One Year Bible.

The Uproar in Thessalonica

¹When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. ²As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ³explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he declared. ⁴Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few leading women.

⁵The Jews, however, became jealous. So they brought in some troublemakers from the marketplace, formed a mob, and sent the city into an uproar. They raided Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas, hoping to bring them out to the people. ⁶But when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have now come here, ⁷and Jason has welcomed them into his home. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, named Jesus!”

⁸On hearing this, the crowd and city officials were greatly disturbed. ⁹And they collected bond from Jason and the others and then released them.

The Character of the Bereans

¹⁰As soon as night had fallen, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went into the Jewish synagogue. ¹¹Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true. ¹²As a result, many of them believed, along with quite a few prominent Greek women and men.

¹³But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that Paul was also proclaiming the word of God in Berea, they went there themselves to incite and agitate the crowds. ¹⁴The brothers immediately sent Paul to the coast, but Silas and Timothy remained in Berea. ¹⁵Those who escorted Paul brought him to Athens and then returned with instructions for Silas and Timothy to join him as soon as possible.

Paul in Athens

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply disturbed in his spirit to see that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace with those he met each day.

¹⁸Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹So they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, where they asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰For you are bringing some strange notions to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.”

²¹Now all the Athenians and foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing more than hearing and articulating new ideas.

Paul’s Address in the Areopagus

²²Then Paul stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you.

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. ²⁵Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands.

²⁷God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. ²⁸‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’ ²⁹Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.

³⁰Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”

³²When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to mock him, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this topic.” ³³At that, Paul left the Areopagus. ³⁴But some joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others who were with them.

David’s Righteous Branch

¹“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD.

²Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who tend My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the LORD.

³Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock from all the lands to which I have banished them, and I will return them to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and multiply. ⁴I will raise up shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or dismayed, nor will any go missing, declares the LORD.

⁵Behold, the days are coming,

declares the LORD,

when I will raise up for David

a righteous Branch,

and He will reign wisely as King

and will administer justice and righteousness in the land.

⁶In His days Judah will be saved,

and Israel will dwell securely.

And this is His name by which He will be called:

The LORD Our Righteousness.

⁷So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of Egypt.’ ⁸Instead they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought and led the descendants of the house of Israel up out of the land of the north and all the other lands to which He had banished them.’ Then they will dwell once more in their own land.”

Lying Prophets

⁹As for the prophets:

My heart is broken within me,

and all my bones tremble.

I have become like a drunkard,

like a man overcome by wine,

because of the LORD,

because of His holy words.

¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers —

because of the curse, the land mourns

and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up —

their course is evil

and their power is misused.

¹¹“For both prophet and priest are ungodly;

even in My house I have found their wickedness,”

declares the LORD.

¹²“Therefore their path will become slick;

they will be driven away into the darkness and fall into it.

For I will bring disaster upon them

in the year of their punishment,”

declares the LORD.

¹³“Among the prophets of Samaria

I saw an offensive thing:

They prophesied by Baal

and led My people Israel astray.

¹⁴And among the prophets of Jerusalem

I have seen a horrible thing:

They commit adultery

and walk in lies.

They strengthen the hands of evildoers,

so that no one turns his back on wickedness.

They are all like Sodom to Me;

the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”

¹⁵Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets:

“I will feed them wormwood

and give them poisoned water to drink,

for from the prophets of Jerusalem

ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”

¹⁶This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.

They are filling you with false hopes.

They speak visions from their own minds,

not from the mouth of the LORD.

¹⁷They keep saying to those who despise Me,

‘The LORD says that you will have peace,’

and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,

‘No harm will come to you.’

¹⁸But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD

to see and hear His word?

Who has given heed to His word

and obeyed it?

¹⁹Behold, the storm of the LORD

has gone out with fury,

a whirlwind swirling down

upon the heads of the wicked.

²⁰The anger of the LORD will not turn back

until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart.

In the days to come

you will understand this clearly.

²¹I did not send these prophets,

yet they have run with their message;

I did not speak to them,

yet they have prophesied.

²²But if they had stood in My council,

they would have proclaimed My words to My people

and turned them back

from their evil ways and deeds.”

²³“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away?”

²⁴“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD.

“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.

²⁵“I have heard the sayings of the prophets who prophesy lies in My name: ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ ²⁶How long will this continue in the hearts of these prophets who prophesy falsehood, these prophets of the delusion of their own minds? ²⁷They suppose the dreams that they tell one another will make My people forget My name, just as their fathers forgot My name through the worship of Baal.

²⁸Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the LORD. ²⁹“Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”

³⁰“Therefore behold,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words they attribute to Me.”

³¹“Yes,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and proclaim, ‘The LORD declares it.’”

³²“Indeed,” declares the LORD, “I am against those who prophesy false dreams and retell them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people,” declares the LORD.

False Prophecies

³³“Now when this people or a prophet or priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you are to say to them, ‘What burden? I will forsake you, declares the LORD.’

³⁴As for the prophet or priest or anyone who claims, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household.

³⁵This is what each man is to say to his friend and to his brother: ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ ³⁶But refer no more to the burden of the LORD, for each man’s word becomes the burden, so that you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of Hosts, our God.

³⁷Thus you are to say to the prophet: ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and ‘What has the LORD spoken?’

³⁸But if you claim, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ then this is what the LORD says: Because you have said, ‘This is the burden of the LORD,’ and I specifically told you not to make this claim, ³⁹therefore I will surely forget you and will cast you out of My presence, both you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. ⁴⁰And I will bring upon you everlasting shame and perpetual humiliation that will never be forgotten.”

The Good and Bad Figs

¹After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, as well as the officials of Judah and the craftsmen and metalsmiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the LORD. ²One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early, but the other basket contained very poor figs, so bad they could not be eaten.

³“Jeremiah,” the LORD asked, “what do you see?”

“Figs!” I replied. “The good figs are very good, but the bad figs are very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten.”

⁴Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ⁵“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, so I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ⁶I will keep My eyes on them for good and will return them to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. ⁷I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD. They will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with all their heart.

⁸But like the bad figs, so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the LORD, ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem— those remaining in this land and those living in the land of Egypt. ⁹I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them. ¹⁰And I will send against them sword and famine and plague, until they have perished from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’”