Therefore I handed her over to her lovers, the Assyrians for whom she lusted.

They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. She became notorious among women, and they executed judgments against her.

"Her sister Oholibah watched this, but she became more corrupt in her lust than her sister had been, and her acts of prostitution were more numerous than those of her sister.

She lusted after the Assyrians -- governors and officials, warriors in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

I saw that she was defiled; both of them followed the same path.

But she increased her prostitution. She saw men carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans carved in bright red,

When she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

The Babylonians crawled into bed with her. They defiled her with their lust; after she was defiled by them, she became disgusted with them.

When she lustfully exposed her nakedness, I was disgusted with her, just as I had been disgusted with her sister.

Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution in the land of Egypt.

She lusted after their genitals -- as large as those of donkeys, and their seminal emission was as strong as that of stallions.

For her blood was in it; she poured it on an exposed rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it up with dust.

"Son of man, realize that I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you with a jolt, but you must not mourn or weep or shed tears.

"Son of man, because Tyre has said about Jerusalem, 'Aha, the gateway of the peoples is broken; it has swung open to me. I will become rich, now that she has been destroyed,'

She will be a place where fishing nets are spread, surrounded by the sea. For I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord. She will become plunder for the nations,

They will sing this lament over you: "'How you have perished -- you have vanished from the seas, O renowned city, once mighty in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who spread their terror!

Therefore say to them, 'This is what the sovereign Lord says: You eat the meat with the blood still in it, pray to your idols, and shed blood. Do you really think you will possess the land?

So I poured my anger on them because of the blood they shed on the land and because of the idols with which they defiled it.

Due to the noise caused by the king and his nobles, the queen mother then entered the banquet room. She said, "O king, live forever! Don't be alarmed! Don't be shaken!

After some years have passed, they will form an alliance. Then the daughter of the king of the south will come to the king of the north to make an agreement, but she will not retain her power, nor will he continue in his strength. She, together with the one who brought her, her child, and her benefactor will all be delivered over at that time.

So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. Then she conceived and gave birth to a son for him.

She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, "Name her 'No Pity' (Lo-Ruhamah) because I will no longer have pity on the nation of Israel. For I will certainly not forgive their guilt.

When she had weaned 'No Pity' (Lo-Ruhamah) she conceived again and gave birth to another son.

Plead earnestly with your mother (for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband), so that she might put an end to her adulterous lifestyle, and turn away from her sexually immoral behavior.

Otherwise, I will strip her naked, and expose her like she was when she was born. I will turn her land into a wilderness and make her country a parched land, so that I might kill her with thirst.

For their mother has committed adultery; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, "I will seek out my lovers; they are the ones who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine.

Therefore, I will soon fence her in with thorns; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

Then she will pursue her lovers, but she will not catch them; she will seek them, but she will not find them. Then she will say, "I will go back to my husband, because I was better off then than I am now."

Yet until now she has refused to acknowledge that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and that it was I who lavished on her the silver and gold -- which they used in worshiping Baal!

I will destroy her vines and fig trees, about which she said, "These are my wages for prostitution that my lovers gave to me!" I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees into an uncultivated thicket, so that wild animals will devour them.

"I will punish her for the festival days when she burned incense to the Baal idols; she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but she forgot me!" says the Lord.

From there I will give back her vineyards to her, and turn the "Valley of Trouble" into an "Opportunity for Hope." There she will sing as she did when she was young, when she came up from the land of Egypt.

The Lord said to me, "Go, show love to your wife again, even though she loves another man and continually commits adultery. Likewise, the Lord loves the Israelites although they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols."

But Ephraim bitterly provoked him to anger; so he will hold him accountable for the blood he has shed, his Lord will repay him for the contempt he has shown.

Samaria will be held guilty, because she rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword, their infants will be dashed to the ground -- their pregnant women will be ripped open.

Egypt will be desolate and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood.

"The virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again. She is abandoned on her own land with no one to help her get up."

All her carved idols will be smashed to pieces; all her metal cult statues will be destroyed by fire. I will make a waste heap of all her images. Since she gathered the metal as a prostitute collects her wages, the idols will become a prostitute's wages again."

