The Righteous Branch

23 ^(A)“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. ² Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning ^(B)the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. ^(C)Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. ^3 (D)Then I will gather the remnant of my flock ^(E)out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, ^(F)and they shall be fruitful and multiply. ^4 (G)I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.

^5 (H)“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous ^(I)Branch, and ^(J)he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved, and ^(K)Israel will ^(L)dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ^(M)‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

^7 (N)“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ⁸ but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he^[a] had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”

Lying Prophets

⁹ Concerning the prophets:

¹⁶ Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, ^(AL)filling you with vain hopes. ^(AM)They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁷ They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ^(AN)‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who ^(AO)stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ^(AP)‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”

^23 (BA)“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? ^24 (BB)Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. ^(BC)Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. ²⁵ I have heard what the prophets have said ^(BD)who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ^(BE)‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ ²⁶ How long shall there be lies in the heart of ^(BF)the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, ²⁷ who think to make my people forget my name ^(BG)by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their ^(BH)fathers forgot my name for Baal? ^28 (BI)Let the prophet who has a dream ^(BJ)tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. ^(BK)What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. ^29 (BL)Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and ^(BM)like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? ^30 (BN)Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from one another. ³¹ Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the Lord.’ ³² Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the Lord, and who tell them and ^(BO)lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when ^(BP)I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord.

^33 (BQ)“When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden,^[b] and ^(BR)I will cast you off, declares the Lord.’ ³⁴ And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ ^(BS)I will punish that man and his household. ³⁵ Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁶ But ‘the burden of the Lord’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man's own word, and ^(BT)you pervert the words of ^(BU)the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. ³⁷ Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁸ But if you say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have said these words, “The burden of the Lord,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’” ³⁹ therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up^[c] and ^(BV)cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. ^40 (BW)And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and ^(BX)perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’”

Seventy Years of Captivity

25 ^(A)The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), ² which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ³ “For twenty-three years, ^(B)from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken ^(C)persistently to you, ^(D)but you have not listened. ^4 (E)You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord ^(F)persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, ⁵ saying, ^(G)‘Turn now, every one of you, ^(H)from his evil way and evil deeds, and ^(I)dwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever. ^6 (J)Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, ^(K)or provoke me to anger ^(L)with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’ ^7 (M)Yet you have not listened to me, declares the Lord, ^(N)that you might provoke me to anger ^(O)with the work of your hands to your own harm.

⁸ “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, ^9 (P)behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, ^(Q)my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, ^(R)and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. ¹⁰ Moreover, ^(S)I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ^(T)the grinding of the millstones and ^(U)the light of the lamp. ^11 (V)This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and ^(W)these nations shall serve the king of Babylon ^(X)seventy years. ¹² Then after ^(Y)seventy years are completed, ^(Z)I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, ^(AA)the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, ^(AB)making the land an everlasting waste. ¹³ I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written ^(AC)in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. ^14 (AD)For many nations ^(AE)and great kings shall make slaves even of them, ^(AF)and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”

The Cup of the Lord's Wrath

¹⁵ Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: ^(AG)“Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. ¹⁶ They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of ^(AH)the sword that I am sending among them.”

¹⁷ So I took the cup from the Lord's hand, ^(AI)and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it: ^18 (AJ)Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials, ^(AK)to make them a desolation and a waste, a hissing and a curse, as at this day; ^19 (AL)Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, all his people, ²⁰ and ^(AM)all the mixed tribes among them; all the kings of ^(AN)the land of Uz and all the kings of ^(AO)the land of the Philistines (^(AP)Ashkelon, ^(AQ)Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of ^(AR)Ashdod); ^21 (AS)Edom, ^(AT)Moab, and the sons of ^(AU)Ammon; ²² all the kings of ^(AV)Tyre, all the kings of ^(AW)Sidon, and the kings of the coastland across ^(AX)the sea; ^23 (AY)Dedan, ^(AZ)Tema, ^(BA)Buz, and all who cut ^(BB)the corners of their hair; ²⁴ all the ^(BC)kings of Arabia and all the kings of ^(BD)the mixed tribes who dwell in the desert; ²⁵ all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of ^(BE)Elam, and all the kings of ^(BF)Media; ²⁶ all the kings of ^(BG)the north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of ^(BH)Babylon^[a] shall drink.

