John 9

²To this He replied, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered this way?

³⁴They replied, “You were born in utter sin, and you are instructing us?” And they threw him out.

⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

⁴When the islanders saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “Surely this man is a murderer. Although he was saved from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.”

⁴When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

⁴⁰Jesus replied, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

¹So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.

²It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.

³Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.”

⁴“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give up all he owns in exchange for his life.

⁷After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has.

⁵The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.

³⁵Then Jesus told them, “For a little while longer, the Light will be among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.

¹⁶redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

³⁴Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.

¹⁰Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.

⁹Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world.

¹⁰But if anyone walks at night, he will stumble, because he has no light.”

¹⁰Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to the family of faith.

¹²Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”

⁴⁶I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should remain in darkness.

⁴⁷For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

⁴In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.

⁵The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

²³And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.

⁶“I, the Lord, have called you for a righteous purpose, and I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and appoint you to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations,

⁷to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house.

²³So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then He spit on the man’s eyes and placed His hands on him. “Can you see anything?” He asked.

³³So Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, and put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue.

¹⁸I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

⁵Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

¹¹He answered, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and anointed my eyes, and He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight.”

³⁷But some of them asked, “Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?”

⁶“Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

¹⁸to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

⁸the Lord opens the eyes of the blind, the Lord lifts those who are weighed down, the Lord loves the righteous.

⁸He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s, and upon them He has set the world.

³⁵As Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting beside the road, begging.

¹¹But the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing about him in their dances, saying: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?”

²And a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those entering the temple courts.

³When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.

²⁰And a beggar named Lazarus lay at his gate, covered with sores

²¹and longing to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

⁴⁶Next, they came to Jericho. And as Jesus and His disciples were leaving Jericho with a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road.

²⁷Night and day he sleeps and wakes, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he knows not how.

⁵As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones are formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

⁹“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

²⁶“What did He do to you?” they asked. “How did He open your eyes?”

¹⁵So the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. The man answered, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.”

³⁵But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?”

⁶When Jesus had said this, He spit on the ground, made some mud, and applied it to the man’s eyes.

⁷Then He told him, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing.

²⁷He replied, “I already told you, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”

¹⁸When the daughters returned to their father Reuel, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”

¹⁹“An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they replied. “He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

¹¹But he answered, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹²“Who is this man who told you to pick it up and walk?” they asked.

¹¹So the Jews were looking for Him at the feast and asking, “Where is He?”

⁴²Nevertheless, many of the leaders believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.

³The scribes and Pharisees, however, brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before them

⁴and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.

⁴⁶But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

⁴⁷Then the chief priests and Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs.

⁵⁷But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where He was must report it, so that they could arrest Him.

¹⁹Then the Pharisees said to one another, “You can see that this is doing you no good. Look how the whole world has gone after Him!”

⁹Immediately the man was made well, and he picked up his mat and began to walk. Now this happened on the Sabbath day,

¹⁰One Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues,

¹¹and a woman there had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was hunched over and could not stand up straight.

¹At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.

²When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

¹One Sabbath, Jesus went to eat in the home of a leading Pharisee, and those in attendance were watching Him closely.

²³One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain as they walked along.

²¹Jesus answered them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed.

²²But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.)

²⁶“What did He do to you?” they asked. “How did He open your eyes?”

²⁷He replied, “I already told you, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”

¹⁰“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

¹¹He answered, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and anointed my eyes, and He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed and received my sight.”

¹⁹Again there was division among the Jews because of Jesus’ message.

⁴³So there was division in the crowd because of Jesus.

¹²Many in the crowds were whispering about Him. Some said, “He is a good man.” But others replied, “No, He deceives the people.”

²When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

²He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.”

³⁰“That is remarkable indeed!” the man said. “You do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes.

³¹We know that God does not listen to sinners, but He does listen to the one who worships Him and does His will.

¹⁹“Sir,” the woman said, “I see that You are a prophet.

¹⁴When the people saw the sign that Jesus had performed, they began to say, “Truly this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

²²For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He tells you.

²³Everyone who does not listen to Him will be completely cut off from among his people.’

³⁸how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him.

²²Men of Israel, listen to this message: Jesus of Nazareth was a man certified by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know.

¹¹The crowds replied, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

¹⁵As it has been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.”

¹⁶For who were the ones who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?

³⁷Although Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still did not believe in Him.

³⁸This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

¹¹Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience.

¹⁹And this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?”

¹¹O Lord, Your hand is upraised, but they do not see it. They will see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame. The fire set for Your enemies will consume them!

¹⁴So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

¹⁴And seeing the man who had been healed standing there with them, they had nothing to say in response.

⁸At this, his neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging began to ask, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”

⁹Some claimed that he was, but others said, “No, he just looks like him.” But the man kept saying, “I am the one.”

¹⁰they recognized him as the man who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

¹³Yet no one would speak publicly about Him for fear of the Jews.

²They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.

