Teth

Yodh

Kaph

Famine, Sword, and Death

16 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. ³ For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: ^4 (A)They shall die of deadly diseases. ^(B)They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. ^(C)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ^(D)They shall perish by the sword and by famine, ^(E)and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

⁵ “For thus says the Lord: ^(F)Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the Lord. ⁶ Both great and small shall die in this land. ^(G)They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or ^(H)cut himself ^(I)or make himself bald for them. ⁷ No one shall ^(J)break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. ⁸ You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. ⁹ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(K)Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰ “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ^(L)‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ ¹¹ then you shall say to them: ^(M)‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and ^(N)have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, ¹² and because ^(O)you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, ^(P)every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. ¹³ Therefore ^(Q)I will hurl you out of this land into ^(R)a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, ^(S)and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

The Lord Will Restore Israel

^14 (T)“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ^(U)‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵ but ^(V)‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel ^(W)out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For ^(X)I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶ “Behold, ^(Y)I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out ^(Z)of the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷ For ^(AA)my eyes are on all their ways. ^(AB)They are not hidden from me, ^(AC)nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸ But first ^(AD)I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and ^(AE)have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

²¹ “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that ^(AK)my name is the Lord.”

The Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

¹⁸ And ^(A)Sadducees came to him, ^(B)who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, ¹⁹ “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that ^(C)if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man^[a] must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁰ There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. ²¹ And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. ²² And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. ²³ In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”

²⁴ Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because ^(D)you know neither the Scriptures nor ^(E)the power of God? ²⁵ For when they rise from the dead, they neither ^(F)marry nor ^(G)are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ²⁶ And as for the dead being raised, ^(H)have you not read in ^(I)the book of Moses, in ^(J)the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ^(K)‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ²⁷ He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”

The Great Commandment

^28 (L)And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important is, ^(M)‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, ^(N)the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ^31 (O)The second is this: ^(P)‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment ^(Q)greater than these.” ³² And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that ^(R)he is one, and ^(S)there is no other besides him. ³³ And to love him with all the heart and with all ^(T)the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, ^(U)is much more than all ^(V)whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” ^(W)And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Whose Son Is the Christ?

^35 (X)And as ^(Y)Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that ^(Z)the Christ is the son of David? ³⁶ David himself, ^(AA)in the Holy Spirit, declared,

³⁷ David himself calls him Lord. So ^(AD)how is he his son?” And the great throng ^(AE)heard him gladly.

Beware of the Scribes

^38 (AF)And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces ³⁹ and have the best seats in the synagogues and ^(AG)the places of honor at feasts, ^40 (AH)who devour widows' houses and ^(AI)for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

The Widow's Offering

^41 (AJ)And he sat down opposite ^(AK)the treasury and watched the people ^(AL)putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴² And a poor widow came and put in two ^(AM)small copper coins, which make a penny.^{[b] 43} And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, ^(AN)this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. ⁴⁴ For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her ^(AO)poverty has put in everything she had, all ^(AP)she had to live on.”