One Year Bible.

The Tower of Babel

¹Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech. ²And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

³And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar.

⁴“Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”

⁵Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. ⁶And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them. ⁷Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

⁸So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹That is why it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.

Genealogy from Shem to Abram

¹⁰This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. ¹¹And after he had become the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹²When Arphaxad was 35 years old, he became the father of Shelah. ¹³And after he had become the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁴When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber. ¹⁵And after he had become the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁶When Eber was 34 years old, he became the father of Peleg. ¹⁷And after he had become the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹⁸When Peleg was 30 years old, he became the father of Reu. ¹⁹And after he had become the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁰When Reu was 32 years old, he became the father of Serug. ²¹And after he had become the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

²²When Serug was 30 years old, he became the father of Nahor. ²³And after he had become the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁴When Nahor was 29 years old, he became the father of Terah. ²⁵And after he had become the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

²⁶When Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Terah’s Descendants

²⁷This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. ²⁸During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

²⁹And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, who was the father of both Milcah and Iscah. ³⁰But Sarai was barren; she had no children.

³¹And Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai the wife of Abram, and they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans for the land of Canaan. But when they arrived in Haran, they settled there. ³²Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.

The Temptation of Jesus

¹Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, ²where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He was hungry.

³The devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

⁴But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

⁵Then the devil led Him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. ⁶“I will give You authority over all these kingdoms and all their glory,” he said. “For it has been relinquished to me, and I can give it to anyone I wish. ⁷So if You worship me, it will all be Yours.”

⁸But Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

⁹Then the devil led Him to Jerusalem and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple. “If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down from here. ¹⁰For it is written:

‘He will command His angels concerning You

to guard You carefully,

¹¹and they will lift You up in their hands,

so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

¹²But Jesus answered, “It also says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

¹³When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

Jesus Begins His Ministry

¹⁴Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and the news about Him spread throughout the surrounding region. ¹⁵He taught in their synagogues and was glorified by everyone.

The Rejection at Nazareth

¹⁶Then Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. And when He stood up to read, ¹⁷the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it was written:

¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me,

because He has anointed Me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to release the oppressed,

¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰Then He rolled up the scroll, returned it to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him, ²¹and He began by saying, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

²²All spoke well of Him and marveled at the gracious words that came from His lips. “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” they asked.

²³Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in Your hometown what we have heard that You did in Capernaum.’”

²⁴Then He added, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵But I tell you truthfully that there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and great famine swept over all the land. ²⁶Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to the widow of Zarephath in Sidon. ²⁷And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. Yet not one of them was cleansed— only Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸On hearing this, all the people in the synagogue were enraged. ²⁹They got up, drove Him out of the town, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him over the cliff. ³⁰But Jesus passed through the crowd and went on His way.

Jesus Expels an Unclean Spirit

³¹Then He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath He began to teach the people. ³²They were astonished at His teaching, because His message had authority.

³³In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon. He cried out in a loud voice, ³⁴“Ha! What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are — the Holy One of God!”

³⁵But Jesus rebuked the demon. “Be silent!” He said. “Come out of him!” At this, the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without harming him.

³⁶All the people were overcome with amazement and asked one another, “What is this message? With authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” ³⁷And the news about Jesus spread throughout the surrounding region.

Jesus Heals at Peter’s House

³⁸After Jesus had left the synagogue, He went to the home of Simon, whose mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever. So they appealed to Jesus on her behalf, ³⁹and He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And she got up at once and began to serve them.

⁴⁰At sunset, all who were ill with various diseases were brought to Jesus, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them. ⁴¹Demons also came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But He rebuked the demons and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Christ.

Jesus Preaches in Judea

⁴²At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place, and the crowds were looking for Him. They came to Him and tried to keep Him from leaving. ⁴³But Jesus told them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, because that is why I was sent.”

⁴⁴And He continued to preach in the synagogues of Judea.

God’s Anger against Israel

¹When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;

he was exalted in Israel.

But he incurred guilt through Baal,

and he died.

²Now they sin more and more

and make for themselves cast images,

idols skillfully made from their silver,

all of them the work of craftsmen.

People say of them,

“They offer human sacrifice

and kiss the calves!”

³Therefore they will be like the morning mist,

like the early dew that vanishes,

like chaff blown from a threshing floor,

like smoke through an open window.

⁴Yet I am the LORD your God

ever since the land of Egypt;

you know no God but Me,

for there is no Savior besides Me.

⁵I knew you in the wilderness,

in the land of drought.

⁶When they had pasture,

they became satisfied;

when they were satisfied,

their hearts became proud,

and as a result they forgot Me.

⁷So like a lion I will pounce on them;

like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

⁸Like a bear robbed of her cubs I will attack them,

and I will tear open their chests.

There I will devour them like a lion,

like a wild beast tearing them apart.

Death and Resurrection

⁹You are destroyed, O Israel,

because you are against Me —

against your helper.

¹⁰Where is your king now

to save you in all your cities,

and the rulers to whom you said,

“Give me a king and princes”?

¹¹So in My anger I gave you a king,

and in My wrath I took him away.

¹²The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;

his sin is stored up.

¹³Labor pains come upon him,

but he is an unwise son.

When the time arrives,

he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb.

¹⁴I will ransom them from the power of Sheol;

I will redeem them from Death.

Where, O Death, are your plagues?

Where, O Sheol, is your sting?

Compassion is hidden from My eyes.

Judgment on Samaria

¹⁵Although he flourishes among his brothers,

an east wind will come —

a wind from the LORD

rising up from the desert.

His fountain will fail,

and his spring will run dry.

The wind will plunder his treasury

of every precious article.

¹⁶Samaria will bear her guilt

because she has rebelled against her God.

They will fall by the sword;

their little ones will be dashed to pieces,

and their pregnant women ripped open.

A Call to Repentance

¹Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God,

for you have stumbled by your iniquity.

²Bring your confessions

and return to the LORD.

Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity

and receive us graciously,

that we may present

the fruit of our lips.

³Assyria will not save us,

nor will we ride on horses.

We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’

to the work of our own hands.

For in You the fatherless find compassion.”

A Promise of God’s Blessing

⁴I will heal their apostasy;

I will freely love them,

for My anger has turned away from them.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel;

he will blossom like the lily

and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

⁶His shoots will sprout,

and his splendor will be like the olive tree,

his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.

⁷They will return and dwell in his shade;

they will grow grain and blossom like the vine.

His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁸O Ephraim, what have I to do

anymore with idols?

It is I who answer and watch over him.

I am like a flourishing cypress;

your fruit comes from Me.

⁹Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;

whoever is discerning, let him know them.

For the ways of the LORD are right,

and the righteous walk in them

but the rebellious stumble in them.