Jesus Heals a Lame Man

5 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. ² Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda,^[a] with five covered porches. ³ Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.^{[b] 5} One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”

⁷ “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”

⁸ Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

⁹ Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, ¹⁰ so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.

¹³ The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. ¹⁴ But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.

Jesus Claims to Be the Son of God

¹⁶ So the Jewish leaders began harassing^[c] Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. ¹⁷ But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” ¹⁸ So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.

David’s Military Victories

18 After this, David defeated and subdued the Philistines by conquering Gath and its surrounding towns. ² David also conquered the land of Moab, and the Moabites who were spared became David’s subjects and paid him tribute money.

³ David also destroyed the forces of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, as far as Hamath,^[a] when Hadadezer marched out to strengthen his control along the Euphrates River. ⁴ David captured 1,000 chariots, 7,000 charioteers, and 20,000 foot soldiers. He crippled all the chariot horses except enough for 100 chariots.

⁵ When Arameans from Damascus arrived to help King Hadadezer, David killed 22,000 of them. ⁶ Then he placed several army garrisons^[b] in Damascus, the Aramean capital, and the Arameans became David’s subjects and paid him tribute money. So the Lord made David victorious wherever he went.

⁷ David brought the gold shields of Hadadezer’s officers to Jerusalem, ⁸ along with a large amount of bronze from Hadadezer’s towns of Tebah^[c] and Cun. Later Solomon melted the bronze and molded it into the great bronze basin called the Sea, the pillars, and the various bronze articles used at the Temple.

⁹ When King Toi^[d] of Hamath heard that David had destroyed the entire army of King Hadadezer of Zobah, ¹⁰ he sent his son Joram^[e] to congratulate King David for his successful campaign. Hadadezer and Toi had been enemies and were often at war. Joram presented David with many gifts of gold, silver, and bronze.

¹¹ King David dedicated all these gifts to the Lord, along with the silver and gold he had taken from the other nations—from Edom, Moab, Ammon, Philistia, and Amalek.

¹² Abishai son of Zeruiah destroyed 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. ¹³ He placed army garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David’s subjects. In fact, the Lord made David victorious wherever he went.

¹⁴ So David reigned over all Israel and did what was just and right for all his people. ¹⁵ Joab son of Zeruiah was commander of the army. Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the royal historian. ¹⁶ Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelech^[f] son of Abiathar were the priests. Seraiah^[g] was the court secretary. ¹⁷ Benaiah son of Jehoiada was captain of the king’s bodyguard.^[h] And David’s sons served as the king’s chief assistants.

David Defeats the Ammonites

19 Some time after this, King Nahash of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun^[i] became king. ² David said, “I am going to show loyalty to Hanun because his father, Nahash, was always loyal to me.” So David sent messengers to express sympathy to Hanun about his father’s death.

But when David’s ambassadors arrived in the land of Ammon, ³ the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun, “Do you really think these men are coming here to honor your father? No! David has sent them to spy out the land so they can come in and conquer it!” ⁴ So Hanun seized David’s ambassadors and shaved them, cut off their robes at the buttocks, and sent them back to David in shame.

⁵ When David heard what had happened to the men, he sent messengers to tell them, “Stay at Jericho until your beards grow out, and then come back.” For they felt deep shame because of their appearance.

⁶ When the people of Ammon realized how seriously they had angered David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent 75,000 pounds^[j] of silver to hire chariots and charioteers from Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacah, and Zobah. ⁷ They also hired 32,000 chariots and secured the support of the king of Maacah and his army. These forces camped at Medeba, where they were joined by the Ammonite troops that Hanun had recruited from his own towns. ⁸ When David heard about this, he sent Joab and all his warriors to fight them. ⁹ The Ammonite troops came out and drew up their battle lines at the entrance of the city, while the other kings positioned themselves to fight in the open fields.

¹⁰ When Joab saw that he would have to fight on both the front and the rear, he chose some of Israel’s elite troops and placed them under his personal command to fight the Arameans in the fields. ¹¹ He left the rest of the army under the command of his brother Abishai, who was to attack the Ammonites. ¹² “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then come over and help me,” Joab told his brother. “And if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will help you. ¹³ Be courageous! Let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. May the Lord’s will be done.”

¹⁴ When Joab and his troops attacked, the Arameans began to run away. ¹⁵ And when the Ammonites saw the Arameans running, they also ran from Abishai and retreated into the city. Then Joab returned to Jerusalem.

¹⁶ The Arameans now realized that they were no match for Israel, so they sent messengers and summoned additional Aramean troops from the other side of the Euphrates River.^[k] These troops were under the command of Shobach,^[l] the commander of Hadadezer’s forces.

¹⁷ When David heard what was happening, he mobilized all Israel, crossed the Jordan River, and positioned his troops in battle formation. Then David engaged the Arameans in battle, and they fought against him. ¹⁸ But again the Arameans fled from the Israelites. This time David’s forces killed 7,000 charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers, including Shobach, the commander of their army. ¹⁹ When Hadadezer’s allies saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they surrendered to David and became his subjects. After that, the Arameans were no longer willing to help the Ammonites.

A Call to Justice and Mercy

7 On December 7^[a] of the fourth year of King Darius’s reign, another message came to Zechariah from the Lord. ² The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech,^[b] along with their attendants, to seek the Lord’s favor. ³ They were to ask this question of the prophets and the priests at the Temple of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies: “Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction,^[c] as we have done for so many years?”

⁴ The Lord of Heaven’s Armies sent me this message in reply: ⁵ “Say to all your people and your priests, ‘During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn,^[d] was it really for me that you were fasting? ⁶ And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves? ⁷ Isn’t this the same message the Lord proclaimed through the prophets in years past when Jerusalem and the towns of Judah were bustling with people, and the Negev and the foothills of Judah^[e] were well populated?’”

⁸ Then this message came to Zechariah from the Lord: ⁹ “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. ¹⁰ Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.

¹¹ “Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. ¹² They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the Lord of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them.

¹³ “Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. ¹⁴ As with a whirlwind, I scattered them among the distant nations, where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. They turned their pleasant land into a desert.”