The Babylonian Captivity Foretold

25 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah (that was the first year of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon),^{(A) 2} which the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ³ For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened.^{(B) 4} And though the Lord persistently sent you all his servants the prophets, you have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear^{(C) 5} when they said, “Turn now, every one of you, from your evil way and wicked doings, and you will remain on the land that the Lord has given to you and your ancestors from of old and forever;^{(D) 6} do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, and do not provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.” ⁷ Yet you did not listen to me, says the Lord, and so you have provoked me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.^(E)

⁸ Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, ⁹ I am going to send for all the tribes of the north, says the Lord, even for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all these nations around; I will utterly destroy them and make them an object of horror and of hissing and an everlasting disgrace.^{[a](F) 10} And I will banish from them the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.^{(G) 11} This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ¹² Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.^{(H) 13} I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book that Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. ¹⁴ For many nations and great kings shall make slaves of them also, and I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.^(I)

The Christian Household

²² Wives, be subject^[a] to your husbands as to the Lord,^{(A) 23} for the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.^{(B) 24} Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, ²⁷ so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind, so that she may be holy and without blemish.^{(C) 28} In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hates his own flesh, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, ³⁰ because we are members of his body.^{[b](D) 31} “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”^{(E) 32} This is a great mystery, but I am speaking about Christ and the church. ³³ Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect^[c] her husband.

² Thus the Lord said to me: Make for yourself yoke straps and bars and put them on your neck.^{(A) 3} Send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to King Zedekiah of Judah.^{(B) 4} Give them this charge for their masters: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: This is what you shall say to your masters: ⁵ It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the people and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever I please.^{(C) 6} Now I have given all these lands into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him even the wild animals of the field to serve him.^{(D) 7} All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.^(E)

⁸ But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this king, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, then I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, says the Lord, until I have completed its destruction by his hand.^{(F) 9} You, therefore, must not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers,^[a] your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon.”^{(G) 10} For they are prophesying a lie to you, with the result that you will be removed far from your land; I will drive you out, and you will perish.^{(H) 11} But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land, says the Lord, to till it and to live there.^(I)

¹² I spoke to King Zedekiah of Judah in the same way: Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.^{(J) 13} Why should you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, as the Lord has spoken concerning any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?^{(K) 14} Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are saying to you, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon,” for they are prophesying a lie to you.^{(L) 15} I have not sent them, says the Lord, but they are prophesying falsely in my name, with the result that I will drive you out, and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.^(M)

¹⁶ Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, “The vessels of the Lord’s house will soon be brought back from Babylon,” for they are prophesying a lie to you.^{(N) 17} Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation? ¹⁸ If indeed they are prophets and the word of the Lord is with them, then let them intercede with the Lord of hosts, that the vessels left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.^{(O) 19} For thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, the sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that are left in this city,^{(P) 20} which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take away when he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem^(Q)— ²¹ thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: ²² They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall stay, until the day when I give attention to them, says the Lord. Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.^(R)

8 ¹ while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ² Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. ³ The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and, making her stand before all of them, ⁴ they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. ⁵ Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”^{(A) 6} They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. ⁷ When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”^{(B) 8} And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.^{(C) 10} Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, sir.”^[a] And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”]]^[b](D)

Jesus the Light of the World

¹² Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”^{(E) 13} Then the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.” ¹⁴ Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. ¹⁵ You judge by human standards;^[c] I judge no one. ¹⁶ Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid, for it is not I alone who judge but I and the Father^[d] who sent me. ¹⁷ In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid.^{(F) 18} I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.”^{(G) 19} Then they said to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”^{(H) 20} He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.^(I)

Jesus Foretells His Death

²¹ Again he said to them, “I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.”^{(J) 22} Then the Jews said, “Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” ²³ He said to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are from this world, I am not from this world.^{(K) 24} I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.”^{[e](L) 25} They said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Why do I speak to you at all?^{[f] 26} I have much to say about you and much to condemn, but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.”^{(M) 27} They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. ²⁸ So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he^[g] and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me.^{(N) 29} And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.”^{(O) 30} As he was saying these things, many believed in him.