³⁷ When they found him, they said, “Everyone is looking for you.”

¹⁹ Then the Pharisees said to each other, “There’s nothing we can do. Look, everyone^[a] has gone after him!”

⁴⁸ If we allow him to go on like this, soon everyone will believe in him. Then the Roman army will come and destroy both our Temple^[a] and our nation.”

²⁶ So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.”

⁵ All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River.

¹¹ That was the end of my covenant with them. The suffering flock was watching me, and they knew that the Lord was speaking through my actions.