^7 (A)Now Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, one of the ^[a]eunuchs, who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon. When the king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin,

¹³ And when he was in the Gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there whose name was Irijah the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are defecting to the Chaldeans!”

² (This happened after ^(A)Jeconiah^[a] the king, the ^(B)queen mother, the ^[b]eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.)

¹⁹ then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city.

²⁷ So he arose and went. And behold, ^(A)a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and ^(B)had come to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹ Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”

³⁰ So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² The place in the Scripture which he read was this:

³⁴ So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, ^(G)and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. ³⁶ Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. ^(H)What hinders me from being baptized?”

^37 [a]Then Philip said, ^(I)“If you believe with all your heart, you may.”

And he answered and said, ^(J)“I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

³⁸ So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. ³⁹ Now when they came up out of the water, ^(K)the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing.

²⁹ They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. ^30 (A)And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”

³⁰ Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among ^[a]thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, ^(A)he passed by on the other side. ³² Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. ³³ But a certain ^(B)Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had ^(C)compassion. ³⁴ So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ On the next day, ^[b]when he departed, he took out two ^(D)denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ ³⁶ So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”

^16 (A)So the last will be first, and the first last. ^(B)For^[a] many are called, but few chosen.”