2 In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad before in his presence.

² So the king said to me, Why do you look sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart. Then I was very much afraid

³ And said to the king, Let the king live forever! Why should I not be sad faced when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchers, lies waste, and its [fortified] gates are consumed by fire?

⁴ The king said to me, For what do you ask? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

⁵ And I said to [him], If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you will send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ sepulchers, that I may rebuild it.

⁶ The king, beside whom the queen was sitting, asked me, How long will your journey take, and when will you return? So it pleased [him] to send me; and I set him a time.

⁷ Also I said to the king, If it pleases the king, let letters be given me for the governors beyond the [Euphrates] River, that they may let me pass through to Judah,

⁸ And a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest or park, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple and for the city wall and for the house that I shall occupy. And the king granted what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.

⁹ Then I came to the governors 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 Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard this, it distressed them exceedingly that a man had come to inquire for and require the good and prosperity of the Israelites.

¹¹ So I came to Jerusalem and had been there three days.

¹² Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. No beast was with me except the one I rode.

¹³ I went out by night by the Valley Gate toward the Dragon’s Well and to the Dung Gate and inspected the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire.

¹⁴ I passed over to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.

¹⁵ So [gradually] I went up by the brook [Kidron] in the night and inspected the wall; then I turned back and entered [the city] by the Valley Gate, and so returned.

¹⁶ And the magistrates knew not where I went or what I did; nor had I yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the rest who did the work.

¹⁷ Then I said to them, You see the bad situation we are in—how Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates are burned with fire. Come, let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a disgrace.

¹⁸ Then I told them of the hand of my God which was upon me for good, and also the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise up and build! So they strengthened their hands for the good work.

¹⁹ But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed us to scorn and despised us and said, What is this thing you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?

²⁰ I answered them, The God of heaven will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or memorial in Jerusalem.

3 Woe to the bloody city! It is full of lies and booty and [there is] no end to the plunder!^(A)

² The cracking of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, and prancing horses and chariots rumbling and bounding,

³ Horsemen mounting and charging, the flashing sword, the gleaming spear, a multitude of slain and a great number of corpses, no end of corpses! [The horsemen] stumble over the corpses!

⁴ All because of the multitude of the harlotries [of Nineveh], the well-favored harlot, the mistress of deadly charms who betrays and sells nations through her whoredoms [idolatry] and peoples through her enchantments.

⁵ Behold, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will lift up your skirts over your face, and I will let the nations look on your nakedness [O Nineveh] and the kingdoms on your shame.

⁶ I will cast abominable things at you and make you filthy, treat you with contempt, and make you a gazingstock.

⁷ And all who look on you will shrink and flee from you and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will pity and bemoan her? Where [then] shall I seek comforters for you?

⁸ Are you better than No-amon [Thebes, capital of Upper Egypt], that dwelt by the rivers or canals, that had the waters round about her, whose rampart was a sea [the Nile] and water her wall?

⁹ Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and that without limit. Put and the Libyans were her helpers.

¹⁰ Yet she was carried away; she went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at all the street corners; lots were cast [by the Assyrian officers] for her nobles, and all her great men were bound with chains.

¹¹ You will be drunk [Nineveh, with the cup of God’s wrath]; you will be dazed. You will seek and require a refuge because of the enemy.

¹² All your fortresses are fig trees with early figs; if they are shaken they will fall into the mouth of the eater.

¹³ Behold, your troops in the midst of you are [as weak and helpless as] women; the gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies [without effort]; fire consumes your bars.

¹⁴ Draw for yourself the water [necessary] for a [long continued] siege, make strong your fortresses! Go down into the clay pits and trample the mortar; make ready the brickkiln [to burn bricks for the bulwarks]!

¹⁵ [But] there [in the very midst of these preparations] will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off; it will destroy you as the locusts [destroy]. Multiply yourselves like the licking locusts; make yourselves many like the swarming locusts!

¹⁶ You increased your merchants more than the [visible] stars of the heavens. The swarming locust spreads itself and destroys, and then flies away.

