Month: December 2019

Zechariah 12

The Future Deliverance of Jerusalem

1 This is a message about Israel from theLord, theLordwho spread out the skies, created the earth, and gave life to man. He says,

2 “I will make Jerusalem like a cup of wine; the nations around her will drink and stagger like drunks. And when they besiege Jerusalem, the cities of the rest of Judah will also be besieged.

3 But when that time comes, I will make Jerusalem like a heavy stone—any nation that tries to lift it will be hurt. All the nations of the world will join forces to attack her.

4 At that time I will terrify all their horses and make all their riders go crazy. I will watch over the people of Judah, but I will make the horses of their enemies blind.

5 Then the clans of Judah will say to themselves, ‘TheLordGod Almighty gives strength to his people who live in Jerusalem.’

6 “At that time I will make the clans of Judah like a fire in a forest or in a field of ripe grain—they will destroy all the surrounding nations. The people of Jerusalem will remain safe in the city.

7 “I, theLord, will give victory to the armies of Judah first, so that the honor which the descendants of David and the people of Jerusalem will receive will be no greater than that of the rest of Judah.

8 At that time theLordwill protect those who live in Jerusalem, and even the weakest among them will become as strong as David was. The descendants of David will lead them like the angel of theLord, like God himself.

9 At that time I will destroy every nation that tries to attack Jerusalem.

10 “I will fill the descendants of David and the other people of Jerusalem with the spirit of mercy and the spirit of prayer. They will look at the one whom they stabbed to death, and they will mourn for him like those who mourn for an only child. They will mourn bitterly, like those who have lost their first-born son.

11 At that time the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad Rimmonin the plain of Megiddo.

12-14 Each family in the land will mourn by itself: the family descended from David, the family descended from Nathan, the family descended from Levi, the family descended from Shimei, and all the other families. Each family will mourn by itself, and the men of each family will mourn separately from the women.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ZEC/12-9308f4c1a12721220ec3aa4d7415e94a.mp3?version_id=68—

Zechariah

Zechariah 13

1 “When that time comes,” says theLordAlmighty, “a fountain will be opened to purify the descendants of David and the people of Jerusalem from their sin and idolatry.

2 At that time I will remove the names of the idols from the land, and no one will remember them any more. I will get rid of anyone who claims to be a prophet and will take away the desire to worship idols.

3 Then if anyone still insists on prophesying, his own father and mother will tell him that he must be put to death, because he claimed to speak theLord’s word, but spoke lies instead. When he prophesies, his own father and mother will stab him to death.

4 When that time comes, no prophet will be proud of his visions or act like a prophet or wear a prophet’s coarse garment in order to deceive people.

5 Instead, he will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer—I have farmed the land all my life.’

6 Then if someone asks him, ‘What are those wounds on your chest?’ he will answer, ‘I got them at a friend’s house.’”

The Command to Kill God’s Shepherd

7 TheLordAlmighty says, “Wake up, sword, and attack the shepherdwho works for me! Kill him, and the sheep will be scattered. I will attack my people

8 and throughout the land two-thirds of the people will die.

9 And I will test the third that survives and will purify them as silver is purified by fire. I will test them as gold is tested. Then they will pray to me, and I will answer them. I will tell them that they are my people, and they will confess that I am their God.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ZEC/13-75f6adfb5b28954df9ddb967af2e03e0.mp3?version_id=68—

Zechariah

Zechariah 14

Jerusalem and the Nations

1 The day when theLordwill sit in judgment is near. Then Jerusalem will be looted, and the loot will be divided up before your eyes.

2 TheLordwill bring all the nations together to make war on Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half of the people will go into exile, but the rest of them will not be taken away from the city.

3 Then theLordwill go out and fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past.

4 At that time he will stand on the Mount of Olives, to the east of Jerusalem. Then the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west by a large valley. Half of the mountain will move northward, and half of it southward.

5 You will escape through this valley that divides the mountain in two.You will flee as your ancestors did when the earthquake struck in the time of King Uzziah of Judah. TheLordmy God will come, bringing all the angels with him.

6 When that time comes, there will no longer be cold or frost,

7 nor any darkness. There will always be daylight, even at nighttime. When this will happen is known only to theLord.

8 When that day comes, fresh water will flow from Jerusalem, half of it to the Dead Sea and the other half to the Mediterranean. It will flow all year long, in the dry season as well as the wet.

9 Then theLordwill be king over all the earth; everyone will worship him as God and know him by the same name.

10 The whole region, from Geba in the north to Rimmon in the south, will be made level. Jerusalem will tower above the land around it; the city will reach from the Benjamin Gate to the Corner Gate, where there had been an earlier gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal wine presses.

