3 In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—

² In the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the Word of God [^[a]concerning the attainment through Christ of salvation in the kingdom of God] came to John son of Zachariah in the wilderness (desert).

³ And he went into all the country round about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance (^[b]of hearty amending of their ways, with abhorrence of past wrongdoing) unto the forgiveness of sin.

⁴ As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, The voice of one crying in the wilderness [shouting in the desert]: Prepare the way of the Lord, make His beaten paths straight.

⁵ Every valley and ravine shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be leveled; and the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough roads shall be made smooth;

⁶ And all mankind shall see (behold and ^[c]understand and at last acknowledge) the salvation of God (the deliverance from eternal death ^[d]decreed by God).^(A)

⁷ So he said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, You offspring of vipers! Who ^[e]secretly warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

⁸ Bear fruits that are deserving and consistent with [your] repentance [that is, ^[f]conduct worthy of a heart changed, a heart abhorring sin]. And do not begin to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up descendants for Abraham.

⁹ Even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees, so that every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.

¹⁰ And the multitudes asked him, Then what shall we do?

¹¹ And he replied to them, He who has two tunics (undergarments), let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do it the same way.

¹² Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they said to him, Teacher, what shall we do?

¹³ And he said to them, Exact and collect no more than the fixed amount appointed you.

¹⁴ Those serving as soldiers also asked him, And we, what shall we do? And he replied to them, Never demand or enforce ^[g]by terrifying people or by accusing wrongfully, and always be satisfied with your rations (supplies) and with your allowance (wages).

¹⁵ As the people were in suspense and waiting expectantly, and everybody reasoned and questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether he perhaps might be the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

¹⁶ John answered them all by saying, I baptize you with water; but He Who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of Whose sandals I am not fit to unfasten. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

¹⁷ His winnowing shovel (fork) is in His hand to thoroughly clear and cleanse His [threshing] floor and to gather the wheat and store it in His granary, but the chaff He will burn with fire that cannot be extinguished.

¹⁸ So with many other [various] appeals and admonitions he preached the good news (the Gospel) to the people.

¹⁹ But Herod the tetrarch, who had been [repeatedly] told about his fault and reproved with rebuke ^[h]producing conviction by [John] for [having] Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the wicked things that Herod had done,

²⁰ Added this to them all—that he shut up John in prison.

²¹ Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized, and [while He was still] praying, the [visible] heaven was opened

²² And the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, saying, You are My Son, My Beloved! In You I am well pleased and find delight!^(B)

²³ Jesus Himself, when He began [His ministry], was about thirty years of age, being the Son, as was supposed, of Joseph, the son of Heli,

²⁴ The son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,

²⁵ The son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai,

²⁶ The son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda,

²⁷ The son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,

²⁸ The son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,

²⁹ The son of Jesus, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi,

³⁰ The son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,

³¹ The son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,

³² The son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon (Sala), the son of Nahshon,

³³ The son of Aminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah,

³⁴ The son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,

³⁵ The son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah,

³⁶ The son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,

³⁷ The son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan,

³⁸ The son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.^(C)

Read full chapter

16 Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

² You shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God from the flock or the herd in the place where the Lord will choose to make His Name [and His Presence] dwell.

³ You shall eat no leavened bread with it; for seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you fled from the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may [earnestly] remember the day when you came out of Egypt.

⁴ No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days; nor shall any of the flesh which you sacrificed the first day at evening be left all night until the morning.

⁵ You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns which the Lord your God gives you,

⁶ But at the place which the Lord your God will choose in which to make His Name [and His Presence] dwell, there you shall offer the Passover sacrifice in the evening at sunset, at the season that you came out of Egypt.

⁷ And you shall roast or boil and eat it in the place which the Lord your God will choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.

⁸ For six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God; you shall do no work on it.

⁹ You shall count seven weeks; begin to number the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.

¹⁰ Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with a tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give to the Lord your God, as the Lord your God blesses you.

¹¹ And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and daughter, your manservant and maidservant, and the Levite who is within your towns, the stranger or temporary resident, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place in which the Lord your God chooses to make His Name [and His Presence] dwell.

¹² And you shall [earnestly] remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be watchful and obey these statutes.

¹³ You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths for seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and wine vat.

¹⁴ You shall rejoice in your Feast, you, your son and daughter, your manservant and maidservant, the Levite, the transient and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns.

¹⁵ For seven days you shall keep a solemn Feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses; because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the works of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.

¹⁶ Three times a year shall all your males appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed:

¹⁷ Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.

¹⁸ You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

¹⁹ You shall not misinterpret or misapply judgment; you shall not be partial, or take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

²⁰ Follow what is altogether just (uncompromisingly righteous), that you may live and inherit the land which your God gives you.

²¹ You shall not plant for yourselves any kind of tree dedicated to [the goddess] Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God which you shall make.

²² Neither shall you set up an idolatrous stone or image, which the Lord your God hates.

17 You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or sheep with a blemish or any defect whatsoever, for that is an abomination to the Lord your God.

² If there is found among you within any of your towns which the Lord your God gives you a man or woman who does what is wicked in the sight of the Lord your God by transgressing His covenant,

³ Who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or moon or any of the host of the heavens, which I have forbidden,

⁴ And it is told and you hear of it, then inquire diligently. And if it is certainly true that such an abomination has been committed in Israel,

⁵ Then you shall bring forth to your town’s gates that man or woman who has done that wicked thing and you shall stone that man or woman to death.

⁶ On the evidence of two or three witnesses he who is worthy of death shall be put to death; he shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.

⁷ The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from among you.

⁸ If there arises a matter too hard for you in judgment—between one kind of bloodshed and another, between one legality and another, between one kind of assault and another, matters of controversy within your towns—then arise and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses.

⁹ And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them and they shall make clear to you the decision.

¹⁰ And you shall do according to the decision which they declare to you from that place which the Lord chooses; and you shall be watchful to do according to all that they tell you;

¹¹ According to the decision of the law which they shall teach you and the judgment which they shall announce to you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside from the verdict they give you, ^[a]either to the right hand or the left.

¹² The man who does presumptuously and will not listen to the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God or to the judge, that man shall die; so you shall purge the evil from Israel.

¹³ And all the people shall hear and [reverently] fear, and not act presumptuously again.

¹⁴ When you come to the land which the Lord your God gives you and you possess it and live there, and then say, We will set a king over us like all the nations that are about us,

¹⁵ You shall surely set as king over you him whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner, who is not your brother, over you.

¹⁶ But he shall not multiply horses to himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to multiply horses, since the Lord said to you, You shall never return that way.

¹⁷ And he shall not multiply wives to himself, that his [mind and] heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

¹⁸ And when he sits on his royal throne, he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, out of what is before the Levitical priests.

¹⁹ And he shall keep it with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn [reverently] to fear the Lord his God, by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them,

²⁰ That his [mind and] heart may not be lifted up above his brethren and that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left; so that he may continue long, he and his sons, in his kingdom in Israel.