²⁷ “Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(BI)Drink, be drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more, because of ^(BJ)the sword that I am sending among you.’

²⁸ “And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: ^(BK)You must drink! ²⁹ For behold, ^(BL)I begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, ^(BM)for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of hosts.’

³⁰ “You, therefore, shall prophesy against them all these words, and say to them:

^33 (BT)“And those pierced by the Lord on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. ^(BU)They shall not be lamented, ^(BV)or gathered, or buried; ^(BW)they shall be dung on the surface of the ground.

Jesus Delivered to Be Crucified

19 Then Pilate took Jesus and ^(A)flogged him. ^2 (B)And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. ³ They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. ⁴ Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that ^(C)I find no guilt in him.” ⁵ So Jesus came out, wearing ^(D)the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ^(E)“Behold the man!” ⁶ When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, ^(F)“Take him yourselves and crucify him, for ^(G)I find no guilt in him.” ⁷ The Jews^[a] answered him, “We have a law, and ^(H)according to that law he ought to die because ^(I)he has made himself the Son of God.” ⁸ When Pilate heard this statement, ^(J)he was even more afraid. ^9 (K)He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, ^(L)“Where are you from?” But ^(M)Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰ So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” ¹¹ Jesus answered him, ^(N)“You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore ^(O)he who delivered me over to you ^(P)has the greater sin.”

¹² From then on ^(Q)Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. ^(R)Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” ¹³ So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on ^(S)the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic^[b] Gabbatha. ¹⁴ Now it was ^(T)the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour.^[c] He said to the Jews, ^(U)“Behold your King!” ¹⁵ They cried out, ^(V)“Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” ^16 (W)So he ^(X)delivered him over to them to be crucified.

The Crucifixion

So they took Jesus, ¹⁷ and ^(Y)he went out, ^(Z)bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. ^18 (AA)There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. ¹⁹ Pilate ^(AB)also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” ²⁰ Many of the Jews read this inscription, for ^(AC)the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. ²¹ So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” ²² Pilate answered, ^(AD)“What I have written I have written.”

^23 (AE)When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic.^[d] But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, ²⁴ so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” ^(AF)This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,

So the soldiers did these things, ^25 (AH)but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother and ^(AI)the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ^(AJ)“Woman, behold, your son!” ²⁷ Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to ^(AK)his own home.

The Death of Jesus

²⁸ After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now ^(AL)finished, said (^(AM)to fulfill the Scripture), ^(AN)“I thirst.” ²⁹ A jar full of sour wine stood there, ^(AO)so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. ³⁰ When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ^(AP)“It is finished,” and he bowed his head and ^(AQ)gave up his spirit.

Jesus' Side Is Pierced

³¹ Since it was ^(AR)the day of Preparation, and ^(AS)so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was ^(AT)a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. ³² So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other ^(AU)who had been crucified with him. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out ^(AV)blood and water. ^35 (AW)He who saw it has borne witness—^(AX)his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—^(AY)that you also may believe. ^36 (AZ)For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ^(BA)“Not one of his bones ^(BB)will be broken.” ³⁷ And again another Scripture says, ^(BC)“They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

Jesus Is Buried

^38 (BD)After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly ^(BE)for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. ^39 (BF)Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus^[e] by night, came ^(BG)bringing a mixture of ^(BH)myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds^[f] in weight. ⁴⁰ So they took the body of Jesus and ^(BI)bound it in ^(BJ)linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. ⁴¹ Now in the place where he was crucified there was a ^(BK)garden, and ^(BL)in the garden a new tomb ^(BM)in which no one had yet been laid. ⁴² So because of the Jewish ^(BN)day of Preparation, ^(BO)since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.