⁸ The word of the Lord came to Zechariah: ⁹ “The Lord of Hosts 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 foreigner 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 Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets.^(G) Therefore great anger came from the Lord of Hosts.

²⁵ Large crowds followed Him from Galilee, 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 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? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled on by men.^(O)

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵ Just^(A) then 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:

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)