Death and Burial of Sarah

23 Now ^[a]Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. ² Sarah died in ^(A)Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham ^[b]came in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. ³ Then Abraham arose from mourning before his dead, and spoke to the ^(B)sons of Heth, saying, ⁴ “I am ^(C)a stranger and a foreign resident among you; ^(D)give me ^[c]a ^(E)burial site among you so that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” ⁵ The sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, ⁶ “Hear us, my lord: you are a ^[d](F)mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our graves; none of us will refuse you his grave for burying your dead.” ⁷ So Abraham stood up and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth. ⁸ And he spoke with them, saying, “If ^[e]you are willing to let me bury my dead out of my sight, listen to me, and plead with ^(G)Ephron the son of Zohar for me, ⁹ that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he owns, which is at the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in ^[f]your presence for ^[g]a burial site.” ¹⁰ Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham ^[h]so that the sons of Heth heard, ^(H)that is, all who entered the gate of his city, saying, ¹¹ “No, my lord, listen to me; ^(I)I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.” ¹² And Abraham bowed before the people of the land. ¹³ But he spoke to Ephron ^[i]so that the people of the land heard, saying, “If you will only please listen to me; I will give the price of the field, accept it from me so that I may bury my dead there.” ¹⁴ Then Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, ¹⁵ “My lord, listen to me: a plot of land worth ^[j]four hundred ^(J)shekels of silver—what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.” ¹⁶ Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham ^(K)weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the ^[k]presence of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, currency acceptable to a merchant.

¹⁷ So ^(L)Ephron’s field, which was in Machpelah, which faced Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees which were in the field, that were ^[l]within all the confines of its border, ^[m]were deeded over ¹⁸ to Abraham as a possession ^(M)in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who entered the gate of his city. ¹⁹ After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah facing Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan. ²⁰ So the field and the cave that was in it ^[n]were ^(N)deeded over to Abraham for ^[o]a burial site by the sons of Heth.

The Triumphal Entry

21 ^(A)When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at ^(B)the Mount of Olives, Jesus then sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with it. Untie them and bring them to Me. ³ And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them on immediately.” ⁴ Now ^(C)this ^[a]took place so that what was spoken through ^[b]the prophet would be fulfilled:

⁶ The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, ⁷ and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their cloaks on them; and He sat on ^[c]the cloaks. ⁸ Most of the crowd ^(E)spread their cloaks on the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. ⁹ Now the crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting,

¹⁰ When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹ And the crowds were saying, “This is ^(I)Jesus the prophet, from ^(J)Nazareth in Galilee.”

Cleansing the Temple

^12 (K)And Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those who were selling and buying on the temple grounds, and He overturned the tables of the ^(L)money changers and the seats of those who were selling ^(M)doves. ¹³ And He *said to them, “It is written: ‘^(N)My house will be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a ^(O)den of robbers.”

¹⁴ And those who were blind and those who limped came to Him in the temple area, and ^(P)He healed them. ¹⁵ But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple area, “^[f]Hosanna to the ^(Q)Son of David,” they became indignant, ¹⁶ and they said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus *said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘^(R)From the mouths of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself’?” ¹⁷ And He left them and went out of the city to ^(S)Bethany, and spent the night there.

The Barren Fig Tree

^18 (T)Now in the early morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. ¹⁹ And seeing a lone ^(U)fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves alone; and He *said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.

²⁰ Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and ^[g]asked, “How did the fig tree wither all at once?” ²¹ And Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, ^(V)if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. ²² And ^(W)whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive it all.”

A Bride for Isaac

24 Now ^(A)Abraham was old, advanced in age; and the Lord had ^(B)blessed Abraham in every way. ² Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household who was in ^(C)charge of all that he owned, “^(D)Please place your hand under my thigh, ³ and I will make you swear by the Lord, ^(E)the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you ^(F)shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of ^(G)the Canaanites, among whom I live; ⁴ but you will go to ^(H)my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” ⁵ The servant said to him, “Suppose the woman is not willing to follow me to this land; should I take your son back to the land from where you came?” ⁶ Then Abraham said to him, “^(I)Beware that you do not take my son back there! ^7 (J)The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘^(K)To your ^[a]descendants I will give this land’—He will send ^(L)His angel ahead of you, and you will take a wife for my son from there. ⁸ But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will ^(M)be free of this oath of mine; ^(N)only do not take my son back there.” ⁹ So the servant ^(O)placed his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham, and swore to him concerning this matter.

