14And the Word became flesh*
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.k
15* John testified to him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said,l ‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’” 16From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace,*
8When they heard the sound of the LORD God walking about in the garden at the breezy time of the day,* the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.d 9The LORD God then called to the man and asked him: Where are you? 10He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.” 11Then God asked: Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat? 12The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.” 13The LORD God then asked the woman: What is this you have done? The woman answered, “The snake tricked me, so I ate it.”e
14Then the LORD God said to the snake:
Because you have done this,
cursed are you
among all the animals, tame or wild;
On your belly you shall crawl,
and dust you shall eat
15I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
They will strike at your head,
while you strike at their heel.* g
I will intensify your toil in childbearing;
in pain* you shall bring forth children.
Yet your urge shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.
17To the man he said: Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, You shall not eat from it,
Cursed is the ground* because of you!
In toil you shall eat its yield
all the days of your life.h
18Thorns and thistles it shall bear for you,
and you shall eat the grass of the field.
19By the sweat of your brow
you shall eat bread,
Until you return to the ground,
from which you were taken;
For you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.i
2There was a certain man from Zorah, of the clan of the Danites,* whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren and had borne no children.b 3c An angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her: Though you are barren and have had no children, you will conceive and bear a son. 4d Now, then, be careful to drink no wine or beer and to eat nothing unclean, 5for you will conceive and bear a son. No razor shall touch his head, for the boy is to be a nazirite for God* from the womb. It is he who will begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines.
6The woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me; he had the appearance of an angel of God, fearsome indeed. I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name. 7But he said to me, ‘You will conceive and bear a son. So drink no wine or beer, and eat nothing unclean. For the boy shall be a nazirite for God from the womb, until the day of his death.’” 8Manoah then prayed to the LORD. “Please, my Lord,” he said, “may the man of God whom you sent return to us to teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born.”
9God heard the prayer of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10The woman ran quickly and told her husband. “The man who came to me the other day has appeared to me,” she said to him; 11so Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he reached the man, he said to him, “Are you the one who spoke to my wife?” I am, he answered. 12Then Manoah asked, “Now, when what you say comes true, what rules must the boy follow? What must he do?” 13The angel of the LORD answered Manoah: Your wife must be careful about all the things of which I spoke to her. 14She must not eat anything that comes from the vine, she must not drink wine or beer, and she must not eat anything unclean. Let her observe all that I have commanded her.
Fourth Vision: The Lampstand and the Two Olive Trees. 1Then the angel who spoke with me returned and aroused me, like one awakened from sleep. 2He said to me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a lampstand* all of gold,a with a bowl on top of it. There are seven lamps on it, with seven spouts on each of the lamps that are on top of it. 3And beside it are two olive trees,* one on the right of the bowl and one to its left.” 4Then I said to the angel who spoke with me, “What are these things, my lord?” 5And the angel who spoke with me replied, “Do you not know what these things are?” I said, “No, my lord.”
An Oracle. 6Then he said to me: “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, and not by power, but by my spirit,* b says the LORD of hosts. 7Who are you, O great mountain?* Before Zerubbabel you become a plain. He will bring forth the first stone amid shouts of ‘Favor, favor be upon it!’”
1As when brushwood is set ablaze,
or fire makes the water boil!
Then your name would be made known to your enemies
and the nations would tremble before you,
2While you worked awesome deeds we could not hope for,*
3such as had not been heard of from of old.
No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen,
any God but you
working such deeds for those who wait for him.a
4Would that you might meet us doing right,
that we might be mindful of you in our ways!
Indeed, you are angry; we have sinned,
we have acted wickedly.
5We have all become like something unclean,
all our just deeds are like polluted rags;
We have all withered like leaves,
and our crimes carry us away like the wind.b
6There are none who call upon your name,
none who rouse themselves to take hold of you;
For you have hidden your face from us
and have delivered us up to our crimes.
7* Yet, LORD, you are our father;
we are the clay and you our potter:
we are all the work of your hand.
1* See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.a 2Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed* we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.b 3Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.c
Avoiding Sin. 4Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness.* 5You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.d 6No one who remains in him sins; no one who sins has seen him or known him. 7Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8Whoever sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.e 9No one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God.* 10In this way, the children of God and the children of the devil are made plain; no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother.
God’s Promise Immutable. 13* i When God made the promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, “he swore by himself,” 14and said, “I will indeed bless you and multiply” you.j 15And so, after patient waiting,k he obtained the promise.* 16Human beings swear by someone greater than themselves; for them an oath serves as a guarantee and puts an end to all argument. 17So when God wanted to give the heirs of his promise an even clearer demonstration of the immutability of his purpose, he intervened with an oath,l 18so that by two immutable things,* in which it was impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to hold fast to the hope that lies before us.m 19This we have as an anchor of the soul,n sure and firm, which reaches into the interior behind the veil,* 20where Jesus has entered on our behalf as forerunner, becoming high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.o
Announcement of the Birth of Jesus.* 26In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, 27to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.l 28And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.”m 29But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31n Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. 32o He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,* and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, 33and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”p 34But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”* 35And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.q 36And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived* a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; 37for nothing will be impossible for God.”r 38Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
5On that day the LORD of hosts
will be a glorious crown
And a brilliant diadem
for the remnant of his people,
6A spirit of judgment
for the one who sits in judgment,
And strength for those
who turn back the battle at the gate.
7But these also stagger from wine
and stumble from strong drink:
Priest and prophet stagger from strong drink,
overpowered by wine;
They are confused by strong drink,
they stagger in their visions,
they totter when giving judgment.d
8Yes, all the tables
are covered with vomit,
with filth, and no place left clean.
9* “To whom would he impart knowledge?
To whom would he convey the message?
To those just weaned from milk,
those weaned from the breast?
10For he says,
‘Command on command, command on command,
rule on rule, rule on rule,
here a little, there a little!’”
11* Yes, with stammering lips and in a strange language
he will speak to this people,e
12to whom he said:
“This is the resting place,
give rest to the weary;
And this is the place of repose”—
but they refused to hear.f
13So for them the word of the LORD shall be:
“Command on command, command on command,
Rule on rule, rule on rule,
here a little, there a little!”
So that when they walk, they shall stumble backward,
broken, ensnared, and captured.g
Messianic Enthronement.* 5For to which of the angels did God ever say:
“You are my son; this day I have begotten you”?d
Or again:
“I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me”?
6And again, when he leads* the first-born into the world, he says:
“Let all the angels of God worship him.”e
“He makes his angels winds
and his ministers a fiery flame”;f
“Your throne, O God,* stands forever and ever;
and a righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.g
9You loved justice and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, anointed you
with the oil of gladness above your companions”;
“At the beginning, O Lord, you established the earth,h
and the heavens are the works of your hands.
11They will perish, but you remain;
and they will all grow old like a garment.
12You will roll them up like a cloak,
and like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”
13But to which of the angels has he ever said:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool”?i
14Are they not all ministering spirits sent to serve, for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?j
The Authority of Jesus Questioned.* 23n When he had come into the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things?* And who gave you this authority?”o 24Jesus said to them in reply, “I shall ask you one question,* and if you answer it for me, then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things. 25Where was John’s baptism from? Was it of heavenly or of human origin?” They discussed this among themselves and said, “If we say ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 26* p But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet.” 27So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.” He himself said to them, “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.*