²²Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.

¹¹Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lied and failed to remember Me or take this to heart? Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear Me?

⁴²Nevertheless, many of the leaders believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.

⁴³For they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

³⁴They replied, “You were born in utter sin, and you are instructing us?” And they threw him out.

²¹But how he can now see or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him. He is old enough to speak for himself.”

¹⁶Because of this, some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was division among them.

¹⁹So Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and make a confession to Him. I urge you to tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”

⁴⁹“I do not have a demon,” Jesus replied, “but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me.

⁶As soon as the chief priests and officers saw Him, they shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” “You take Him and crucify Him,” Pilate replied, “for I find no basis for a charge against Him.”

¹⁴Sacrifice a thank offering to God, and fulfill your vows to the Most High.

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

²¹God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

¹⁰Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him; whoever does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given about His Son.

³⁰“That is remarkable indeed!” the man said. “You do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes.

¹¹But he answered, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

⁶⁷“If You are the Christ, tell us.” Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe.

¹⁷Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God;

¹²We work hard with our own hands. When we are vilified, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;

¹⁰nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

¹⁹Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps it. Why are you trying to kill Me?”

³⁹And those who passed by heaped abuse on Him, shaking their heads

⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, in whom you have put your hope.

⁴⁶If you had believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me.

¹⁴Jesus replied, “Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is valid, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I came from or where I am going.

²“Does the Lord speak only through Moses?” they said. “Does He not also speak through us?” And the Lord heard this.

³Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.

⁶But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

¹¹When Jehu went out to the servants of his master, they asked, “Is everything all right? Why did this madman come to you?” “You know his kind and their babble,” he replied.

²He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no stately form or majesty to attract us, no beauty that we should desire Him.

³He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

²And they began to accuse Him, saying, “We found this man subverting our nation, forbidding payment of taxes to Caesar, and proclaiming Himself to be Christ, a King.”

¹⁸Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from Your law.

³⁷Although Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still did not believe in Him.

¹⁸On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

¹⁴Therefore I will again confound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will vanish, and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.”

¹⁰“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and you do not understand these things?

⁶For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

²⁹The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.

¹⁵When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

⁹Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable.

⁴Then they will cry out to the Lord, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.

²⁸Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me.

²⁹For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the Lord.

¹⁹He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.

⁴From ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

⁴Do you not know that from antiquity, since man was placed on the earth,

⁷⁰as He spoke through His holy prophets, those of ages past,

¹⁸And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake the likes of which had not occurred since men were upon the earth—so mighty was the great quake.

¹⁶Because of this, some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was division among them.

²He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.”

³⁸So in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone. Let them go! For if their purpose or endeavor is of human origin, it will fail.

³⁹But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God.”

²and His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

²²His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already determined that anyone who confessed Jesus as the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.

⁵You who tremble at His word, hear the word of the Lord: “Your brothers who hate you and exclude you because of My name have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified that we may see your joy!’ But they will be put to shame.”

⁴How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?

¹⁷Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

⁹“Get out of the way!” they replied. And they declared, “This one came here as a foreigner, and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will treat you worse than them.” And they pressed in on Lot and moved in to break down the door.

³¹But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.

²⁰And Isaiah boldly says: “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me.”

¹³I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

¹⁵If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

³⁶then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? How then can you accuse Me of blasphemy for stating that I am the Son of God?

⁴and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁴How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach?

⁹How is your beloved better than others, O most beautiful among women? How is your beloved better than another, that you charge us so?

³I have not learned wisdom, and I have no knowledge of the Holy One.

⁴Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His Son—surely you know!

³⁸Jesus turned and saw them following. “What do you want?” He asked. They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are You staying?”

³to ask Him, “Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?”

²⁶Jesus answered, “I who speak to you am He.”

⁸Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He shows sinners the way.

⁹He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way.

¹⁷If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own.

¹⁴The Lord confides in those who fear Him, and reveals His covenant to them.

²¹Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”

²²Judas (not Iscariot) asked Him, “Lord, why are You going to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?”

²⁵At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.

³³Then those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God!”

⁹Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came to Him, grasped His feet, and worshiped Him.

²⁸Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God!”

¹⁷When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted.

⁵²And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

¹²Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in your rebellion, when His wrath ignites in an instant. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.

¹⁹And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.

¹⁸to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

⁴⁶I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in Me should remain in darkness.

¹²Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”

¹¹But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed,

¹⁷You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

¹²Then the disciples came to Him and said, “Are You aware that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

¹³But Jesus replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots.

³⁴They replied, “You were born in utter sin, and you are instructing us?” And they threw him out.

¹⁶Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’

¹⁷You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred?

¹⁹if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those in darkness,

²⁰an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—

³⁹Then the Lord said, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.

⁴⁰You fools! Did not the One who made the outside make the inside as well?

²¹Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.

²³Whoever hates Me hates My Father as well.

¹⁴I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

⁸If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

⁹If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

¹²Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

²⁶If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains,