Rejected by His Own

⁴¹ The Jews then ^[a]complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.” ⁴² And they said, ^(A)“Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

⁴³ Jesus therefore answered and said to them, ^[b]“Do not murmur among yourselves. ^44 (B)No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me ^(C)draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ^(D)‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ ^(E)Therefore everyone who ^[c]has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. ^46 (F)Not that anyone has seen the Father, ^(G)except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Most assuredly, I say to you, ^(H)he who believes ^[d]in Me has everlasting life. ^48 (I)I am the bread of life. ^49 (J)Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. ^50 (K)This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread ^(L)which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and ^(M)the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

⁵² The Jews therefore ^(N)quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?”

⁵³ Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless ^(O)you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. ^54 (P)Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is ^[e]food indeed, and My blood is ^[f]drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood ^(Q)abides in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. ^58 (R)This is the bread which came down from heaven—not ^(S)as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

⁵⁹ These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.

Suffering for Right and Wrong

^13 (A)And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? ^14 (B)But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. ^(C)“And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” ¹⁵ But ^[a]sanctify ^[b]the Lord God in your hearts, and always ^(D)be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the ^(E)hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; ^16 (F)having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. ¹⁷ For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

Christ’s Suffering and Ours

¹⁸ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring ^[c]us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, ¹⁹ by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, ²⁰ who formerly were disobedient, ^[d]when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. ^21 (G)There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism ^(H)(not the removal of the filth of the flesh, ^(I)but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who has gone into heaven and ^(J)is at the right hand of God, ^(K)angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.

The Bride Praises the Bridegroom

The Beloved

(To His Friends)

The Shulamite’s Troubled Evening

The Shulamite

The Daughters of Jerusalem

The Shulamite

The Fall of Jerusalem Reviewed^(A)

52 Zedekiah was ^(B)twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of ^(C)Libnah. ² He also did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. ³ For because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, till He finally cast them out from His presence. Then Zedekiah ^(D)rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴ Now it came to pass in the ^(E)ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around. ⁵ So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ⁶ By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. ⁷ Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were near the city all around. And they went by way of the ^[a]plain.

⁸ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. ^9 (F)So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him. ^10 (G)Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. ¹¹ He also ^(H)put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in ^[b]bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

The Temple and City Plundered and Burned

^12 (I)Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (^(J)which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), ^(K)Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ¹³ He burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire. ¹⁴ And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. ^15 (L)Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive some of the poor people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. ¹⁶ But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers.

^17 (M)The ^(N)bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the carts and the bronze Sea that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all their bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸ They also took away ^(O)the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the ^[c]bowls, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered. ¹⁹ The basins, the firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the cups, whatever was solid gold and whatever was solid silver, the captain of the guard took away. ²⁰ The two pillars, one Sea, the twelve bronze bulls which were under it, and the carts, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—^(P)the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. ²¹ Now concerning the ^(Q)pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen ^[d]cubits, a measuring line of twelve cubits could measure its circumference, and its thickness was ^[e]four fingers; it was hollow. ²² A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with a network and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze. The second pillar, with pomegranates was the same. ²³ There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; ^(R)all the pomegranates, all around on the network, were one hundred.

The People Taken Captive to Babylonia

^24 (S)The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, ^(T)Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. ²⁵ He also took out of the city an ^[f]officer who had charge of the men of war, seven men of the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the principal scribe of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. ²⁶ And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷ Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.

^28 (U)These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: ^(V)in the seventh year, ^(W)three thousand and twenty-three Jews; ^29 (X)in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons; ³⁰ in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons. All the persons were four thousand six hundred.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison^(Y)

^31 (Z)Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that ^[g]Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, ^(AA)lifted^[h] up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. ³² And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³ So ^[i]Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, ^(AB)and he ate bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. ³⁴ And as for his provisions, there was a regular ration given him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.