One Year Bible.

Tertullus Prosecutes Paul

¹Five days later the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, who presented to the governor their case against Paul.

²When Paul had been called in, Tertullus opened the prosecution: “Because of you, we have enjoyed a lasting peace, and your foresight has brought improvements to this nation. ³In every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with all gratitude. ⁴But in order not to delay you any further, I beg your indulgence to hear us briefly.

⁵We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, ⁶and he even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him. ⁸By examining him yourself, you will be able to learn the truth about all our charges against him.”

⁹The Jews concurred, asserting that these charges were true.

Paul’s Defense to Felix

¹⁰When the governor motioned for Paul to speak, he began his response: “Knowing that you have been a judge over this nation for many years, I gladly make my defense. ¹¹You can verify for yourself that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship. ¹²Yet my accusers did not find me debating with anyone in the temple or riling up a crowd in the synagogues or in the city. ¹³Nor can they prove to you any of their charges against me.

¹⁴I do confess to you, however, that I worship the God of our fathers according to the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, ¹⁵and I have the same hope in God that they themselves cherish, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. ¹⁶In this hope, I strive always to maintain a clear conscience before God and man.

¹⁷After several years, then, I returned to Jerusalem to bring alms to my people and to present offerings. ¹⁸At the time they found me in the temple, I was ceremonially clean and was not inciting a crowd or an uproar. But there are some Jews from the province of Asia ¹⁹who ought to appear before you and bring charges, if they have anything against me. ²⁰Otherwise, let these men state for themselves any crime they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin, ²¹unless it was this one thing I called out as I stood in their presence: ‘It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’”

The Verdict Postponed

²²Then Felix, who was well informed about the Way, adjourned the hearing and said, “When Lysias the commander comes, I will decide your case.” ²³He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard, but to allow him some freedom and permit his friends to minister to his needs.

²⁴After several days, Felix returned with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and listened to him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁵As Paul expounded on righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became frightened and said, “You may go for now. When I find the time, I will call for you.” ²⁶At the same time, he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe. So he sent for Paul frequently and talked with him.

²⁷After two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And wishing to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.

The Excellence of the Restored Nation

¹While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the LORD came to him a second time: ²“Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it, the LORD is His name: ³Call to Me, and I will answer and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

⁴For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Judah that have been torn down for defense against the siege ramps and the sword: ⁵The Chaldeans are coming to fight and to fill those places with the corpses of the men I will strike down in My anger and in My wrath. I have hidden My face from this city because of all its wickedness.

⁶Nevertheless, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal its people and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. ⁷I will restore Judah and Israel from captivity and will rebuild them as in former times. ⁸And I will cleanse them from all the iniquity they have committed against Me, and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against Me.

⁹So this city will bring Me renown, joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I do for it. They will tremble in awe because of all the goodness and prosperity that I will provide for it.

¹⁰This is what the LORD says: In this place you say is a wasteland without man or beast, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted — inhabited by neither man nor beast — there will be heard again ¹¹the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those bringing thank offerings into the house of the LORD, saying:

‘Give thanks to the LORD of Hosts,

for the LORD is good;

His loving devotion endures forever.’

For I will restore the land from captivity as in former times, says the LORD.

¹²This is what the LORD of Hosts says: In this desolate place, without man or beast, and in all its cities, there will once more be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks. ¹³In the cities of the hill country, the foothills, and the Negev, in the land of Benjamin and the cities surrounding Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the LORD.

The Covenant with David

¹⁴Behold, the days are coming,

declares the LORD,

when I will fulfill the gracious promise

that I have spoken

to the house of Israel

and the house of Judah.

¹⁵In those days and at that time

I will cause to sprout for David a righteous Branch,

and He will administer justice

and righteousness in the land.

¹⁶In those days Judah will be saved,

and Jerusalem will dwell securely,

and this is the name by which it will be called:

The LORD Our Righteousness.

¹⁷For this is what the LORD says: David will never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, ¹⁸nor will the priests who are Levites ever fail to have a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to present sacrifices.”

¹⁹And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: ²⁰“This is what the LORD says: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night cease to occupy their appointed time, ²¹then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant and with My ministers the Levites who are priests, so that David will not have a son to reign on his throne. ²²As the hosts of heaven cannot be counted and as the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so too will I multiply the descendants of My servant David and the Levites who minister before Me.”

²³Moreover, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: ²⁴“Have you not noticed what these people are saying: ‘The LORD has rejected the two families He had chosen’? So they despise My people and no longer regard them as a nation. ²⁵This is what the LORD says: If I have not established My covenant with the day and the night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, ²⁶then I would also reject the descendants of Jacob and of My servant David, so as not to take from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore them from captivity and will have compassion on them.”

A Prophecy against Zedekiah

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, all his army, all the earthly kingdoms under his control, and all the other nations were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding cities. ²The LORD, the God of Israel, told Jeremiah to go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him that this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. ³And you yourself will not escape his grasp, but will surely be captured and delivered into his hand. You will see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face; and you will go to Babylon.

⁴Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; ⁵you will die in peace. As spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who preceded you, so people will burn spices for you and lament, ‘Alas, O master!’ For I Myself have spoken this word, declares the LORD.”

⁶In Jerusalem, then, Jeremiah the prophet relayed all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah ⁷as the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah— against Lachish and Azekah. For these were the only fortified cities remaining in Judah.

Freedom for Hebrew Slaves

⁸After King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty, the word came to Jeremiah from the LORD ⁹that each man should free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female, and no one should hold his fellow Jew in bondage. ¹⁰So all the officials and all the people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their menservants and maidservants and no longer hold them in bondage. They obeyed and released them, ¹¹but later they changed their minds and took back the menservants and maidservants they had freed, and they forced them to become slaves again.

¹²Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, ¹³“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying: ¹⁴Every seventh year, each of you must free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself to you. He may serve you six years, but then you must let him go free. But your fathers did not listen or incline their ear.

¹⁵Recently you repented and did what pleased Me; each of you proclaimed freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before Me in the house that bears My Name. ¹⁶But now you have changed your minds and profaned My name. Each of you has taken back the menservants and maidservants whom you had set at liberty to go wherever they wanted, and you have again forced them to be your slaves.

¹⁷Therefore this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed Me; you have not proclaimed freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. So now I proclaim freedom for you, declares the LORD — freedom to fall by sword, by plague, and by famine! I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

¹⁸And those who have transgressed My covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before Me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces. ¹⁹The officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf, ²⁰I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. ²¹And I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Babylon that had withdrawn from you.

²²Behold, I am going to give the command, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”