Woe to the Pharisees and Lawyers

³⁷ And as He spoke, a certain Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and sat down to eat. ^38 (A)When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner.

^39 (B)Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but ^(C)your inward part is full of ^[a]greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰ Foolish ones! Did not ^(D)He who made the outside make the inside also? ^41 (E)But rather give alms of ^[b]such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you.

^42 (F)“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and ^(G)pass by justice and the ^(H)love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. ^43 (I)Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the ^[c]best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. ^44 (J)Woe to you, ^[d]scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! ^(K)For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.”

⁴⁵ Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him, “Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also.”

⁴⁶ And He said, “Woe to you also, lawyers! ^(L)For you load men with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers. ^47 (M)Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. ⁴⁸ In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ^(N)‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ ⁵⁰ that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, ^51 (O)from the blood of Abel to ^(P)the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.

^52 (Q)“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”

^53 [e]And as He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail Him vehemently, and to cross-examine Him about many things, ⁵⁴ lying in wait for Him, ^[f]and ^(R)seeking to catch Him in something He might say, ^[g]that they might accuse Him.

Nehemiah Sent to Judah

2 And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of ^(A)King ^[a]Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that ^(B)I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. ² Therefore the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but ^(C)sorrow of heart.”

So I became ^[b]dreadfully afraid, ³ and said to the king, ^(D)“May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when ^(E)the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with ^(F)fire?”

⁴ Then the king said to me, “What do you request?”

So I ^(G)prayed to the God of heaven. ⁵ And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”

⁶ Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), “How long will your journey be? And when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him ^(H)a time.

⁷ Furthermore I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the ^(I)governors of the region beyond ^[c]the River, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah, ⁸ and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the ^[d]citadel which pertains ^(J)to the ^[e]temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy.” And the king granted them to me ^(K)according to the good hand of my God upon me.

⁹ Then I went to the governors in the region beyond the River, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. ¹⁰ When ^(L)Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite ^[f]official heard of it, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel.

Nehemiah Views the Wall of Jerusalem

¹¹ So I ^(M)came to Jerusalem and was there three days. ¹² Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem; nor was there any animal with me, except the one on which I rode. ¹³ And I went out by night ^(N)through the Valley Gate to the Serpent Well and the ^[g]Refuse Gate, and ^[h]viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were ^(O)broken down and its gates which were burned with fire. ¹⁴ Then I went on to the ^(P)Fountain Gate and to the ^(Q)King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. ¹⁵ So I went up in the night by the ^(R)valley,^[i] and ^[j]viewed the wall; then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. ¹⁶ And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work.

¹⁷ Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies ^[k]waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be ^(S)a reproach.” ¹⁸ And I told them of ^(T)the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me.

So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they ^(U)set^[l] their hands to this good work.

¹⁹ But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? ^(V)Will you rebel against the king?”

²⁰ So I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, ^(W)but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem.”

Unity Through Humility

2 Therefore if there is any ^[a]consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any ^(A)affection and mercy, ^2 (B)fulfill my joy ^(C)by being like-minded, having the same love, being of ^(D)one accord, of one mind. ^3 (E)Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but ^(F)in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. ^4 (G)Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of ^(H)others.

The Humbled and Exalted Christ

^5 (I)Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, ^(J)being in the form of God, did not consider it ^[b]robbery to be equal with God, ^7 (K)but ^[c]made Himself of no reputation, taking the form ^(L)of a bondservant, and ^(M)coming in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and ^(N)became ^(O)obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. ^9 (P)Therefore God also ^(Q)has highly exalted Him and ^(R)given Him the name which is above every name, ^10 (S)that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, ¹¹ and ^(T)that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Light Bearers

¹² Therefore, my beloved, ^(U)as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, ^(V)work out your own salvation with ^(W)fear and trembling; ¹³ for ^(X)it is God who works in you both to will and to do ^(Y)for His good pleasure.

¹⁴ Do all things ^(Z)without ^[d]complaining and ^(AA)disputing,^{[e] 15} that you may become blameless and ^[f]harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as ^(AB)lights in the world, ¹⁶ holding fast the word of life, so that ^(AC)I may rejoice in the day of Christ that ^(AD)I have not run in vain or labored in ^(AE)vain.

¹⁷ Yes, and if ^(AF)I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice ^(AG)and service of your faith, ^(AH)I am glad and rejoice with you all. ¹⁸ For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.