Jesus Goes to the Festival of Tabernacles

7 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want^[a] to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders^(A) there were looking for a way to kill him.^{(B) 2} But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles^(C) was near, ³ Jesus’ brothers^(D) said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. ⁴ No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” ⁵ For even his own brothers did not believe in him.^(E)

⁶ Therefore Jesus told them, “My time^(F) is not yet here; for you any time will do. ⁷ The world cannot hate you, but it hates me^(G) because I testify that its works are evil.^{(H) 8} You go to the festival. I am not^[b] going up to this festival, because my time^(I) has not yet fully come.” ⁹ After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.

¹⁰ However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. ¹¹ Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus^(J) and asking, “Where is he?”

¹² Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.”

Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.”^{(K) 13} But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.^(L)

Jesus Teaches at the Festival

¹⁴ Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach.^{(M) 15} The Jews^(N) there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning^(O) without having been taught?”^(P)

¹⁶ Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.^{(Q) 17} Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out^(R) whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. ¹⁸ Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory,^(S) but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. ¹⁹ Has not Moses given you the law?^(T) Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”^(U)

²⁰ “You are demon-possessed,”^(V) the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”

²¹ Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle,^(W) and you are all amazed. ²² Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision^(X) (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs),^(Y) you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. ²³ Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath? ²⁴ Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”^(Z)

Division Over Who Jesus Is

²⁵ At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?^{(AA) 26} Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities^(AB) really concluded that he is the Messiah?^{(AC) 27} But we know where this man is from;^(AD) when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.”

²⁸ Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts,^(AE) cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from.^(AF) I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true.^(AG) You do not know him, ²⁹ but I know him^(AH) because I am from him and he sent me.”^(AI)

³⁰ At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him,^(AJ) because his hour had not yet come.^{(AK) 31} Still, many in the crowd believed in him.^(AL) They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs^(AM) than this man?”

³² The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him.

³³ Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time,^(AN) and then I am going to the one who sent me.^{(AO) 34} You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”^(AP)

³⁵ The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered^(AQ) among the Greeks,^(AR) and teach the Greeks? ³⁶ What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”^(AS)

³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival,^(AT) Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.^{(AU) 38} Whoever believes^(AV) in me, as Scripture has said,^(AW) rivers of living water^(AX) will flow from within them.”^{[c](AY) 39} By this he meant the Spirit,^(AZ) whom those who believed in him were later to receive.^(BA) Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.^(BB)

⁴⁰ On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”^(BC)

⁴¹ Others said, “He is the Messiah.”

Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee?^{(BD) 42} Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants^(BE) and from Bethlehem,^(BF) the town where David lived?” ⁴³ Thus the people were divided^(BG) because of Jesus. ⁴⁴ Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.^(BH)

Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders

⁴⁵ Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”

⁴⁶ “No one ever spoke the way this man does,”^(BI) the guards replied.

⁴⁷ “You mean he has deceived you also?”^(BJ) the Pharisees retorted. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?^{(BK) 49} No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

⁵⁰ Nicodemus,^(BL) who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, ⁵¹ “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

⁵² They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”^(BM)

[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]

⁵³ Then they all went home,

Nehemiah’s Final Reforms

13 On that day the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people and there it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be admitted into the assembly of God,^{(A) 2} because they had not met the Israelites with food and water but had hired Balaam^(B) to call a curse down on them.^(C) (Our God, however, turned the curse into a blessing.)^{(D) 3} When the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all who were of foreign descent.^(E)

⁴ Before this, Eliashib the priest had been put in charge of the storerooms^(F) of the house of our God. He was closely associated with Tobiah,^{(G) 5} and he had provided him with a large room formerly used to store the grain offerings and incense and temple articles, and also the tithes^(H) of grain, new wine and olive oil prescribed for the Levites, musicians and gatekeepers, as well as the contributions for the priests.

⁶ But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes^(I) king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission ⁷ and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib^(J) had done in providing Tobiah^(K) a room in the courts of the house of God. ⁸ I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.^{(L) 9} I gave orders to purify the rooms,^(M) and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.^(N)

¹⁰ I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them,^(O) and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields.^{(P) 11} So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?”^(Q) Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.

¹² All Judah brought the tithes^(R) of grain, new wine and olive oil into the storerooms.^{(S) 13} I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms and made Hanan son of Zakkur, the son of Mattaniah, their assistant, because they were considered trustworthy. They were made responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites.^(T)

¹⁴ Remember^(U) me for this, my God, and do not blot out what I have so faithfully done for the house of my God and its services.

¹⁵ In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath.^(V) Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. ¹⁶ People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath^(W) to the people of Judah. ¹⁷ I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? ¹⁸ Didn’t your ancestors do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity on us and on this city?^(X) Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.”^(Y)

¹⁹ When evening shadows fell on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath,^(Z) I ordered the doors to be shut and not opened until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my own men at the gates so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day. ²⁰ Once or twice the merchants and sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem. ²¹ But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you do this again, I will arrest you.” From that time on they no longer came on the Sabbath. ²² Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.

Remember^(AA) me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love.

²³ Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married^(AB) women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.^{(AC) 24} Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language^(AD) of Judah. ²⁵ I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath^(AE) in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.^{(AF) 26} Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him.^(AG) He was loved by his God,^(AH) and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women.^{(AI) 27} Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying^(AJ) foreign women?”

²⁸ One of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib^(AK) the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat^(AL) the Horonite. And I drove him away from me.

²⁹ Remember^(AM) them, my God, because they defiled the priestly office and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.^(AN)

³⁰ So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign,^(AO) and assigned them duties, each to his own task. ³¹ I also made provision for contributions of wood^(AP) at designated times, and for the firstfruits.^(AQ)

Remember^(AR) me with favor, my God.

Psalm 126

A song of ascents.

Psalm 127

A song of ascents. Of Solomon.