Mark 12

¹I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

²He dug it up and cleared the stones and planted the finest vines. He built a watchtower in the middle and dug out a winepress as well. He waited for the vineyard to yield good grapes, but the fruit it produced was sour!

³⁴It is like a man going on a journey who left his house, put each servant in charge of his own task, and instructed the doorkeeper to keep watch.

¹¹Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon. He leased it to the tenants. For its fruit, each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver.

¹²But my own vineyard is mine to give; the thousand shekels are for you, O Solomon, and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit.

²And He taught them many things in parables, and in His teaching He said,

⁸You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and transplanted it.

⁹You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land.

¹⁴For it is just like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted them with his possessions.

¹“I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard.

²He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful.

¹On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets.

¹Woe is me! For I am like one gathering summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster to eat, no early fig that I crave.

⁴And the Lord has sent all His servants the prophets to you again and again, but you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear.

⁵The prophets told you, ‘Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and deeds, and you can dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever.

⁴Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets again and again, saying: ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate.’

¹⁵Again and again I have sent you all My servants the prophets, proclaiming: ‘Turn now, each of you, from your wicked ways, and correct your actions. Do not go after other gods to serve them. Live in the land that I have given to you and your fathers.’ But you have not inclined your ear or listened to Me.

¹⁶But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.

²⁰Now there was another man prophesying in the name of the Lord, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land the same things that Jeremiah did.

²¹King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and officials heard his words, and the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah found out about it, he fled in fear and went to Egypt.

³⁶Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

³⁷They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, oppressed, and mistreated.

²⁶But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.

¹⁵who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,

²⁶‘The Lord has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada, to be the chief officer in the house of the Lord, responsible for any madman who acts like a prophet—you must put him in stocks and neck irons.

¹²Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.

¹³But I tell you that Elijah has indeed come, and they have done to him whatever they wished, just as it is written about him.”

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.

²³Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For their fathers treated the prophets in the same way.

²⁵From the day your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets again and again.

²⁶Yet they would not listen to Me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers.

⁶The rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them.

³⁶Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

¹On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets.

²But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.

¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”

³⁴I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”

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.

¹¹And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

²⁷All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

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

⁴⁸If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

²⁸“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us responsible for this man’s blood.”

³When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

⁴And when he had assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.

⁷Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, to Him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the Servant of rulers: “Kings will see You and rise, and princes will bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen You.”

²The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the Lord and against His Anointed One:

³“Let us break Their chains and cast away Their cords.”

⁷He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.

⁸By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can recount His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was stricken for the transgression of My people.

¹⁵So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

³⁹So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

³³Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.

¹¹Although the high priest brings the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, the bodies are burned outside the camp.

¹²And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate, to sanctify the people by His own blood.

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.”

⁴³Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

²⁷And these enemies of mine who were unwilling for me to rule over them, bring them here and slay them in front of me.’”

³⁰What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;

³¹but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.

³O My mountain in the countryside, I will give over your wealth and all your treasures as plunder, because of the sin of your high places, within all your borders.

¹⁵You will leave behind your name as a curse for My chosen ones, and the Lord God will slay you; but to His servants He will give another name.

²²The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

²³This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

¹⁷But Jesus looked directly at them and said, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?

¹⁸Everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

⁷To you who believe, then, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”

⁸and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word—and to this they were appointed.

¹⁶So this is what the Lord God says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.

¹¹This Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’

¹²Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

²³This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

⁵“Look at the nations and observe—be utterly astounded! For I am doing a work in your days that you would never believe even if someone told you.

³²God has raised this Jesus to life, to which we are all witnesses.

³³Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

¹²And when Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why are you surprised by this? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?

¹³The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus. You handed Him over and rejected Him before Pilate, even though he had decided to release Him.

⁸Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

⁹and to illuminate for everyone the stewardship of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.

¹⁶By common confession, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the nations, was believed in throughout the world, was taken up in glory.

¹⁸When the chief priests and scribes heard this, they looked for a way to kill Him. For they were afraid of Him, because the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching.

³²But if we say, ‘From men’...” they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John truly was a prophet.

³⁰So they tried to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come.

²⁵Then some of the people of Jerusalem began to say, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?

⁴⁴Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him.

²²And when they heard this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away.

