And it shall come to pass, sayeth the LORD, that in all the land two parts shall be rooted out, but the third part shall remain therein.

And I will bring that surviving third through, testing them as if through fire, purifying them like silver, assaying them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, "This is my people,' and they will say, "The LORD is my God.'"

Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, that thou shalt be spoiled and robbed.

For I will gather together all the Heathen, to fight against Jerusalem: so that the city shall be won, the houses spoiled, and the women defiled. The half of the city shall go away into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be carried out of the city.

fter that shall the LORD go forth, to fight against those Heathen, as men used to fight in the day of battle.

On that day his feet will stand on {the Mount of Olives}, which faces Jerusalem on [the] east; and {the Mount of Olives} will be split {in half}, from east to west, [by] a very great valley; and half of the mountain will withdraw toward the north, and the other half toward the south.

{And then} on that day there will not be light, the precious things will congeal.

This shall be that special day which is known unto the LORD: neither day nor night, but about the evening time it shall be light.

{And then} on that day, living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea, and the other half to the western sea; it will happen [both] in the summer and in the winter.

And Yahweh will be king over all the earth; on that day Yahweh will be one and his name one.

All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon, [the Rimmon that is] south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain [lifted up] on its site from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses.

And this will be the plague [with] which Yahweh will strike all the peoples that fight against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they [are] standing on their feet; their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

{And then} on that day a great panic from Yahweh will fall on them, and {they will seize one another's hand}, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of {another}.

And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in those camps, as this plague.

And it shall come to pass, that all that are left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of tabernacles.

And it shall be, that whoso goeth not up of the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, upon them shall be no rain.

And if the clan of Egypt will not go up and come in, on them will be that plague Yahweh inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.

This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.

On that day there will be [inscribed] on the bells of the horses, "Holy to Yahweh." And the cooking pots in the house of Yahweh will be [holy] like the sacrificial basins before the altar.

And every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Yahweh of hosts, and all those who sacrifice will come and will take from them, and will cook in them, and there will be no longer a {trader} in the house of Yahweh of hosts on that day.

And though Edom said, "Well, we are destroyed, we will go build up again the places that be wasted": yet sayeth the LORD of Hosts, "What they builded, that brake I down: so that it was called a cursed land and people, whom the LORD hath ever been angry withal."

A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith Jehovah of hosts unto you, priests, that despise my name. But ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?

[You are] presenting defiled food on my altar! But you ask, 'How have we defiled you?' By saying [that] the table of Yahweh is despised!

When you offer a blind [animal] for sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer [the] lame and the one who is ill, is that not wrong? Present it, please, to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? {Will he show you favor}?" says Yahweh of hosts.

So then, {implore the favor of God} so that he will be gracious to us. "{This is what you have done}. {Will he show favor to any of you}?" says Yahweh of hosts.

"Who also among you will shut [the temple] doors [so that] you will not kindle fire in vain [on] my altar? I take no pleasure in you," says Yahweh of hosts, "and {I will not accept} an offering from your hand.

For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of hosts.

But ye profane it, in that ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, his food, is contemptible.

And you say, 'Look! [This is] a weariness,' and you sniff [with disdain] at it," says Yahweh of hosts. "And you bring [the] stolen, the lame, and the one that is sick--[this] you bring as the offering! Should I {accept it} from your hand?" says Yahweh.

Cursed be the dissembler, which hath in his flock one that is male, and when he maketh a vow, offereth a spotted one unto the LORD. For I am a great King, sayeth the LORD of Hosts, and my name is fearful among the Heathen.

"Then you will know that I have sent to you this command, that my covenant with Levi {continues}," says Yahweh of hosts.

My covenant with him was of life and peace, and I gave them to him that he might fear; and he feared me, and trembled before my name.

For the priest's lips should be sure knowledge, that men may seek the law at his mouth, for he is a messenger of the LORD of Hosts.

Dealt treacherously hath Judah, And abomination hath been done in Israel, and in Jerusalem, For polluted hath Judah the holy thing of Jehovah, That He hath loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.

Jehovah will cut off from the tents of Jacob the man that doeth this, him that calleth and him that answereth; and him that offereth an oblation unto Jehovah of hosts.

And further ye do this: ye cover the altar of Jehovah with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, insomuch that he regardeth not the oblation any more, nor receiveth it with satisfaction at your hand.

And yet ye say, 'Wherefore?' Even because that whereas the LORD made a covenant betwixt thee and the wife of thy youth, thou hast despised her: Yet is she thine own companion and married wife.

And did he not make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And why one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

(for I hate putting away, saith Jehovah the God of Israel;) and he covereth with violence his garment, saith Jehovah of hosts: take heed then to your spirit, that ye deal not unfaithfully.

Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words, and ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? In that ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of Jehovah, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

Who shall endure in the day of his coming, or who shall stand to behold him? For he is as trying fire, and as the herb that fullers scour withal.

