⁸ The word of the Lord came to Zechariah: ⁹ “The Lord of Armies says this: ‘Make fair decisions.^(A) Show faithful love and compassion^(B) to one another. ¹⁰ Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor,^(C) and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’^{(D) 11} But they refused to pay attention^(E) and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear.^{(F) 12} They made their hearts like a rock so as not to obey the law or the words that the Lord of Armies had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets.^(G) Therefore intense anger came from the Lord of Armies.

²⁵ Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.^(A)

The Sermon on the Mount

5 When he saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain,^(B) and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. ² Then^[a] he began to teach them, saying:^(C)

The Beatitudes

¹¹ “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. ¹² Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted^(M) the prophets who were before you.^(N)

Believers Are Salt and Light

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty?^[b] It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.^(O)

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵ Then^(A) an expert in the law^(B) stood up to test^(C) him, saying, “Teacher,^(D) what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ^(E)

²⁶ “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”

²⁷ He answered, “Love the Lord your God^(F) with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,”^(G) and “your neighbor as yourself.”^[a](H)

²⁸ “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”^(I)

²⁹ But wanting to justify himself,^(J) he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ^(K)