²⁰So they watched Him closely and sent spies who pretended to be sincere. They were hoping to catch Him in His words in order to hand Him over to the rule and authority of the governor.

²¹“Teacher,” they inquired, “we know that You speak and teach correctly. You show no partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

⁶At this, the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

⁵⁴waiting to catch Him in something He might say.

¹⁵“Watch out!” He cautioned them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod.”

¹²Those who seek my life lay snares; those who wish me harm speak destruction, plotting deceit all day long.

²¹those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.

¹⁰Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

¹⁷For we are not like so many others, who peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as men sent from God.

¹¹Therefore, since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is clear to God, and I hope it is clear to your conscience as well.

²For if I grieve you, who is left to cheer me but those whom I have grieved?

¹⁶So from now on we regard no one according to the flesh. Although we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.

¹¹When Cephas came to Antioch, however, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

¹²For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself, for fear of those in the circumcision group.

²³Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

²“Son of man, pose a riddle; speak a parable to the house of Israel

¹⁸But Jesus knew their evil intent and said, “You hypocrites, why are you testing Me?

⁹“How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord?” Peter replied. “Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.”

¹³Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

²³But Jesus saw through their duplicity and said to them,

²⁴“Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” “Caesar’s,” they answered.

²⁵So Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

¹⁹Show Me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought Him a denarius.

²⁰“Whose image is this,” He asked, “and whose inscription?”

¹²The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My new name.

¹⁹Nevertheless, God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from iniquity.”

⁷Pay everyone what you owe him: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

¹⁴For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died.

¹⁵And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again.

²⁴But if an unbeliever or uninstructed person comes in while everyone is prophesying, he will be convicted and called to account by all,

²⁵and the secrets of his heart will be made known. So he will fall facedown and worship God, proclaiming, “God is truly among you!”

¹⁷Treat everyone with high regard: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

¹⁹But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God.

²⁰For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

²²And when they heard this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away.

²³That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned Him.

²⁴“Teacher,” they said, “Moses declared that if a man dies without having children, his brother is to marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.

¹While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them,

²greatly disturbed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

¹⁸who have deviated from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already occurred, and they undermine the faith of some.

⁶Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. It is because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”

⁷As soon as he had said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

²⁷Then some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to question Him.

²⁸“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.

¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is worthless, and so is your faith.

⁵When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.

⁶The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

¹¹But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands?

¹²Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons,

⁸Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.”

⁵Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and also from Ruth the Moabitess, you must also acquire the widow of the deceased in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance.”

²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died without having children. So he left his wife to his brother.

²⁶The same thing happened to the second and third brothers, down to the seventh.

²⁹Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a wife but died childless.

³⁰Then the second

¹⁵From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

⁹For they still did not understand from the Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

²⁹Jesus answered, “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.

¹⁹and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength,

⁸He will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the Lord has spoken.

¹⁷“Oh, Lord God! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!

³⁵But those who are considered worthy to share in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage.

³⁶In fact, they can no longer die, because they are like the angels. And since they are sons of the resurrection, they are sons of God.

³⁰In the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven.

²Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.

²²Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels

²³in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

⁴²So will it be with the resurrection of the dead: What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable.

⁴³It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

²There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed.

³So Moses thought, “I must go over and see this marvelous sight. Why is the bush not burning up?”

³⁷Even Moses demonstrates that the dead are raised, in the passage about the burning bush. For he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’

⁷I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

⁸And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”

²⁰There he set up an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.

¹⁶Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.

³⁰After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.

³¹When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. As he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came to him:

⁹For this reason Christ died and returned to life, that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

²⁴Jesus said to them, “Aren’t you mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?

¹⁷As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.

¹³All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

¹⁴Now those who say such things show that they are seeking a country of their own.

¹⁰Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.’

³⁴And when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they themselves gathered together.

³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with a question:

²⁵One day an expert in the law stood up to test Him. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶“What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”

³⁹Some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, You have spoken well!”

¹⁸“Which ones?” the man asked. Jesus answered, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness,

¹⁹So then, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do likewise will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

²⁷He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

⁴Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.

²⁰A mediator is unnecessary, however, for only one party; but God is one.

³⁰since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.

²⁵to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen.

¹⁹You believe that God is one. Good for you! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

⁵And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

⁸Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

⁹The commandments “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

¹⁸Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

²⁷He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.

¹²In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.

