Judgment on Arrogance and Oppression

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

2 When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. ² So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door, and he was speaking the word to them.^{(A) 3} Then some people^[a] came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them.^{(B) 4} And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” ⁶ Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, ⁷ “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”^{(C) 8} At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves, and he said to them, “Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? ⁹ Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and take your mat and walk’? ¹⁰ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— ¹¹ “I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home.” ¹² And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”^(D)

Jesus Calls Levi

¹³ Jesus^[b] went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them.^{(E) 14} As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.^(F)

¹⁵ And as he sat at dinner^[c] in Levi’s^[d] house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting^[e] with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. ¹⁶ When the scribes of^[f] the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat^[g] with tax collectors and sinners?”^{(G) 17} When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”^(H)

The Question about Fasting

¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and people^[h] came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” ¹⁹ Jesus said to them, “The wedding attendants cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. ²⁰ The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.^(I)

²¹ “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. ²² Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins, but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”^[i]

Arrogant Assyria Also Judged

¹² When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he^[a] will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride.^{(G) 13} For he says:

The Repentant Remnant of Israel

²⁰ On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer lean on the one who struck them but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.^{(O) 21} A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.^{(P) 22} For though your people, O Israel, were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, an overwhelming verdict.^{(Q) 23} For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in all the earth.^[b](R)

The Seventh Seal and the Golden Censer

8 When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.^{(A) 2} And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.^(B)

³ Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne.^{(C) 4} And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.^{(D) 5} Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.^(E)

The Seven Trumpets

⁶ Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets made ready to blow them.^[a]

⁷ The first angel blew his trumpet, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were hurled to the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.^(F)

⁸ The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea.^{(G) 9} A third of the sea became blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

¹⁰ The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.^{(H) 11} The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many died from the water because it was made bitter.^(I)

¹² The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light was darkened; a third of the day was kept from shining and likewise the night.^(J)

¹³ Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew in midheaven, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”^(K)