9} And if your eye causes you to sin,^[e] tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into the hell^[f] of fire.^(I)

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

¹⁰ “Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven.^{[g](J) 12} What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? ¹³ And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. ¹⁴ So it is not the will of your^[h] Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.

Abram and Lot Separate

13 So Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and Lot with him, into the Negeb.^(A)

² Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. ³ He journeyed on by stages from the Negeb as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,^{(B) 4} to the place where he had made an altar at the first, and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.^{(C) 5} Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, ⁶ and the land could not support both of them living together because their possessions were so great that they could not live together. ⁷ Thus strife arose between the herders of Abram’s livestock and the herders of Lot’s livestock. At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land.^(D)

⁸ Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me and between your herders and my herders, for we are kindred.^{(E) 9} Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” ¹⁰ Lot looked about him and saw that the plain of the Jordan was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar; this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.^{(F) 11} So Lot chose for himself all the plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward, and they separated from each other. ¹² Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the plain and moved his tent as far as Sodom.^{(G) 13} Now the people of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.^(H)

¹⁴ The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward,^{(I) 15} for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.^{(J) 16} I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.^{(K) 17} Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.”^{(L) 18} So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks^[a] of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.^(M)

The Example of Abraham

4 What then are we to say was gained by^[a] Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? ² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.^{(A) 3} For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed^[b] God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”^{(B) 4} Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due.^{(C) 5} But to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. ⁶ So also David pronounces a blessing on those to whom God reckons righteousness apart from works:

⁹ Is this blessing, then, pronounced only on the circumcised or also on the uncircumcised? We say, “Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.” ¹⁰ How then was it reckoned to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after but before he was circumcised. ¹¹ He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith^[c] while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the ancestor of all who believe^[d] without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them,^{(E) 12} and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.

God’s Promise Realized through Faith

¹³ For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.^{(F) 14} For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.^(G)

¹⁶ For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (who is the father of all of us,^{(H) 17} as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”), in the presence of the God in whom he believed,^[e] who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.^{(I) 18} Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So shall your descendants be.” ¹⁹ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already^[f] as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), and the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.^{(J) 20} No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.^{(K) 22} Therefore “it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” ²³ Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone^{(L) 24} but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe^[g] in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,^{(M) 25} who was handed over for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.^(N)