¹ The word which the Lord said about Babylon, about the land of the Chaldaeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

² Give it out among the nations, make it public, and let the flag be lifted up; give the word and keep nothing back; say, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is broken, her images are put to shame, her gods are broken.

³ For out of the north a nation is coming up against her, which will make her land waste and unpeopled: they are in flight, man and beast are gone.

⁴ In those days and in that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go on their way weeping and making prayer to the Lord their God.

⁵ They will be questioning about the way to Zion, with their faces turned in its direction, saying, Come, and be united to the Lord in an eternal agreement which will be kept in mind for ever.

⁶ My people have been wandering sheep: their keepers have made them go out of the right way, turning them loose on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, having no memory of their resting-place.

⁷ They have been attacked by all those who came across them: and their attackers said, We are doing no wrong, because they have done evil against the Lord in whom is righteousness, against the Lord, the hope of their fathers.

⁸ Go in flight out of Babylon, go out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and be like he-goats before the flocks.

⁹ For see, I am moving and sending up against Babylon a band of great nations from the north country: and they will put their armies in position against her; and from there she will be taken: their arrows will be like those of an expert man of war; not one will come back without getting its mark.

¹⁰ And the wealth of Chaldaea will come into the hands of her attackers: all those who take her wealth will have enough, says the Lord.

¹¹ Because you are glad, because you are lifted up with pride, you wasters of my heritage, because you are playing like a young cow put out to grass, and you make a noise like strong horses;

¹² Your mother will be put to shame; she who gave you birth will be looked down on: see, she will be the last of the nations, a waste place, a dry and unwatered land.

¹³ Because of the wrath of the Lord no one will be living in it, and it will be quite unpeopled: everyone who goes by Babylon will be overcome with wonder, and make sounds of fear at all her punishments.

¹⁴ Put your armies in position against Babylon on every side, all you bowmen; let loose your arrows at her, not keeping any back: for she has done evil against the Lord.

¹⁵ Give a loud cry against her on every side; she has given herself up, her supports are overturned, her walls are broken down: for it is the payment taken by the Lord; Give her payment; as she has done, so do to her.

¹⁶ Let the planter of seed be cut off from Babylon, and everyone using the curved blade at the time of the grain-cutting: for fear of the cruel sword, everyone will be turned to his people, everyone will go in flight to his land.

¹⁷ Israel is a wandering sheep; the lions have been driving him away: first he was attacked by the king of Assyria, and now his bones have been broken by Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon.

¹⁸ So this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, I will send punishment on the king of Babylon and on his land, as I have given punishment to the king of Assyria.

¹⁹ And I will make Israel come back to his resting-place, and he will get his food on Carmel and Bashan, and have his desire in full measure on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.

²⁰ In those days and in that time, says the Lord, when the evil-doing of Israel is looked for, there will be nothing; and in Judah no sins will be seen: for I will have forgiveness for those whom I will keep safe.

²¹ Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the people of Pekod; put them to death and send destruction after them, says the Lord, and do everything I have given you orders to do.

²² There is a sound of war in the land and of great destruction.

²³ How is the hammer of all the earth cut in two and broken! how has Babylon become a waste among the nations!

²⁴ I have put a net for you, and you have been taken, O Babylon, without your knowledge: you have been uncovered and taken because you were fighting against the Lord.

²⁵ From his store-house the Lord has taken the instruments of his wrath: for the Lord, the Lord of armies, has a work to do in the land of the Chaldaeans.

²⁶ Come up against her one and all, let her store-houses be broken open: make her into a mass of stones, give her to the curse, till there is nothing of her to be seen.

²⁷ Put all her oxen to the sword; let them go down to death: sorrow is theirs, for their day has come, the time of their punishment.

²⁸ The voice of those who are in flight, who have got away safe from the land of Babylon, to give news in Zion of punishment from the Lord our God, even payment for his Temple.

²⁹ Send for the archers to come together against Babylon, all the bowmen; put up your tents against her on every side; let no one get away: give her the reward of her work; as she has done, so do to her: for she has been uplifted in pride against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰ For this cause her young men will be falling in her streets, and all her men of war will be cut off in that day, says the Lord.

³¹ See, I am against you, O pride, says the Lord, the Lord of armies, for your day has come, the time when I will send punishment on you.

