Give the King Your Justice

Of ^(A)Solomon.

Faithless Israel Called to Repentance

⁶ The Lord said to me in the days of ^(A)King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, ^(B)how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there ^(C)played the whore? ⁷ And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous ^(D)sister Judah saw it. ⁸ She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, ^(E)I had sent her away with ^(F)a decree of divorce. ^(G)Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went ^(H)and played the whore. ⁹ Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with ^(I)stone and tree. ¹⁰ Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me ^(J)with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”

¹¹ And the Lord said to me, ^(K)“Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. ¹² Go, and proclaim these words toward ^(L)the north, and say,

¹⁵ “‘And ^(T)I will give you shepherds after my own heart, ^(U)who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶ And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. ¹⁷ At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, ^(V)and all nations shall gather to it, ^(W)to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. ^18 (X)In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land ^(Y)of the north to ^(Z)the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, ^(A)God gave them up to ^(B)a debased mind to do ^(C)what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³² Though they know ^(D)God's righteous decree that those who practice such things ^(E)deserve to die, they not only do them but ^(F)give approval to those who practice them.

God's Righteous Judgment

2 Therefore you have ^(G)no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For ^(H)in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. ² We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. ³ Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴ Or do you presume on ^(I)the riches of his kindness and ^(J)forbearance and ^(K)patience, ^(L)not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵ But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are ^(M)storing up ^(N)wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

^6 (O)He will render to each one according to his works: ⁷ to those who ^(P)by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸ but for those who are self-seeking^[a] and ^(Q)do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. ⁹ There will be tribulation and distress ^(R)for every human being who does evil, the Jew ^(S)first and also the Greek, ¹⁰ but glory and honor and ^(T)peace for everyone who does good, ^(U)the Jew first and also the Greek. ¹¹ For ^(V)God shows no partiality.

The Healing at the Pool on the Sabbath

5 After this there was a ^(A)feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Now there is in Jerusalem by ^(B)the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic^[a] called Bethesda,^[b] which has five roofed colonnades. ³ In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and ^(C)paralyzed.^{[c] 5} One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” ⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” ⁸ Jesus said to him, ^(D)“Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” ^9 (E)And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

^(F)Now that day was the Sabbath. ¹⁰ So the Jews^[d] said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and ^(G)it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” ¹¹ But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” ¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” ¹³ Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for ^(H)Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. ¹⁴ Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! ^(I)Sin no more, ^(J)that nothing worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. ¹⁶ And this was why the Jews ^(K)were persecuting Jesus, ^(L)because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. ¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

Jesus Is Equal with God

¹⁸ This was why the Jews ^(M)were seeking all the more to kill him, ^(N)because not only was he ^(O)breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God ^(P)his own Father, ^(Q)making himself equal with God.