²¹ then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all sides, and bring them to their own land; ²² and I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all; and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. ²³ They shall not defile themselves any more with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

²⁴ “My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes. ²⁵ They shall dwell in the land where your fathers dwelt that I gave to my servant Jacob; they and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there for ever; and David my servant shall be their prince for ever. ²⁶ I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will bless^[a] them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. ²⁷ My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ²⁸ Then the nations will know that I the Lord sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary is in the midst of them for evermore.”

The Plot to Kill Jesus

⁴⁵ Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him; ⁴⁶ but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷ So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council, and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. ⁴⁸ If we let him go on thus, every one will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place^[a] and our nation.” ⁴⁹ But one of them, Ca′iaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all; ⁵⁰ you do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.”^{[b] 51} He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, ⁵² and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. ⁵³ So from that day on they took counsel how to put him to death.

⁵⁴ Jesus therefore no longer went about openly among the Jews, but went from there to the country near the wilderness, to a town called E′phraim; and there he stayed with the disciples.

⁵⁵ Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves. ⁵⁶ They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast?”