¹⁷ Your princes are like the grasshoppers and your marshals like the swarms of locusts which encamp in the hedges on a cold day—but when the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where they are.

¹⁸ Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles are lying still [in death]. Your people are scattered on the mountains and there is no one to gather them.

¹⁹ There is no healing of your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over [what has happened to] you. For upon whom has not your [unceasing] evil come continually?

¹¹ And Jesus went into Jerusalem and entered the temple [^[a]enclosure]; and when He had looked around, surveying and observing everything, as it was already late, He went out to Bethany together with the Twelve [apostles].

¹² On the day following, when they had come away from Bethany, He was hungry.

¹³ And seeing in the distance a fig tree [covered] with leaves, He went to see if He could find any [fruit] on it [^[b]for in the fig tree the fruit appears at the same time as the leaves]. But when He came up to it, He found nothing but leaves, for the fig season had not yet come.

¹⁴ And He said to it, No one ever again shall eat fruit from you. And His disciples were listening [to what He said].

¹⁵ And they came to Jerusalem. And He went into the temple [area, the ^[c]porches and courts] and began to drive out those who sold and bought in the temple area, and He overturned the [^[d]four-footed] tables of the money changers and the seats of those who dealt in doves;

¹⁶ And He would not permit anyone to carry any household equipment through the temple enclosure [thus making the temple area a short-cut traffic lane].

¹⁷ And He taught and said to them, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations? But you have turned it into a den of robbers.^(A)

¹⁸ And the chief priests and the scribes heard [of this] and kept seeking some way to destroy Him, for they feared Him, because the entire multitude was struck with astonishment at His teaching.

¹⁹ And when evening came on, He and ^[e]His disciples, as accustomed, went out of the city.

²⁰ In the morning, when they were passing along, they noticed that the fig tree was withered [completely] away to its roots.

²¹ And Peter remembered and said to Him, Master, look! The fig tree which You doomed has withered away!

²² And Jesus, replying, said to them, Have faith in God [constantly].

²³ Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea! and does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him.

²⁴ For this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it].

²⁵ And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him and ^[f]let it drop (leave it, let it go), in order that your Father Who is in heaven may also forgive you your [own] failings and shortcomings and let them drop.

^26 [g]But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcomings.

²⁷ And they came again to Jerusalem. And when Jesus was walking about in the [^[h]courts and porches of the] temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him,

²⁸ And they kept saying to Him, By what [sort of] authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do them?

²⁹ Jesus told them, I will ask you a question. Answer Me, and then I will tell you by what [sort of] authority I do these things.

³⁰ Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? Answer Me.

³¹ And they reasoned and argued with one another, If we say, From heaven, He will say, Why then did you not believe him?

³² But [on the other hand] can we say, From men? For they were afraid of the people, because everybody considered and held John actually to be a prophet.

³³ So they replied to Jesus, We do not know. And Jesus said to them, Neither am I going to tell you what [sort of] authority I have for doing these things.

12 And [Jesus] started to speak to them in parables [with comparisons and illustrations]. A man planted a vineyard and put a hedge around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower and let it out [for rent] to vinedressers and went into another country.

² When the season came, he sent a bond servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.

³ But they took him and beat him and sent him away without anything.

⁴ Again he sent to them another bond servant, and they stoned him and wounded him in the head and treated him shamefully [sending him away with insults].

⁵ And he sent another, and that one they killed; then many others—some they beat, and some they put to death.

⁶ He had still one left [to send], a beloved son; last of all he sent him to them, saying, They will respect my son.

⁷ But those tenants said to one another, Here is the heir; come on, let us put him to death, and [then] the inheritance will be ours.

⁸ And they took him and killed him, and threw [his body] outside the vineyard.

⁹ Now what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants, and give the vineyard to others.

¹⁰ Have you not even read this [passage of] Scripture: The very Stone which [^[a]after putting It to the test] the builders rejected has become the Head of the corner [Cornerstone];

¹¹ This is from the Lord and is His doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?^(A)

¹² And they were trying to get hold of Him, but they were afraid of the people, for they knew that He spoke this parable with reference to and against them. So they left Him and departed.^(B)