Don't spread the news in Gath! Don't shed even a single tear! In Beth Leaphrah sit in the dust!

Faithful men have disappeared from the land; there are no godly men left. They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; they hunt their own brother with a net.

Nineveh was like a pool of water throughout her days, but now her people are running away; she cries out: "Stop! Stop!" -- but no one turns back.

Woe to the city guilty of bloodshed! She is full of lies; she is filled with plunder; she has hoarded her spoil!

You are no more secure than Thebes -- she was located on the banks of the Nile; the waters surrounded her, her rampart was the sea, the water was her wall.

Yet she went into captivity as an exile; even her infants were smashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her nobility; all her dignitaries were bound with chains.

Because you robbed many countries, all who are left among the nations will rob you. You have shed human blood and committed violent acts against lands, cities, and those who live in them.

For you will pay in full for your violent acts against Lebanon; terrifying judgment will come upon you because of the way you destroyed the wild animals living there. You have shed human blood and committed violent acts against lands, cities, and those who live in them.

This is how the once-proud city will end up -- the city that was so secure. She thought to herself, "I am unique! No one can compare to me!" What a heap of ruins she has become, a place where wild animals live! Everyone who passes by her taunts her and shakes his fist.

She is disobedient; she refuses correction. She does not trust the Lord; she does not seek the advice of her God.

I thought, 'Certainly you will respect me! Now you will accept correction!' If she had done so, her home would not be destroyed by all the punishments I have threatened. But they eagerly sinned in everything they did.

He replied, "To build a temple for her in the land of Babylonia. When it is finished, she will be placed there in her own residence."

Nevertheless the Lord will evict her and shove her fortifications into the sea -- she will be consumed by fire.

Yet you ask, "Why?" The Lord is testifying against you on behalf of the wife you married when you were young, to whom you have become unfaithful even though she is your companion and wife by law.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through 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."

but did not have marital relations with her until she gave birth to a son, whom he named Jesus.

"A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud wailing, Rachel weeping for her children, and she did not want to be comforted, because they were gone."

He touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then she got up and began to serve them.

As he was saying these things, a ruler came, bowed low before him, and said, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live."

For she kept saying to herself, "If only I touch his cloak, I will be healed."

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!

so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.

Instructed by her mother, she said, "Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter."

His head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.

But he did not answer her a word. Then his disciples came and begged him, "Send her away, because she keeps on crying out after us."

But she came and bowed down before him and said, "Lord, help me!"

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

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling down she asked him for a favor.

He said to her, "What do you want?" She replied, "Permit these two sons of mine to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom."

In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her."

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.

a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of expensive perfumed oil, and she poured it on his head as he was at the table.

When Jesus learned of this, he said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a good service for me.

When she poured this oil on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.

I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her."

He came and raised her up by gently taking her hand. Then the fever left her and she began to serve them.

He asked him urgently, "My little daughter is near death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be healed and live."

She had endured a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse.

When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,

for she kept saying, "If only I touch his clothes, I will be healed."

At once the bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

The girl got up at once and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). They were completely astonished at this.

So Herodias nursed a grudge against him and wanted to kill him. But she could not

When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you."

So she went out and said to her mother, "What should I ask for?" Her mother said, "The head of John the baptizer."

Immediately she hurried back to the king and made her request: "I want the head of John the Baptist on a platter immediately."

The woman was a Greek, of Syrophoenician origin. She asked him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

She answered, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

She went home and found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For all seven had married her."

For they all gave out of their wealth. But she, out of her poverty, put in what she had to live on, everything she had."

Now while Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of costly aromatic oil from pure nard. After breaking open the jar, she poured it on his head.

But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a good service for me.

She did what she could. She anointed my body beforehand for burial.

I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her."

When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked directly at him and said, "You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus."

When the slave girl saw him, she began again to say to the bystanders, "This man is one of them."

She went out and told those who were with him, while they were mourning and weeping.

After some time his wife Elizabeth became pregnant, and for five months she kept herself in seclusion. She said,

But she was greatly troubled by his words and began to wonder about the meaning of this greeting.