Old/New Testament
Ezra's prayer
9 When we had done all these things, the Jewish leaders came to speak to me. They said, ‘Some of the Israelites have done disgusting things, like the people of other nations do. Some priests and Levites have done the same bad things. They live in the same way as the other people who live in this land, the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. They have not kept themselves separate. 2 They have married some of the foreign people's daughters. They have let their sons do the same thing. In this way, God's holy people have become mixed with the foreign people who live near to them. Our own leaders and officers have led the way in these bad things.’
3 When I heard this, I was very upset. I tore my shirt and my coat. I pulled out hair from my head and my beard. I was angry and ashamed. I sat down. 4 Then everyone who respected the words of Israel's God came around me. They were afraid of what God might do, because the Israelites who came from Babylon had not obeyed him. I continued to sit there, until the time of the evening sacrifice. I was still very upset.
5 When the time came for the evening sacrifice, I stood up. I still wore my shirt and coat that I had torn because I was so sad. Then I went down on my knees. I held out my hands and I prayed to the Lord, my God. 6 I said,
‘My God, I am too ashamed to look up at you. Our sins are very great. They are so many that they reach far above us. We are completely guilty. 7 Since our ancestors were alive, we have continued to do wrong things. Because of our sins, you have given our enemies power over us, our kings and our priests. Foreign kings and their armies have killed some of our people. They have made some of us prisoners. They have robbed us and they have caused us to be ashamed. And we are still ashamed today.
8 But now, for a short time, the Lord our God has been kind to us. He has let some of us remain alive. He has given us a safe place to live in this holy place. He has made our lives happier. He has given us rest from work as slaves. 9 We are still slaves, but our God has not left us alone to serve other people. Because he loves us, he has caused the kings of Persia to be kind to us. He has let us live so that we can build again the temple of our God. It had become a heap of stones, but now we have built it again. He has given us a safe place to live in Jerusalem and the other towns of Judah.
10 Our God, we can say nothing good about ourselves. We have turned away from your commands. 11 Your servants the prophets told us your laws. You said, “You will go and live in a land that is unclean. The people who live there have done wicked things. The whole land has been made unclean by all the evil things that they have done. 12 So you must not let your daughters marry their sons. And do not let your sons marry their daughters. Do not ever help them to live in peace and become strong. If you make yourselves separate from them, you will be strong yourselves. The land will give you good food to eat. After you die, the land will belong to your children, and to your descendants for ever.”
13 All these bad things have happened to us because we are guilty of many wicked things. But, our God, you still have not punished us as much as we deserve. You have let some of us remain alive. 14 But now we still refuse to obey your commands! Some of us have married foreign people who do disgusting things. If we continue to do that, you may destroy us all. None of us will remain alive! 15 Lord God of Israel, you are righteous. Only a few of us escaped from exile and remain as your people today. Now we stand before you as guilty people. Because of our sins, we do not deserve to come near to you.’
The people turn away from their sins
10 Ezra continued to pray, in front of God's temple. He was asking God to forgive his people's sins. He was weeping, and he was bending down low to the ground. While he was doing that, a big crowd of Israelite people came around him. There were men, women and children. They were also weeping loudly. 2 Then Shecaniah spoke to Ezra. Shecaniah was Jehiel's son, a descendant of Elam.
Shecaniah said, ‘We have not been faithful to our God. We have married foreign women from the nations who live near us. But Israel may still hope that God will forgive us. 3 We will make an agreement with our God. We will agree to send away these foreign women and their children. As our leader, you have told us we must do this. The people who respect our God's commands say the same thing. Now we want to do what God's law says is right. 4 Get up now! You must do something about this. We will help you, so you must be brave!’
5 So Ezra got up. He told the leaders of the priests, the Levites and all Israel's people to make a strong promise. They all promised God that they would do what they had said. 6 Then Ezra went away from the front of God's temple. He went to the room of Eliashib's son, Jehohanan. While Ezra stayed there, he did not eat any food or drink any water. He was still very sad because the people had not been faithful to God.
7 They wrote a message and they sent it to all the people in Jerusalem and the other towns in Judah. It said that all the Jews who had returned from exile in Babylon must come to Jerusalem. 8 If they did not arrive in three days, they would lose everything that belonged to them. They would no longer be part of the Israelite people. That is what the leaders and officers had decided should happen.
9 All the men from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin reached Jerusalem in three days.[a] It was the 20th day of the ninth month. All the people sat in the yard in front of God's temple. Their bodies were shaking because they were afraid. It was also raining.
10 Then Ezra the priest stood up. He said to the people, ‘You have not been faithful to your God. You have married foreign wives. You have caused the whole nation of Israel to be guilty. 11 Now you must agree to obey the Lord, the God that your ancestors worshipped. Turn away from your sins and do the things that please him. Make yourselves separate from the foreign people who live near you. Send away your foreign wives.’
12 All the people spoke with a loud voice. They said, ‘You are right. We will do as you say. 13 But we are many people and we cannot continue to stand here in the heavy rain. We will need more than one or two days to do what we must do. There are many of us who have done this bad sin. 14 So please let our officers decide what to do on behalf of us all. People who have married foreign wives should come here on certain days. People from each town should come on the right day, together with the leaders and judges from that town. In this way, we can make things right. Then our God will not be angry with us any longer.’
15 Only four men did not agree with this. They were Asahel's son, Jonathan, Tikvah's son, Jahzeiah, as well as Meshullam and Shabbethai, the Levite.
16 So the Jews who had returned from Babylon did what they had agreed to do. Ezra the priest chose family leaders for each clan. He wrote down their names. The leaders met together to decide what to do. They started on the first day of the tenth month. 17 They finished on the first day of the first month of the new year.
