²¹ But an opportunity came when Herod ^(A)on his birthday ^(B)gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.

¹⁸ Then the king ^(A)gave a great feast for all his officials and servants; it was Esther's feast. He also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity.

²⁰ On the third day, which was Pharaoh's ^(A)birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and ^(B)lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.

¹⁰ and ^(A)those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and ^(B)exchange presents, because these two prophets ^(C)had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.

³ For the time that is past ^(A)suffices ^(B)for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

² He killed ^(A)James the brother of John ^(B)with the sword, ³ and when he saw ^(C)that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during ^(D)the days of Unleavened Bread. ⁴ And when he had seized him, he put him ^(E)in prison, delivering him over to four ^(F)squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people.

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of ^(A)Tiberius Caesar, ^(B)Pontius Pilate ^(C)being governor of Judea, and ^(D)Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

The Handwriting on the Wall

5 ^(A)King Belshazzar ^(B)made a great feast for a thousand of his ^(C)lords and drank wine in front of the thousand.

^2 (D)Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that ^(E)the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father^[a] had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. ³ Then they brought in ^(F)the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. ⁴ They drank wine and ^(G)praised the ^(H)gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.