Asa's Last Years

¹vIn the wthirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramah, xthat he might permit no one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. ²Then Asa took silver and gold from the treasures of the house of the Lord and the king's house and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying, ³“There is a covenant1 between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending to you silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.” ⁴And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the ystore cities of Naphtali. ⁵And when Baasha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah and let his work cease. ⁶Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had been building, and with them he built Geba and Mizpah.

⁷At that time zHanani athe seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, b“Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. ⁸Were not cthe Ethiopians and dthe Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet ebecause you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand. ⁹fFor the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those gwhose heart is blameless2 toward him. hYou have done foolishly in this, for from now on iyou will have wars.” ¹⁰Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him jin the stocks in prison, for he was in a rage with him because of this. And Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time.

¹¹kThe acts of Asa, from first to last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹²In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians. ¹³And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign. ¹⁴They buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David. They laid him on a bier lthat had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer's art, mand they made a very great fire in his honor.

The Scroll and the Lamb

¹Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne ha scroll written within and on the back, isealed with seven seals. ²And jI saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” ³And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, ⁴and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁵And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, kthe Lion lof the tribe of Judah, mthe Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

⁶And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw na Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with oseven eyes, which are pthe seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. ⁷And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. ⁸And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders qfell down before the Lamb, reach holding a harp, and sgolden bowls full of incense, twhich are the prayers of the saints. ⁹And they sang ua new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

for vyou were slain, and by your blood wyou ransomed people for God

from xevery tribe and language and people and nation,

¹⁰and you have made them ya kingdom and priests to our God,

and they shall reign on the earth.”

¹¹Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering zmyriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, ¹²saying with a loud voice,

a“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing!”

¹³And I heard bevery creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

¹⁴And the four living creatures csaid, “Amen!” and the elders dfell down and worshiped.

A Call to Return to the Lord

¹In the eighth month, ain the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet bZechariah, the son of cBerechiah, son of dIddo, saying, ²e“The Lord was very angry with your fathers. ³Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: fReturn to me, says the Lord of hosts, and gI will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. ⁴hDo not be like your fathers, ito whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, fReturn from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But jthey did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. ⁵Your fathers, where are they? And kthe prophets, do they live forever? ⁶lBut my words and my statutes, which I commanded mmy servants the prophets, did they not novertake your fathers? So they repented and said, o‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for pour ways and pdeeds, so has he dealt with us.’”

A Vision of a Horseman

⁷On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet bZechariah, the son of cBerechiah, son of dIddo, saying, ⁸“I saw in the night, and behold, qa man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were rred, sorrel, and white horses. ⁹Then I said, ‘What are these, my lord?’ sThe angel who talked with me said to me, ‘I will show you what they are.’ ¹⁰So qthe man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, t‘These are they whom the Lord has sent to upatrol the earth.’ ¹¹And they answered sthe angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, u‘We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth vremains at rest.’ ¹²Then sthe angel of the Lord said, w‘O Lord of hosts, whow long will you xhave no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these yseventy years?’ ¹³And the Lord answered zgracious and comforting words to sthe angel who talked with me. ¹⁴So sthe angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: aI am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. ¹⁵bAnd I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are cat ease; dfor while I was angry but a little, ethey furthered the disaster. ¹⁶Therefore, thus says the Lord, fI have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; gmy house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and hthe measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. ¹⁷Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: iMy cities shall again overflow with prosperity, jand the Lord will again comfort Zion and again kchoose Jerusalem.’”

A Vision of Horns and Craftsmen

¹⁸1 And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, lfour horns! ¹⁹And I said to sthe angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he said to me, l“These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” ²⁰Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. ²¹And I said, “What are these coming to do?” He said, l“These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come mto terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations nwho lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

¹Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and bbaptizing more disciples than John ²(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), ³he left Judea and departed cagain for Galilee. ⁴dAnd he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field ethat Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, fwearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.1

⁷A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, f“Give me a drink.” ⁸(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (gFor Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you hliving water.” ¹¹The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹²iAre you greater than our father Jacob? jHe gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” ¹³Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but kwhoever drinks of the water that I will give him lwill never be thirsty again.2 The water that I will give him will become min him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵The woman said to him, “Sir, ngive me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Go, ocall your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that pyou are qa prophet. ²⁰rOur fathers worshiped on sthis mountain, but you say that tin Jerusalem is uthe place where people ought to worship.” ²¹Jesus said to her, v“Woman, believe me, wthe hour is coming when xneither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²²yYou worship what you do not know; zwe worship what we know, for zsalvation is afrom the Jews. ²³But bthe hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father cin spirit and dtruth, for the Father eis seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵The woman said to him, “I know that fMessiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, ghe will tell us all things.” ²⁶Jesus said to her, h“I who speak to you am he.”

²⁷Just then ihis disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹“Come, see a man jwho told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰They went out of the town and were coming to him.

³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, k“Rabbi, eat.” ³²But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³So the disciples said to one another, l“Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴Jesus said to them, m“My food is nto do the will of him who sent me and oto accomplish his work. ³⁵Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that pthe fields are white for harvest. ³⁶Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that qsower and rreaper smay rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, t‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸I sent you to reap uthat for which you did not labor. Others have labored, vand you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹Many Samaritans wfrom that town believed in him xbecause of ythe woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹And many more believed zbecause of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, aand we know that this is indeed bthe Savior cof the world.”

⁴³After dthe two days he departed for Galilee. ⁴⁴(For Jesus himself had testified ethat a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) ⁴⁵So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, fhaving seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For gthey too had gone to the feast.

Jesus Heals an Official's Son

⁴⁶So he came again to hCana in Galilee, iwhere he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. ⁴⁷When this man heard that Jesus jhad come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸So Jesus said to him, k“Unless you3 see signs and wonders you will not believe.” ⁴⁹The official said to him, “Sir, come down lbefore my child dies.” ⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. ⁵¹As he was going down, his servants4 met him and told him that his son was recovering. ⁵²So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour5 the fever left him.” ⁵³The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, mand all his household. ⁵⁴nThis was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.