One Year Bible.

Paul before the Sanhedrin

¹Paul looked directly at the Sanhedrin and said, “Brothers, I have conducted myself before God in all good conscience to this day.”

²At this, the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit here to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck.”

⁴But those standing nearby said, “How dare you insult the high priest of God!”

⁵“Brothers,” Paul replied, “I was not aware that he was the high priest, for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’”

⁶Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. It is because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”

⁷As soon as he had said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. ⁸For the Sadducees say that there is neither a resurrection nor angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.

⁹A great clamor arose, and some scribes from the party of the Pharisees got up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” ¹⁰The dispute grew so violent that the commander was afraid they would tear Paul to pieces. He ordered the soldiers to go down and remove him by force and bring him into the barracks.

¹¹The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, so also you must testify in Rome.”

The Plot to Kill Paul

¹²When daylight came, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. ¹³More than forty of them were involved in this plot. ¹⁴They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have bound ourselves with a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul. ¹⁵Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him down to you on the pretext of examining his case more carefully. We are ready to kill him on the way.”

¹⁶But when the son of Paul’s sister heard about the plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul. ¹⁷Then Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the commander; he has something to tell him.”

¹⁸So the centurion took him to the commander and said, “Paul the prisoner sent and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to tell you.”

¹⁹The commander took the young man by the hand, drew him aside, and asked, “What do you need to tell me?”

²⁰He answered, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul to the Sanhedrin tomorrow on the pretext of acquiring more information about him. ²¹Do not let them persuade you, because more than forty men are waiting to ambush him. They have bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him; they are ready now, awaiting your consent.”

²²So the commander dismissed the young man and instructed him, “Do not tell anyone that you have reported this to me.”

Paul Sent to Felix

²³Then he called two of his centurions and said, “Prepare two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea in the third hour of the night. ²⁴Provide mounts for Paul to take him safely to Governor Felix.” ²⁵And he wrote the following letter:

²⁶Claudius Lysias,

To His Excellency, Governor Felix:

Greetings.

²⁷This man was seized by the Jews, and they were about to kill him when I came with my troops to rescue him. For I had learned that he is a Roman citizen, ²⁸and since I wanted to understand their charges against him, I brought him down to their Sanhedrin. ²⁹I found that the accusation involved questions about their own law, but there was no charge worthy of death or imprisonment.

³⁰When I was informed that there was a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once. I also instructed his accusers to present their case against him before you.

³¹So the soldiers followed their orders and brought Paul by night to Antipatris. ³²The next day they returned to the barracks and let the horsemen go on with him. ³³When the horsemen arrived in Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and presented Paul to him.

³⁴The governor read the letter and asked what province Paul was from. Learning that he was from Cilicia, ³⁵he said, “I will hear your case when your accusers arrive.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s Praetorium.

Mourning Turned to Joy

¹“At that time,” declares the LORD, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be My people.”

²This is what the LORD says:

“The people who survived the sword

found favor in the wilderness

when Israel went to find rest.”

³The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love;

therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.

⁴Again I will build you, and you will be rebuilt,

O Virgin Israel.

Again you will take up your tambourines

and go out in joyful dancing.

⁵Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria;

the farmers will plant and enjoy the fruit.

⁶For there will be a day when watchmen will call out

on the hills of Ephraim,

‘Arise, let us go up to Zion,

to the LORD our God!’”

⁷For this is what the LORD says:

“Sing with joy for Jacob;

shout for the foremost of the nations!

Make your praises heard, and say,

‘O LORD, save Your people,

the remnant of Israel!’

⁸Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north

and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,

including the blind and the lame,

expectant mothers and women in labor.

They will return as a great assembly!

⁹They will come with weeping,

and by their supplication I will lead them;

I will make them walk beside streams of waters,

on a level path where they will not stumble.

For I am Israel’s Father,

and Ephraim is My firstborn.”

¹⁰Hear, O nations, the word of the LORD,

and proclaim it in distant coastlands:

“The One who scattered Israel will gather them and keep them

as a shepherd keeps his flock.

¹¹For the LORD has ransomed Jacob

and redeemed him from the hand that had overpowered him.

¹²They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;

they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD —

the grain, new wine, and oil,

and the young of the flocks and herds.

Their life will be like a well-watered garden,

and never again will they languish.

¹³Then the maidens will rejoice with dancing,

young men and old as well.

I will turn their mourning into joy,

and give them comfort and joy for their sorrow.

¹⁴I will fill the souls of the priests abundantly,

and will fill My people with My goodness,”

declares the LORD.

¹⁵This is what the LORD says:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,

mourning and great weeping,

Rachel weeping for her children

and refusing to be comforted,

because they are no more.”

¹⁶This is what the LORD says:

“Keep your voice from weeping

and your eyes from tears,

for the reward for your work will come,

declares the LORD.

Then your children will return

from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷So there is hope for your future,

declares the LORD,

and your children will return

to their own land.

¹⁸I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning:

‘You disciplined me severely,

like an untrained calf.

Restore me, that I may return,

for You are the LORD my God.

¹⁹After I returned, I repented;

and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief.

I was ashamed and humiliated

because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

²⁰Is not Ephraim a precious son to Me,

a delightful child?

Though I often speak against him,

I still remember him.

Therefore My heart yearns for him;

I have great compassion for him,”

declares the LORD.

²¹“Set up the road markers,

put up the signposts.

Keep the highway in mind,

the road you have traveled.

Return, O Virgin Israel,

return to these cities of yours.

²²How long will you wander,

O faithless daughter?

