On that day there will be great confusion from the Lord among them; they will seize each other and attack one another violently.

Then all who survive from all the nations that came to attack Jerusalem will go up annually to worship the King, the Lord who rules over all, and to observe the Feast of Tabernacles.

"I wish that one of you would close the temple doors, so that you no longer would light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you," says the Lord who rules over all, "and I will no longer accept an offering from you.

For from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations. Incense and pure offerings will be offered in my name everywhere, for my name will be great among the nations," says the Lord who rules over all.

You also say, 'How tiresome it is.' You turn up your nose at it," says the Lord who rules over all, "and instead bring what is stolen, lame, or sick. You bring these things for an offering! Should I accept this from you?" asks the Lord.

He taught what was true; sinful words were not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and integrity, and he turned many people away from sin.

For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge of sacred things, and people should seek instruction from him because he is the messenger of the Lord who rules over all.

You, however, have turned from the way. You have caused many to violate the law; you have corrupted the covenant with Levi," says the Lord who rules over all.

May the Lord cut off from the community of Jacob every last person who does this, as well as the person who presents improper offerings to the Lord who rules over all!

You also do this: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears as you weep and groan, because he no longer pays any attention to the offering nor accepts it favorably from you.

No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. What did our ancestor do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth.

From the days of your ancestors you have ignored my commandments and have not kept them! Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord who rules over all. "But you say, 'How should we return?'

Then I will stop the plague from ruining your crops, and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest," says the Lord who rules over all.

But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication will rise with healing wings, and you will skip about like calves released from the stall.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, fourteen generations.

When he had contemplated this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

When Joseph awoke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord told him. He took his wife,

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, in the time of King Herod, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem

Then Herod privately summoned the wise men and determined from them when the star had appeared.

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men to kill all the children in Bethlehem and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men.

Now John wore clothing made from camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his diet consisted of locusts and wild honey.

Then people from Jerusalem, as well as all Judea and all the region around the Jordan, were going out to him,

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

and don't think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John to be baptized by him in the Jordan River.

And a voice from heaven said, "This is my one dear Son; in him I take great delight."

But he answered, "It is written, 'Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

While in Galilee, he moved from Nazareth to make his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,

From that time Jesus began to preach this message: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. Then he called them.

And large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan River.

I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place.

Let your word be 'Yes, yes' or 'No, no.' More than this is from the evil one.

Give to the one who asks you, and do not reject the one who wants to borrow from you.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye,' while there is a beam in your own?

You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they?

Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!'

After he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him.

I tell you, many will come from the east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,

When he came to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were extremely violent, so that no one was able to pass by that way.

A large herd of pigs was feeding some distance from them.

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. "Follow me," he said to him. And he got up and followed him.

Jesus said to them, "The wedding guests cannot mourn while the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and then they will fast.

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, because the patch will pull away from the garment and the tear will be worse.

But a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.

But when Jesus turned and saw her he said, "Have courage, daughter! Your faith has made you well." And the woman was healed from that hour.

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, shouting, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!"

What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.

Aren't two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will.

When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their towns.

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and forceful people lay hold of it.

At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to little children.

Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Now when Jesus learned of this, he went away from there. Great crowds followed him, and he healed them all.

Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.

Then some of the experts in the law along with some Pharisees answered him, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you."

The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon -- and now, something greater than Solomon is here!

For whoever has will be given more, and will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.

So the slaves of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?'

This fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has been hidden from the foundation of the world."

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers.

It will be this way at the end of the age. Angels will come and separate the evil from the righteous

Now when Jesus finished these parables, he moved on from there.

and he said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead! And because of this, miraculous powers are at work in him."

Now when Jesus heard this he went away from there privately in a boat to an isolated place. But when the crowd heard about it, they followed him on foot from the towns.

Meanwhile the boat, already far from land, was taking a beating from the waves because the wind was against it.

Then Pharisees and experts in the law came from Jerusalem to Jesus and said,

But you say, 'If someone tells his father or mother, "Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God,"

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me,

But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person.

After going out from there, Jesus went to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

A Canaanite woman from that area came and cried out, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is horribly demon-possessed!"

"Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."

Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, your faith is great! Let what you want be done for you." And her daughter was healed from that hour.

Now when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

From that time on Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my one dear Son, in whom I take great delight. Listen to him!"

As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Do not tell anyone about the vision until the Son of Man is raised from the dead."

Then Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him, and the boy was healed from that moment.

He told them, "It was because of your little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you."

He said, "Yes." When Peter came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do earthly kings collect tolls or taxes -- from their sons or from foreigners?"

After he said, "From foreigners," Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free.

So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive your brother from your heart."

He answered, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female,

Jesus said to them, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hard hearts, but from the beginning it was not this way.

For there are some eunuchs who were that way from birth, and some who were made eunuchs by others, and some who became eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who is able to accept this should accept it."

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

And the crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee."

After noticing a fig tree by the road he went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, "Never again will there be fruit from you!" And the fig tree withered at once.

Where did John's baptism come from? From heaven or from people?" They discussed this among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Then why did you not believe him?'

But if we say, 'From people,' we fear the crowd, for they all consider John to be a prophet."

Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?

For this reason I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

No one was able to answer him a word, and from that day on no one dared to question him any longer.

"For this reason I am sending you prophets and wise men and experts in the law, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town,

so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

For I tell you, you will not see me from now until you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!'"