²⁹ “Dear brothers, think about this! You can be sure that the patriarch David wasn’t referring to himself, for he died and was buried, and his tomb is still here among us. ³⁰ But he was a prophet, and he knew God had promised with an oath that one of David’s own descendants would sit on his throne. ³¹ David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah’s resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave.

³⁵ Another psalm explains it more fully: ‘You will not allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.’^{[a] 36} This is not a reference to David, for after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors, and his body decayed. ³⁷ No, it was a reference to someone else—someone whom God raised and whose body did not decay.

^38 [b]“Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins.

¹⁸ I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.^[a]

¹³ The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave^[a] gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds.

²³ and he went to the place of the dead.^[a] There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side.

³⁵ The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.