Old/New Testament
Chapter 22
1 Thus said the Lord to me: Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and there deliver this message: 2 Listen to the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, as you sit on the throne of David—you, your officials, and your people who enter through these gates. 3 Thus says the Lord: Act justly and with righteousness, and rescue the victim from the hand of his oppressor. Do not ill-treat aliens, orphans, and widows, or show violence toward them, or shed innocent blood in this place.
4 If you will indeed be faithful in carrying out these commands, then the kings who succeed to the throne of David will continue to enter through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots or on horseback—they, their officials, and their people. 5 But if you do not obey these commands, then I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this palace will become a ruin.
6 For thus says the Lord concerning the palace of the king of Judah:
Although you are like Gilead to me,
like a peak of Lebanon,
I swear that I will turn you into a desert,
an uninhabited city.
7 I will send forth destroyers to annihilate you,
each man equipped with his weapons.
They will cut down your finest cedars
and cast them into the fire.
8 People from many nations will pass by this city, and they will ask one another, “Why has the Lord dealt in this manner with this great city?” 9 And the answer will be given, “Because they abandoned their covenant with the Lord, their God, in order to worship other gods and serve them.”
Jehoahaz
10 Do not weep for the man who is dead;
mourn not for him.
Weep rather for him who has gone into exile,
for he will never return again
to see the land of his birth.
11 For thus says the Lord about Shallum, the son of King Josiah of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah as king and was forced to leave this place, “He will never return. 12 Rather, he will die in the place where he was sent into exile, and he will never see this land again.”
Jehoiakim
13 Woe to the man who builds his house without righteousness
and his upper room with injustice,
who forces his neighbors to work for nothing
and gives them no recompense for their labor,
14 who says, “I will build myself a spacious home
with large upper rooms,”
and who inserts windows in it,
panels it with cedar,
and paints it with vermilion.
15 Are you any better a king
because your cedar is so splendid?
Did not your father have enough to eat and drink?
But because he did what was right and just,
all went well with him.
16 Because he dispensed justice to the poor and needy
things continued to go well for him.
Is this not what it means to know me?
asks the Lord.
17 But your eyes and your heart
are concerned only with your own interests;
you do not hesitate to shed innocent blood
and to perpetrate oppression and violence.
18 Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah, the son of Josiah:
They will not lament for him, saying,
“Alas, my brother!” or “Alas, sister!”
They will not mourn for him.
“Alas, my master!” “Alas, his splendor!”
19 He will be buried like a dead donkey
dragged forth and cast out
beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
Jeconiah
20 Go up to Lebanon and cry out;
lift up your voice in Bashan.
Cry out from Abarim,
for all your lovers have been crushed.[a]
21 I spoke to you when you enjoyed prosperity,
but you replied, “I will not listen.”
You have behaved this way from your youth,
refusing to listen to my voice.
22 The wind will carry away all your shepherds,
and your lovers will go off into captivity.
Then you will be ashamed and blush
because of all your wickedness.
23 You who live in Lebanon
and make your nest among the cedars,
how you will groan when anguish overcomes you,
pangs like those of a woman in labor.
24 As I live, says the Lord, even if you, King Coniah of Judah, the son of Jehoiakim, were the signet ring on my right hand, I would still tear you off 25 and deliver you into the hands of those who seek your life, into the hands of those whom you fear, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of the Chaldeans. 26 I will fling you and the mother who bore you into another country, where neither of you were born, and there you both will die. 27 You will never return to the country to which you so desperately long to return.
28 Is this man Coniah a despised damaged pot,
a vessel in which no one is interested?
Why are he and his offspring cast out
and thrown into a land
that they know nothing about?
29 O land, land, land,
hear the word of the Lord!
30 Thus says the Lord:
Designate this man as childless,
a man who will not prosper during his lifetime.
No descendant of his will succeed;
none will sit on the throne of David
or rule again over Judah.
Chapter 23
Messianic Oracles. 1 Woe to the shepherds who lead astray and scatter the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord. 2 Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has to say in regard to the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my flock and driven them away, and you showed not the slightest concern about taking care of them. Therefore, I will not hesitate to punish you for your evil deeds, says the Lord.
3 I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their meadows where they will be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will appoint shepherds for them who will treat them kindly, so that they will no longer fear or experience terror, nor will any be discovered missing, says the Lord.
5 Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will raise up a righteous branch
from the line of David.
He will reign as king and rule wisely
and ensure justice and righteousness in the land.
6 In his days Judah will live in safety,
and Israel will dwell in security.
And this is the name that will be given to him:
“The Lord Our Righteousness.”
7 Therefore, the days are coming, says the Lord, when people will no longer say, “As the Lord lives who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt,” 8 but rather, “As the Lord lives who brought forth the offspring of the house of Israel up from the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had dispersed them.” Then they will again inhabit their own land.
The False Prophets[b]
9 As for the prophets,
my heart is broken within me,
and all my bones never cease to tremble.
I have become like a drunken man,
like someone overcome with wine,
because of the Lord
and because of his holy words.
10 For the land swarms with adulterers;
because of them the country mourns
and the pastures in the desert have withered.
11 Both the prophets and the priests are godless;
even in my own house have I observed their wickedness,
says the Lord.