³⁹Know therefore this day and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

⁹Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.

³⁵You were shown these things so that you would know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides Him.

⁵I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but Me. I will equip you for battle, though you have not known Me,

⁶so that all may know, from where the sun rises to where it sets, that there is none but Me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.

¹⁸For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens—He is God; He formed the earth and fashioned it; He established it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.

⁴Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.

⁶With what shall I come before the Lord when I bow before the God on high? Should I come to Him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves?

⁷Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

⁶For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

¹³But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

²²But Samuel declared: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.

⁷If only you had known the meaning of ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal.

²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

⁶Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

⁴⁰And they did not dare to question Him any further.

⁴⁶No one was able to answer a word, and from that day on no one dared to question Him any further.

⁹He must hold firmly to the faithful word as it was taught, so that he can encourage others by sound teaching and refute those who contradict it.

¹⁰For many are rebellious and full of empty talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision,

²⁰A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory.

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

²⁰Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.

⁴¹Then Jesus declared, “How can it be said that the Christ is the Son of David?

⁴²For David himself says in the book of Psalms: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand

⁴¹While the Pharisees were assembled, Jesus questioned them:

⁴²“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?” “David’s,” they answered.

⁵⁵At that time Jesus said to the crowd, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would an outlaw? Every day I sat teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest Me.

⁴⁷Jesus was teaching at the temple every day, but the chief priests, scribes, and leaders of the people were intent on killing Him.

²⁷As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”

²⁰“I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus answered. “I always taught in the synagogues and at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret.

¹A Psalm of David. The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

⁴³Jesus said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord’? For he says:

⁴⁴‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet.”’

¹³Yet to which of the angels did God ever say: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet”?

¹²But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.

¹³Since that time, He waits for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet,

²⁵For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.

³⁴For David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand

³⁵until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’

³regarding His Son, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh,

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.

³⁸And early in the morning all the people would come to hear Him at the temple.

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.

⁵Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen.

⁵Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?

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.

⁴⁵In the hearing of all the people, Jesus said to His disciples,

⁴⁶“Beware of the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, and they love the greetings in the marketplaces, the chief seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets.

¹Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples:

²“The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.

⁴³Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces.

⁵And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.

²And He taught them many things in parables, and in His teaching He said,

¹⁷But beware of men, for they will hand you over to their councils and flog you in their synagogues.

²Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in.

³If you lavish attention on the man in fine clothes and say, “Here is a seat of honor,” but say to the poor man, “You must stand” or “Sit at my feet,”

⁴⁷They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”

³³You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell?

¹³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.

⁷And when you pray, do not babble on like pagans, for they think that by their many words they will be heard.

²⁵The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her.

⁴⁷That servant who knows his master’s will but does not get ready or follow his instructions will be beaten with many blows.

⁴⁸But the one who unknowingly does things worthy of punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from him who has been entrusted with much, even more will be demanded.

¹Then Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury,

²and He saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.

⁹Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one enters the house of the Lord. There the priests who guarded the threshold put all the money brought into the house of the Lord.

²⁰He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts, near the treasury. Yet no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.

⁶The chief priests picked up the pieces of silver and said, “It is unlawful to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.”

⁶Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

⁷Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.

²In the terrible ordeal they suffered, their abundant joy and deep poverty overflowed into rich generosity.

²⁹So the disciples, each according to his ability, decided to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.

¹²For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.

⁴²And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”

²¹And everyone whose heart stirred him and whose spirit prompted him came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the Tent of Meeting, for all its services, and for the holy garments.

²²So all who had willing hearts, both men and women, came and brought brooches and earrings, rings and necklaces, and all kinds of gold jewelry. And they all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord.

²In the terrible ordeal they suffered, their abundant joy and deep poverty overflowed into rich generosity.

³For I testify that they gave according to their ability and even beyond it. Of their own accord,

¹⁷If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him?

²and He saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.

³“Truly I tell you,” He said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others.

⁶⁸When they arrived at the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, some of the heads of the families gave freewill offerings to rebuild the house of God on its original site.

⁶⁹According to their ability, they gave to the treasury for this work 61,000 darics of gold, 5,000 minas of silver, and 100 priestly garments.

⁸She has done what she could to anoint My body in advance of My burial.

³⁰But when this son of yours returns from squandering your wealth with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him!’