| 24:1 | During Jehoiakim's reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years. But then he changed his mind and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar.
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| 24:2 | The LORD sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders against him. He sent them to destroy Judah, in accordance with the word of the LORD proclaimed by his servants the prophets.
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| 24:3 | Surely these things happened to Judah according to the LORD's command, in order to remove them from his presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done,
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| 24:4 | including the shedding of innocent blood. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was not willing to forgive.
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| 24:5 | As for the other events of Jehoiakim's reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?
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| 24:6 | Jehoiakim rested with his fathers. And Jehoiachin his son succeeded him as king.
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| 24:7 | The king of Egypt did not march out from his own country again, because the king of Babylon had taken all his territory, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Euphrates River.
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| 24:8 | Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother's name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem.
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| 24:9 | He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father had done.
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| 24:10 | At that time the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem and laid siege to it,
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| 24:11 | and Nebuchadnezzar himself came up to the city while his officers were besieging it.
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| 24:12 | Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his attendants, his nobles and his officials all surrendered to him. In the eighth year of the reign of the king of Babylon, he took Jehoiachin prisoner.
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| 24:13 | As the LORD had declared, Nebuchadnezzar removed all the treasures from the temple of the LORD and from the royal palace, and took away all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made for the temple of the LORD.
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| 24:14 | He carried into exile all Jerusalem |
| 24:15 | Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. He also took from Jerusalem to Babylon the king's mother, his wives, his officials and the leading men of the land.
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| 24:16 | The king of Babylon also deported to Babylon the entire force of seven thousand fighting men, strong and fit for war, and a thousand craftsmen and artisans.
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| 24:17 | He made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.
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| 24:18 | Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.
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| 24:19 | He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.
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| 24:20 | It was because of the LORD's anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence. Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
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| 25:1 | So in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it.
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| 25:2 | The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
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| 25:3 | By the ninth day of the [fourth] month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat.
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| 25:4 | Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king's garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah,
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| 25:5 | but the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered,
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| 25:6 | and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him.
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| 25:7 | They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.
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| 25:8 | On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
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| 25:9 | He set fire to the temple of the LORD, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down.
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| 25:10 | The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.
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| 25:11 | Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had gone over to the king of Babylon.
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| 25:12 | But the commander left behind some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.
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| 25:13 | The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the LORD and they carried the bronze to Babylon.
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| 25:14 | They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service.
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| 25:15 | The commander of the imperial guard took away the censers and sprinkling bowls-- all that were made of pure gold or silver.
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| 25:16 | The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the movable stands, which Solomon had made for the temple of the LORD, was more than could be weighed.
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| 25:17 | Each pillar was twenty-seven feet high. The bronze capital on top of one pillar was four and a half feet high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its network, was similar.
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| 25:18 | The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers.
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| 25:19 | Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men and five royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land and sixty of his men who were found in the city.
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| 25:20 | Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
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| 25:21 | There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed. So Judah went into captivity, away from her land.
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| 25:22 | Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to be over the people he had left behind in Judah.
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| 25:23 | When all the army officers and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah-- Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, and their men.
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| 25:24 | Gedaliah took an oath to reassure them and their men. "Do not be afraid of the Babylonian officials," he said. "Settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you."
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| 25:25 | In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal blood, came with ten men and assassinated Gedaliah and also the men of Judah and the Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.
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| 25:26 | At this, all the people from the least to the greatest, together with the army officers, fled to Egypt for fear of the Babylonians.
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| 25:27 | In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin from prison on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month.
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| 25:28 | He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.
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| 25:29 | So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king's table.
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| 25:30 | Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived.
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| 5:1 | Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews.
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| 5:2 | Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades.
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| 5:3 | Here a great number of disabled people used to lie-- the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.
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| 5:5 | One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
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| 5:6 | When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
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| 5:7 | "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
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| 5:8 | Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk."
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| 5:9 | At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
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| 5:10 | and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."
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| 5:11 | But he replied, "The man who made me well said to me, "Pick up your mat and walk.""
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| 5:12 | So they asked him, "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?"
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| 5:13 | The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
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| 5:14 | Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you."
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| 5:15 | The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
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| 5:16 | So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.
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| 5:17 | Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."
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| 5:18 | For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
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| 5:19 | Jesus gave them this answer |
| 5:20 | For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.
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| 5:21 | For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
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| 5:22 | Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son,
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| 5:23 | that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
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| 5:24 | "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
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| 5:25 | I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.
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| 5:26 | For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.
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| 5:27 | And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
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| 5:28 | "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice
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| 5:29 | and come out-- those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.
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| 5:30 | By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
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| 5:31 | "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid.
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| 5:32 | There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid.
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| 5:33 | "You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth.
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| 5:34 | Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved.
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| 5:35 | John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.
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| 5:36 | "I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me.
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| 5:37 | And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form,
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| 5:38 | nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.
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| 5:39 | You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me,
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| 5:40 | yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
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| 5:41 | "I do not accept praise from men,
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| 5:42 | but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.
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| 5:43 | I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.
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| 5:44 | How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?
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| 5:45 | "But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set.
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| 5:46 | If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.
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| 5:47 | But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"
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