12 Therefore, they will find that the paths they travel
will be slippery beneath their feet;
in the darkness where they are driven,
they will fall headlong.
For I will inflict disaster upon them
in the year of their punishment,
says the Lord.
13 Among the prophets of Samaria
I beheld this repulsive deed:
they prophesied in the name of Baal
and led my people astray.
14 But among the prophets of Jerusalem
I have seen deeds that are even more shocking:
they commit adultery and persist in lying
and uphold those who are evil
so that no one turns away from wickedness.
To me they have all become like Sodom,
and its inhabitants are like Gomorrah.
15 Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts in regard to the prophets:
I intend to give them wormwood to eat
and force them to drink poisoned water.
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness has spread throughout the land.
16 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Do not listen to the words of the prophets;
their prophecies are designed to delude you.
They concoct visions from their own minds
and not from the mouth of the Lord.
17 To those who despise the word of the Lord
they say, “Peace will be yours.”
To those who follow their own stubborn inclinations
they say, “No harm will befall you.”
18 Yet which of them has stood in the council of the Lord
to see or to hear his word?
Which of them has heeded his word and proclaimed it?
19 Behold the storm of the Lord!
His wrath bursts forth
like a frightening tempest
that whirls around the heads of the wicked.
20 The anger of the Lord will not subside
until he has fully accomplished
the purposes he has in mind.
When the time comes,
you will understand this clearly.
21 I did not send these prophets,
yet they went forth in haste.
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my council,
they would have then proclaimed my words to my people
and caused them to turn back from their evil ways
and from the wickedness of their deeds.
23 The Lord asks:
Am I a God only when I am near at hand,
but not when I am far away?
24 Can someone hide in a secret place
so that I cannot see him?
Do I not fill heaven and earth?
25 I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. “I have had a dream,” they cry out. “I have had a dream.” 26 How much longer must we endure prophets who prophesy lies and proclaim their own delusions? 27 By means of the dreams that they relate to one another, they believe that they will make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name and replaced it with Baal. 28 Let the prophet who has a dream relate his dream, but let the one who receives my word deliver it truthfully.
What does straw have in common with wheat?
asks the Lord.
29 Is not my word like fire, says the Lord,
like a hammer shattering a rock?
30 Therefore, says the Lord, I have set myself in opposition to the prophets who steal my words from one another. 31 I am against those prophets who concoct their own prophecies and then assert, “Thus says the Lord.” 32 I am against those prophets who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and then recount them, thereby leading my people astray with their lies and reckless bragging. They have not received any commission from me, and so they are of no benefit to this people in any way, says the Lord.
33 And when this people or a prophet or a priest asks you, “What is the burden of the Lord?” you are to reply, “You are the burden, and I will cast you off,” says the Lord. 34 If a prophet or a priest or anyone else speaks of “the burden of the Lord,” I will punish that man and his household.
35 Therefore, when speaking to one another, you are to ask, “What answer did the Lord give?” or “What did the Lord say?” 36 But you must never again speak of “the burden of the Lord,” because each man’s word becomes his own burden, and you therefore pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God.
37 Therefore, you are to ask a prophet, “What answer has the Lord given?” or “What has the Lord said?” 38 But if you say “the burden of the Lord,” the Lord will reply, “Because you have used the words ‘the burden of the Lord’ when I forbade you to use that expression, 39 therefore, I will lift you up and cast you away from my presence, both you and the city that I gave to you and your ancestors. 40 And I will inflict upon you everlasting disgrace and eternal and unforgettable shame.”
Salutation[a]
Chapter 1
Address. 1 Paul, a servant of God[b] and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of those whom God has chosen and their knowledge of religious truth, 2 with its hope of eternal life that God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and who now at his appointed time has revealed his word through the proclamation with which I was entrusted by the command of God our Savior, 4 to Titus, my loyal child in the faith we share:[c] grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.[d]
Church Organization
A Bishop Must Be Blameless.[e] 5 The reason I left you behind in Crete was so that you could finish up the work that remained to be done and appoint presbyters in every town as I directed you. 6 Each man must be blameless and the husband of only one wife, with children who are believers and free from any suspicion of licentious or rebellious behavior.
7 For in his role as God’s steward a bishop[f] must be blameless. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or prone to drunkenness or violent or avaricious. 8 Rather, he must be hospitable, a lover of goodness, prudent, upright, devout, and self-controlled. 9 In addition, he must hold firmly to the authentic message he has been taught, so that he may be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it.
10 For the Pure All Things Are Pure.[g] For there are also many rebellious people, especially among the Jewish converts,[h] who deceive others with their empty talk. 11 It is essential to silence them, since they are ruining whole households by teaching for dishonest gain what it is not right to teach. 12 It was one of their very own prophets, a man from Crete, who said,
“Cretans have always been liars, vicious beasts, and lazy gluttons.”
13 This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply so that they may be restored to a sound faith, 14 rather than paying attention to Jewish myths or to the commandments of those who turn away from the truth.
15 To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are corrupt and without faith nothing is pure.[i] Their very minds and their consciences have been corrupted. 16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds. They are detestable and disobedient, totally unfit for any good work.
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