¹⁰ Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and went out with a variety of ^(P)good things of his master’s in his hand; so he set out and went to ^[b]Mesopotamia, to ^(Q)the city of Nahor. ¹¹ He made the camels kneel down outside the city by ^(R)the well of water ^[c]when it was evening, ^(S)the time when women go out to draw water. ¹² And he said, “^(T)Lord, God of my master Abraham, please ^[d](U)grant me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. ¹³ Behold, ^(V)I am standing by the ^[e]spring, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water; ¹⁴ now may it be that the young woman to whom I say, ‘Please let down your jar so that I may drink,’ and ^[f]who answers, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels also’—may she be the one whom You have appointed for Your servant Isaac; and by this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.”

Rebekah Is Chosen

¹⁵ And it came about, ^(W)before he had finished speaking, that behold, ^(X)Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel the son of ^(Y)Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor, came out with her jar on her shoulder. ¹⁶ The young woman was ^(Z)very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ^[g]had relations with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up. ¹⁷ Then the servant ran to meet her, and said, “^(AA)Please let me drink a little water from your jar.” ¹⁸ And ^(AB)she said, “Drink, my lord”; then she quickly lowered her jar to her hand, and gave him a drink. ¹⁹ Now when she had finished giving him a drink, ^(AC)she said, “I will also draw water for your camels until they have finished drinking.” ²⁰ So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, and ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels. ^21 (AD)Meanwhile, the man was taking a close look at her ^[h]in silence, to find out whether the Lord had made his journey successful or not.

²² When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a ^(AE)gold ring weighing a ^[i]half-shekel, and two bracelets for her ^[j]wrists weighing ten shekels in gold, ²³ and he said, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room for us to stay overnight at your father’s house?” ²⁴ She said to him, “^(AF)I am the daughter of Bethuel, Milcah’s son, whom she bore to Nahor.” ²⁵ Again she said to him, “We have plenty of both straw and feed, and room to stay overnight.” ²⁶ Then the man ^(AG)bowed low and worshiped the Lord. ²⁷ And he said, “^(AH)Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned ^(AI)His kindness and His trustworthiness toward my master; as for me, ^(AJ)the Lord has guided me in the way to the house of my master’s brothers.”

²⁸ Then ^(AK)the young woman ran and told her mother’s household about these things.

¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time ^(A)are not worthy to be compared with the ^(B)glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the ^(C)eagerly awaiting creation waits for ^(D)the revealing of the ^(E)sons and daughters of God. ²⁰ For the creation ^(F)was subjected to ^(G)futility, not willingly, but ^(H)because of Him who subjected it, ^[a]in hope ²¹ that ^(I)the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation ^(J)groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. ^23 (K)And not only that, but also we ourselves, having ^(L)the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves ^(M)groan within ourselves, ^(N)waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons and daughters, ^(O)the redemption of our body. ²⁴ For ^(P)in hope we have been saved, but ^(Q)hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? ²⁵ But ^(R)if we hope for what we do not see, through perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Our Victory in Christ

²⁶ Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for ^(S)we do not know what to pray for as we should, but ^(T)the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with ^[b]groanings too deep for words; ²⁷ and ^(U)He who searches the hearts knows what ^(V)the mind of the Spirit is, because He ^(W)intercedes for the ^[c]saints according to the will of God.

²⁸ And we know that ^[d]God ^[e]causes ^(X)all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are ^(Y)called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He ^(Z)foreknew, He also ^(AA)predestined to become ^(AB)conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the ^(AC)firstborn among many brothers and sisters; ³⁰ and these whom He ^(AD)predestined, He also ^(AE)called; and these whom He called, He also ^(AF)justified; and these whom He justified, He also ^(AG)glorified.

^31 (AH)What then shall we say to these things? ^(AI)If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who ^(AJ)did not spare His own Son, but ^(AK)delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? ³³ Who will bring charges against ^(AL)God’s elect? ^(AM)God is the one who justifies; ³⁴ who is the one who ^(AN)condemns? Christ Jesus is He who ^(AO)died, but rather, was ^[f](AP)raised, who is ^(AQ)at the right hand of God, who also ^(AR)intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who will separate us from ^(AS)the love of ^[g]Christ? Will ^(AT)tribulation, or trouble, or ^(AU)persecution, or ^(AV)famine, or ^(AW)nakedness, or ^(AX)danger, or sword? ³⁶ Just as it is written:

³⁷ But in all these things we overwhelmingly ^(AZ)conquer through ^(BA)Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither ^(BB)death, nor life, nor ^(BC)angels, nor principalities, nor ^(BD)things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from ^(BE)the love of God that is ^(BF)in Christ Jesus our Lord.