And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness.

And the sacrifice of Judah and of Jerusalem shall be delicious unto the LORD as in the old time and in the years that were at the beginning.

And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hired servant in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.

For I am the LORD that change not, and ye, O children of Jacob, will not leave off.

From the days of your fathers, have ye departed from my statutes, and not observed them, Return ye unto me, that I may return unto you, saith Yahweh of hosts. And yet ye say, Wherein shall we return?

Bring the whole tithe to {the storehouse}, so that there will be food in my house, and test me please in this," says Yahweh of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour forth for you {an overflowing blessing}.

Yea, I shall reprove the consumer for your sakes, so that he shall not eat up the fruit of your ground, neither shall the vineyard be barren in the field, sayeth the LORD of Hosts.

Insomuch that all people shall say that ye be blessed, for ye shall be a pleasant land, sayeth the LORD of Hosts.

Ye say, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we keep his charge, and that we walk mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?

And now we hold the proud for happy; yea, they that work wickedness are built up; yea, they tempt God, and they escape.

Then they that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another; and Jehovah observed it, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name.

"They will be mine," says Yahweh of hosts, "on the day that I [am] acting, [my] treasured possession. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.

And ye shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

For behold, the day cometh, burning as a furnace; and all the proud and all that work wickedness shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, so that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

And unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and leap like fatted calves.

You will trample down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I [am] going to act," says Yahweh of hosts.

Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, That I did command him in Horeb, For all Israel -- statutes and judgments.

See, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the day of the Lord comes, that great day, greatly to be feared.

And he will bring back [the] hearts of [the] fathers to [the] sons, and the hearts of [the] sons to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land [with] a ban."

and Jesse begat David the king. And David begat Solomon, of her that had been the wife of Urias;

Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born that Jesus, that is called Christ.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was thus: His mother, Mary, that is, having been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.

but while he pondered on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, fear not to take to thee Mary, thy wife, for that which is begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit.

And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins.

Now all this happened in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying,

a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel," that is to say, God our Saviour.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold wise men came from the East to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews?

Where is the king of the Jews that has been born? for we have seen his star in the east, and have come to do him homage.

They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, because that is what was written by the prophet:

'And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Jewry, art not the least concerning the Princes of Judah: For out of thee shall come the captain, that shall govern my people Israel.'"

Then Herod, having secretly called the magi, inquired of them accurately the time of the star that was appearing;

And he sent them to Bethlehem [and] said, "Go, inquire carefully concerning the child, and when you have found [him], report to me so that I also may come [and] worship him."

And they, having heard the king, departed, and lo, the star, that they did see in the east, did go before them, till, having come, it stood over where the child was.

And after they were warned of God in a dream that they should not go again to Herod, they returned into their own country another way.

And he was there until the death of Herod, in order that what was said by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, "Out of Egypt I called my son."

Then Herod, [when he] saw that he had been deceived by the wise men, became very angry, and he sent [soldiers] [and] executed all the children in Bethlehem and in all the region [around] it from [the age of] two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined precisely from the wise men.

Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremias the prophet, saying,

Arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead that sought the young child's life.

But [when he] heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream, he took refuge in the regions of Galilee.

And he came [and] lived in a town called Nazareth, in order that what was said by the prophets would be fulfilled: "He will be called a Nazarene."

At that time appeared John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea,

For this is he who has been spoken of through Esaias the prophet, saying, Voice of him that crieth in the wilderness: prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.

At that time Jerusalem, and all Judea, as well as the whole district of the Jordan, went out to him

And they were given baptism by him in the river Jordan, saying openly that they had done wrong.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to escape from the wrath that is coming?

Produce, then, fruit that is consistent with the repentance you profess,

And do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham [as] father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

Even now is the axe put unto the root of the trees: so that every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who comes after me is more powerful than I [am], whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing-fork is in His hand, and He will clean out His threshing-floor and store His wheat in His barn, but He will burn up the chaff with fire that never can be put out."

Then came Jesus from Galilee unto Jordan to John, that he might be baptized by him.

But Jesus answered him, "Allow it [to be done], for it is proper for us to complete everything that is right [before God]." So, John agreed to it.

and Jesus was baptized, and immediately went up from the water. At that moment the heavens opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him,

And, lo, there came a voice from heaven, saying, "This is that, my beloved son, in whom is my delight."

At that time Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the Desert in order to be tempted by the Devil.

There He fasted for forty days and nights; and after that He suffered from hunger.

And the tempter approached [and] said to him, "If you are the Son of God, order that these stones become bread."

But he answered [and] said, "It is written, 'Man will not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God."

and said unto him, "If thou be the son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, 'He shall give his angels charge over thee: and with their hands they shall hold thee up, that thou dash not thy foot against a stone.'"