For the LORD has created a new thing in the land—

a woman will shelter a man.”

²³This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “When I restore them from captivity, they will once again speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities: ‘May the LORD bless you, O righteous dwelling place, O holy mountain.’ ²⁴And Judah and all its cities will dwell together in the land, the farmers and those who move with the flocks, ²⁵for I will refresh the weary soul and replenish all who are weak.”

The New Covenant

²⁶At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.

²⁷“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and of beast. ²⁸Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, to demolish, destroy, and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD.

²⁹“In those days, it will no longer be said:

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,

and the teeth of the children are set on edge.’

³⁰Instead, each will die for his own iniquity. If anyone eats the sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge.

³¹Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD,

when I will make a new covenant

with the house of Israel

and with the house of Judah.

³²It will not be like the covenant

I made with their fathers

when I took them by the hand

to lead them out of the land of Egypt—

a covenant they broke,

though I was a husband to them,”

declares the LORD.

³³“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, declares the LORD.

I will put My law in their minds

and inscribe it on their hearts.

And I will be their God,

and they will be My people.

³⁴No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother,

saying, ‘Know the LORD,’

because they will all know Me,

from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD.

For I will forgive their iniquities

and will remember their sins no more.”

³⁵Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, who sets in order the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar — the LORD of Hosts is His name:

³⁶“Only if this fixed order departed from My presence,

declares the LORD,

would Israel’s descendants ever cease

to be a nation before Me.”

³⁷This is what the LORD says:

“Only if the heavens above could be measured

and the foundations of the earth below searched out

would I reject all of Israel’s descendants

because of all they have done,”

declares the LORD.

³⁸“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when this city will be rebuilt for Me, from the tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ³⁹The measuring line will once again stretch out straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn toward Goah. ⁴⁰The whole valley of the dead bodies and ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley, to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east, will be holy to the LORD. It will never again be uprooted or demolished.”

Jeremiah Buys Hanamel’s Field

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ²At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard, which was in the palace of the king of Judah.

³For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying: “Why are you prophesying like this? You claim that the LORD says, ‘Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it. ⁴Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the hands of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. ⁵He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will stay until I attend to him, declares the LORD. If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed.’”

⁶Jeremiah replied, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying: ⁷Behold! Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, is coming to you to say, ‘Buy for yourself my field in Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy it.’ ⁸Then, as the LORD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and urged me, ‘Please buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for you own the right of inheritance and redemption. Buy it for yourself.’”

Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

⁹So I bought the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and I weighed out seventeen shekels of silver. ¹⁰I signed and sealed the deed, called in witnesses, and weighed out the silver on the scales. ¹¹Then I took the deed of purchase— the sealed copy with its terms and conditions, as well as the open copy— ¹²and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of my cousin Hanamel and the witnesses who were signing the purchase agreement and all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.

¹³In their sight I instructed Baruch, ¹⁴“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Take these deeds— both the sealed copy and the open copy of the deed of purchase— and put them in a clay jar to preserve them for a long time. ¹⁵For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”

Jeremiah Prays for Understanding

¹⁶After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD: ¹⁷“Oh, Lord GOD! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!

¹⁸You show loving devotion to thousands but lay the iniquity of the fathers into the laps of their children after them, O great and mighty God whose name is the LORD of Hosts, ¹⁹the One great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are on all the ways of the sons of men, to reward each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.

²⁰You performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and You do so to this very day, both in Israel and among all mankind. And You have made a name for Yourself, as is the case to this day.

²¹You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror. ²²You gave them this land that You had sworn to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

²³They came in and possessed it, but they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your law. They failed to perform all that You commanded them to do, and so You have brought upon them all this disaster. ²⁴See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What You have spoken has happened, as You now see!

²⁵Yet You, O Lord GOD, have said to me, ‘Buy for yourself the field with silver and call in witnesses, even though the city has been delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans!’”

The LORD Answers Jeremiah

²⁶Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: ²⁷“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for Me?

²⁸Therefore this is what the LORD says: Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will capture it. ²⁹And the Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come in, set it on fire, and burn it, along with the houses of those who provoked Me to anger by burning incense to Baal on their rooftops and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods.

³⁰For the children of Israel and of Judah have done nothing but evil in My sight from their youth; indeed, they have done nothing but provoke Me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the LORD.

³¹For this city has aroused My wrath and fury from the day it was built until now. Therefore I will remove it from My presence ³²because of all the evil the children of Israel and of Judah have done to provoke Me to anger— they, their kings, their officials, their priests and prophets, the men of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem. ³³They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline.

³⁴They have placed their abominations in the house that bears My Name, and so have defiled it. ³⁵They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech— something I never commanded them, nor had it ever entered My mind, that they should commit such an abomination and cause Judah to sin.

A Promise of Restoration

³⁶Now therefore, about this city of which you say, ‘It will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword and famine and plague,’ this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ³⁷I will surely gather My people from all the lands to which I have banished them in My furious anger and great wrath, and I will return them to this place and make them dwell in safety. ³⁸They will be My people, and I will be their God. ³⁹I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

⁴⁰I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from Me. ⁴¹Yes , I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.

⁴²For this is what the LORD says: Just as I have brought all this great disaster on this people, so I will bring on them all the good I have promised them. ⁴³And fields will be bought in this land about which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; it has been delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans.’ ⁴⁴Fields will be purchased with silver, and deeds will be signed, sealed, and witnessed in the land of Benjamin, in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah— the cities of the hill country, the foothills, and the Negev— because I will restore them from captivity, declares the LORD.”