¹ In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;

² In the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, concerning which the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

³ And I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

⁴ And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

⁵ We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

⁶ Neither have we hearkened to thy servants the prophets, who spoke in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

⁷ O Lord, righteousness belongeth to thee, but to us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

⁸ O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

⁹ To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;

¹⁰ Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

¹¹ And all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

¹² And he hath confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven it hath not been done as it hath been done upon Jerusalem.

¹³ As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.

¹⁴ Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we have not obeyed his voice.

¹⁵ And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast obtained thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

¹⁶ O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thy anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people have become a reproach to all that are about us.

¹⁷ Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.

¹⁸ O my God, incline thy ear, and hear; open thy eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.

¹⁹ O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thy own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

²⁰ And while I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;

²¹ Yes, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

²² And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.

²³ At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

²⁴ Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

²⁵ Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and sixty and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

²⁶ And after sixty and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and its end shall be with a flood, and to the end of the war desolations are determined.

²⁷ And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

¹ It happened, that when he finished praying in a certain place, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples."

² He said to them, "When you pray, say, 'Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come. May your will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven.

³ Give us day by day our daily bread.

⁴ Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'"

⁵ He said to them, "Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight, and tell him, 'friend, lend me three loaves of bread,

⁶ for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him,'

⁷ and he from within will answer and say, 'Don't bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give it to you'?

⁸ I tell you, although he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs.

⁹ "I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.

¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.

¹¹ "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won't give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

¹² Or if he asks for an egg, he won't give him a scorpion, will he?

¹³ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

¹⁴ He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. It happened, when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke; and the multitudes marveled.

¹⁵ But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons."

¹⁶ Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven.

¹⁷ But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. A house divided against itself falls.

¹⁸ If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.

¹⁹ But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore will they be your judges.

²⁰ But if I by the finger of God cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come to you.

²¹ "When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe.

²² But when someone stronger attacks him and overcomes him, he takes from him his whole armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

²³ "He that is not with me is against me. He who doesn't gather with me scatters.

²⁴ The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, he says, 'I will turn back to my house from which I came out.'

²⁵ When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order.

²⁶ Then he goes, and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first."

²⁷ It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!"

²⁸ But he said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it."

²⁹ When the multitudes were gathering together to him, he began to say, "This is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. No sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet.

³⁰ For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will also the Son of Man be to this generation.

³¹ The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and will condemn them: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, one greater than Solomon is here.

³² The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, one greater than Jonah is here.

³³ "No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, that those who come in may see the light.

³⁴ The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness.

³⁵ Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn't darkness.

³⁶ If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light."

³⁷ Now as he spoke, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in, and sat at the table.

³⁸ When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner.

³⁹ The Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.

⁴⁰ You foolish ones, didn't he who made the outside make the inside also?

⁴¹ But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.

⁴² But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and the love of God. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

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

⁴⁴ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don't know it."

⁴⁵ One of the lawyers answered him, "Teacher, in saying this you insult us also."

⁴⁶ He said, "Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won't even lift one finger to help carry those burdens.

⁴⁷ Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

⁴⁸ So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs.

⁴⁹ Therefore also the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute,

⁵⁰ that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;

⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.' Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

⁵² Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn't enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered."

⁵³ As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry, and to draw many things out of him;

⁵⁴ lying in wait for him, and seeking to catch him in something he might say, that they might accuse him.