The Absurdity of Idol Worship

⁹ All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit; their witnesses neither see nor know, and so they will be put to shame.^{(D) 10} Who would fashion a god or cast an image that can do no good?^{(E) 11} All its devotees shall be put to shame; the artisans, too, are merely human. Let them all assemble; let them stand up; they shall be terrified; they shall all be put to shame.^(F)

¹² The blacksmith works it with a tool over the coals, shaping it with hammers and forging it with his strong arm; he becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint.^{(G) 13} The carpenter stretches a line, marks it out with a stylus, fashions it with planes, and marks it with a compass; he makes it in human form, with human beauty, to be set up in a shrine.^{(H) 14} He cuts down cedars or chooses a holm tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. ¹⁵ Then it can be used as fuel. Part of it he takes and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Then he makes a god and worships it, makes it a carved image and bows down before it.^{(I) 16} Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he roasts meat, eats it,^[c] and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Ah, I am warm^[d] by the fire!” ¹⁷ The rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, bows down to it and worships it; he prays to it and says, “Save me, for you are my god!”^(J)

¹⁸ They do not know, nor do they comprehend, for their eyes are shut, so that they cannot see, and their minds as well, so that they cannot understand.^{(K) 19} No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. Now shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”^{(L) 20} He feeds on ashes; a deluded mind has led him astray, and he cannot save himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a fraud?”^(M)

Israel Is Not Forgotten

A Preaching Tour in Galilee

³⁵ In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.^{(A) 36} And Simon and his companions hunted for him. ³⁷ When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” ³⁸ He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do.”^{(B) 39} And he went throughout all Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.^(C)

Jesus Cleanses a Man with a Skin Disease

⁴⁰ A man with a skin disease came to him begging him, and kneeling^[a] he said to him, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”^{(D) 41} Moved with pity,^[b] Jesus^[c] stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I am willing. Be made clean!” ⁴² Immediately the skin disease left him, and he was made clean. ⁴³ After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, ⁴⁴ saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded as a testimony to them.”^{(E) 45} But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the word, so that Jesus^[d] could no longer go into a town openly but stayed out in the country, and people came to him from every quarter.^(F)

Jesus Returns to Galilee

⁴³ When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee^{(A) 44} (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country).^{(B) 45} When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival, for they, too, had gone to the festival.^(C)

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

⁴⁶ Then he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum.^{(D) 47} When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.^{(E) 48} Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you^[a] see signs and wonders you will not believe.”^{(F) 49} The official said to him, “Sir,^[b] come down before my little boy dies.” ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.”^[c] The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. ⁵¹ As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. ⁵² So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” ⁵³ The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.”^[d] So he himself believed, along with his whole household.^{(G) 54} Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.^(H)

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

5 After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew^[e] Beth-zatha,^[f] which has five porticoes.^{(I) 3} In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralyzed people.^{[g] 5} One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” ⁷ The ill man answered him, “Sir,^[h] I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am making my way someone else steps down ahead of me.” ⁸ Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”^{(J) 9} At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.

Now that day was a Sabbath.^(K)