³² And pride will go with uncertain steps and have a fall, and there will be no one to come to his help: and I will put a fire in his towns, burning up everything round about him.

³³ This is what the Lord of armies has said: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are crushed down together: all those who took them prisoner keep them in a tight grip; they will not let them go.

³⁴ Their saviour is strong; the Lord of armies is his name: he will certainly take up their cause, so that he may give rest to the earth and trouble to the people of Babylon.

³⁵ A sword is on the Chaldaeans, says the Lord, and on the people of Babylon, and on her rulers and on her wise men.

³⁶ A sword is on the men of pride, and they will become foolish: a sword is on her men of war, and they will be broken.

³⁷ A sword is on all the mixed people in her, and they will become like women: a sword is on her store-houses, and they will be taken by her attackers.

³⁸ A sword is on her waters, drying them up; for it is a land of images, and their minds are fixed on false gods.

³⁹ For this reason the beasts of the waste land with the wolves will make their holes there and the ostriches will be living in it: never again will men be living there, it will be unpeopled from generation to generation.

⁴⁰ As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbouring towns were overturned by God, says the Lord, so no man will be living in it, and no son of man will have a resting-place there.

⁴¹ See, a people is coming from the north; a great nation and a number of kings will be put in motion from the inmost parts of the earth.

⁴² Bows and spears are in their hands; they are cruel and have no mercy; their voice is like the thunder of the sea, and they go on horses; everyone in his place like men going to the fight, against you, O daughter of Babylon.

⁴³ The king of Babylon has had news of them, and his hands have become feeble: trouble has come on him and pain like the pain of a woman in childbirth.

⁴⁴ See, he will come up like a lion from the thick growth of Jordan against the resting-place of Teman: but I will suddenly make them go in flight from her; and I will put over her the man of my selection: for who is like me? and who will put forward his cause against me? and what keeper of sheep will keep his place before me?

⁴⁵ So give ear to the decision of the Lord which he has made against Babylon, and to his purposes designed against the land of the Chaldaeans; Truly, they will be pulled away by the smallest of the flock; truly, he will make waste their fields with them.

⁴⁶ At the cry, Babylon is taken! the earth is shaking, and the cry comes to the ears of the nations.

¹ Jesus answered and spoke again in parables to them, saying,

² "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who made a marriage feast for his son,

³ and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast, but they would not come.

⁴ Again he sent out other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My cattle and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the marriage feast!"'

⁵ But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise,

⁶ and the rest grabbed his servants, and treated them shamefully, and killed them.

⁷ When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.

⁸ "Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were invited weren't worthy.

⁹ Go therefore to the intersections of the highways, and as many as you may find, invite to the marriage feast.'

¹⁰ Those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together as many as they found, both bad and good. The wedding was filled with guests.

¹¹ But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man who didn't have on wedding clothing,

¹² and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here not wearing wedding clothing?' He was speechless.

¹³ Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and throw him into the outer darkness; there is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.'

¹⁴ For many are called, but few chosen."

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how they might entrap him in his talk.

¹⁶ They sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are honest, and teach the way of God in truth, no matter who you teach, for you aren't partial to anyone.

¹⁷ Tell us therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"

¹⁸ But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, "Why do you test me, you hypocrites?

¹⁹ Show me the tax money." They brought to him a denarius.

²⁰ He asked them, "Whose is this image and inscription?"

²¹ They said to him, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

²² When they heard it, they marveled, and left him, and went away.

²³ On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him,

²⁴ saying, "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed for his brother.'

²⁵ Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no seed left his wife to his brother.

²⁶ In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh.

²⁷ After them all, the woman died.

²⁸ In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her."

²⁹ But Jesus answered them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.

³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God's angels in heaven.

³¹ But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven't you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying,

³² 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?' God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."

³³ When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

³⁴ But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, gathered themselves together.

³⁵ One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him.

³⁶ "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?"

³⁷ Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'

³⁸ This is the first and great commandment.

³⁹ A second likewise is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

⁴⁰ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

⁴¹ Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,

⁴² saying, "What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "A Psalm of David."

⁴³ He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴ 'The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?'

⁴⁵ "If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?"

⁴⁶ No one was able to answer him a word, neither did any man dare ask him any more questions from that day forth.