A list of the men with foreign wives
18 These are the priests who had married foreign wives.
From the clan of Jozadak's son, Jeshua, and his brothers:
Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, Gedaliah.
19 These men promised to send away their wives. Each of them gave a male sheep as a sacrifice because they were guilty.
20 From the clan of Immer:
Hanani, Zebadiah.
21 From the clan of Harim:
Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel, Uzziah.
22 From the clan of Pashhur:
Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, Elasah.
23 From the Levites:
Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (also called Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, Eliezer.
24 From the singers:
Eliashib.
From the men who were guards at the temple gate:
Shallum, Telem, Uri.
25 These are the other Israelites who had married foreign wives.
From the clan of Parosh:
Ramiah, Izziah, Malkijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Malkijah, Benaiah.
26 From the clan of Elam:
Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth, Elijah.
27 From the clan of Zattu:
Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad, Aziza.
28 From the clan of Bebai:
Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, Athlai.
29 From the clan of Bani:
Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, Jeremoth.
30 From the clan of Pahath-Moab:
Adna, Kelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui, Manasseh.
31 From the clan of Harim:
Eliezer, Ishijah, Malkijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon,
32 Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah.
33 From the clan of Hashum:
Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei.
34 From the clan of Bani:
Maadai, Amram, Uel,
35 Benaiah, Bedeiah, Keluhi,
36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,
37 Mattaniah, Mattenai, Jaasu.
38 From the clan of Binnui:
Shimei,
39 Shelemiah, Nathan, Adaiah,
40 Macnadebai, Shashai, Sharai,
41 Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah,
42 Shallum, Amariah, Joseph.
43 From the clan of Nebo:
Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel, Benaiah.
44 All these men had married foreign women. They sent them away, together with their children.
Jesus speaks to his apostles and he goes up to heaven
1 Jesus did many things when he was living on earth. He also taught people many things. I told you about all these things in the first book that I wrote for you, Theophilus.[a] 2 Those are the things that Jesus did before God took him up into heaven. Jesus had chosen some men to be his apostles. With the power of the Holy Spirit he told them what they must do. 3 After Jesus died on the cross, he became alive again. During the 40 days after that, he showed himself many times to his apostles. He showed himself in different ways. Then they could be really sure that he was alive again. During this time, Jesus spoke to his apostles about the kingdom of God.[b]
4 One time, when Jesus and his apostles were together, he said to them, ‘Do not leave Jerusalem yet. You must wait there until you receive my Father's gift. My Father promised to give it to you. I have already told you about it. 5 John baptized people with water, but after a few days God will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
6 While Jesus' apostles were together with him, they asked him, ‘Lord, at this time will you now give the kingdom back to us, the people of Israel?’
7 Jesus replied, ‘My Father decides when things will happen in the world. You do not need to know the day or the time when this will happen. 8 But the Holy Spirit will come to you, and he will give you power. The Holy Spirit will make your spirit strong. Then you will tell other people everywhere in the world about me. You will do that in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and in places far away.’
9 When Jesus had finished speaking to his apostles, God took him up to heaven. The apostles watched Jesus while he went up. Then a cloud hid him and they could not see him any more.
10 The apostles were still looking carefully up into the sky when suddenly two men appeared.[c] They were wearing white clothes and they stood near the apostles.
11 The men said to the apostles, ‘You men from Galilee, you should not still be standing here and looking up into the sky. God has taken Jesus into heaven. You saw the way that Jesus went up to heaven. One day, he himself will return in the same way.’
The apostles choose Matthias
12 Then the apostles left the Mount of Olives.[d] They returned to Jerusalem. This was a walk of about 1 kilometre. 13 When the apostles arrived back in Jerusalem, they went to their room. The room where they were staying was upstairs. Those apostles were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; also James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James.[e]
14 All these apostles often met together to pray. Mary who was Jesus' mother, other women and Jesus' brothers also met with them. 15 One day, about 120 people who believed in Jesus were meeting together. Peter stood up and he said to them, 16 ‘My friends, long ago, the Holy Spirit gave King David a message to speak from God.[f] He spoke about the things that Judas would do. Judas was the one who showed the soldiers how to catch Jesus. These things had to happen in the way that David wrote in the Bible long ago.[g] 17 Judas belonged to our group of disciples. Jesus chose him to work together with us.’
18 Judas received some money for the bad thing that he did. He bought a field with that money. But he fell down in that field and he died. His body broke open and the inside parts of his body poured out. 19 All the people who lived in Jerusalem heard about his death. So they called that field ‘Akeldama’ in their own language. ‘Akeldama’ means ‘The Field of Blood’.[h]
20 Peter then said, ‘This is what King David wrote in the book of Psalms:
“Let the house that he lived in become empty,
so that nobody lives in it.”[i]
David also wrote:
“Let somebody else do the job which he did.” ’[j]
21 Peter then said, ‘Because of this, we must choose another man instead of Judas. That man must have been one of our group all the time that the Lord Jesus was with us. 22 That is, from the time when John was baptizing people until the time when Jesus went up to heaven. He must be someone who saw Jesus become alive again after he died, as we did.’
23 So the apostles agreed the names of two men. One of them was Joseph. People also called him Barsabbas and sometimes people called him Justus. The other man was called Matthias. 24 Then the whole group prayed, ‘Lord, you know what everybody is really like. Please show us which man you have chosen. 25 Which of these two men do you want to be an apostle instead of Judas? Judas left his work as an apostle. He has now gone to the place where he belongs.’
26 Then the group used lots to choose the name of one man. It happened that they chose Matthias. So Matthias now became the 12th apostle, together with the other 11 men.
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