11 The people will live there in safety, no longer threatened by destruction.

12 TheLordwill bring a terrible disease on all the nations that make war on Jerusalem. Their flesh will rot away while they are still alive; their eyes and their tongues will rot away.

13 At that time theLordwill make them so confused and afraid that everyone will seize the man next to him and attack him.

14 The men of Judah will fight to defend Jerusalem. They will take as loot the wealth of all the nations—gold, silver, and clothing in great abundance.

15 A terrible disease will also fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, and the donkeys—on all the animals in the camps of the enemy.

16 Then all of the survivors from the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go there each year to worship theLordAlmighty as king and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters.

17 If any nation refuses to go and worship theLordAlmighty as king, then rain will not fall on their land.

18 If the Egyptians refuse to celebrate the Festival of Shelters, then they will be struck by the same disease that theLordwill send on every nation that refuses to go.

19 This will be the punishment that will fall on Egypt and on all the other nations if they do not celebrate the Festival of Shelters.

20 At that time even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with the words “Dedicated to theLord.” The cooking pots in the Temple will be as sacred as the bowls before the altar.

21 Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in all Judah will be set apart for use in the worship of theLordAlmighty. The people who offer sacrifices will use them for boiling the meat of the sacrifices. When that time comes, there will no longer be any merchant in the Temple of theLordAlmighty.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/ZEC/14-270c7228cb28b19c40d3406dc85c75d2.mp3?version_id=68—

Malachi

Malachi Introduction

Introduction

The Book of Malachi

comes from some time in the fifth century

b.c.

after the Temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt. The prophet’s main concern is to call priests and people to renew their faithfulness to their covenant with God. It is clear that there is laxity and corruption in the life and worship of God’s people. Priests and people are cheating God by not giving him the offerings that are rightly due him, and by not living according to his teaching. But the Lord will come to judge and purify his people, sending ahead of him his messenger to prepare the way and to proclaim his covenant.

Outline of Contents

Israel’s sins (1.1—2.16)

God’s judgment and his mercy (2.17—4.6)

Malachi

Malachi 1

1 This is the message that theLordgave Malachi to tell the people of Israel.

The Lord’s Love for Israel

2 TheLordsays to his people, “I have always loved you.”

But they reply, “How have you shown your love for us?”

TheLordanswers, “Esau and Jacob were brothers, but I have loved Jacob and his descendants,

3 and have hated Esau and his descendants. I have devastated Esau’s hill country and abandoned the land to jackals.”

4 If Esau’s descendants, the Edomites, say, “Our towns have been destroyed, but we will rebuild them,” then theLordwill reply, “Let them rebuild—I will tear them down again. People will call them ‘The evil country’ and ‘The nation with whom theLordis angry forever.’”

5 The people of Israel are going to see this with their own eyes, and they will say, “TheLordis mighty even outside the land of Israel!”

The Lord Reprimands the Priests

6 TheLordAlmighty says to the priests, “Children honor their parents, and servants honor their masters. I am your father—why don’t you honor me? I am your master—why don’t you respect me? You despise me, and yet you ask, ‘How have we despised you?’

7 This is how—by offering worthless food on my altar. Then you ask, ‘How have we failed to respect you?’ I will tell you—by showing contempt for my altar.

8 When you bring a blind or sick or lame animal to sacrifice to me, do you think there’s nothing wrong with that? Try giving an animal like that to the governor! Would he be pleased with you or grant you any favors?”

9 Now, you priests, try asking God to be good to us. He will not answer your prayer, and it will be your fault.

10 TheLordAlmighty says, “I wish one of you would close the Temple doors so as to prevent you from lighting useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you; I will not accept the offerings you bring me.

11 People from one end of the world to the other honor me. Everywhere they burn incense to me and offer acceptable sacrifices. All of them honor me!

12 But you dishonor me when you say that my altar is worthless and when you offer on it food that you despise.

13 You say, ‘How tired we are of all this!’ and you turn up your nose at me. As your offering to me you bring a stolen animal or one that is lame or sick. Do you think I will accept that from you?

14 A curse on the cheater who sacrifices a worthless animal to me, when he has in his flock a good animal that he promised to give me! For I am a great king, and people of all nations fear me.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/MAL/1-c094f9e1031e8242f5038a2c918cfd66.mp3?version_id=68—

Malachi

Malachi 2

1 TheLordAlmighty says to the priests, “This command is for you:

2 You must honor me by what you do. If you will not listen to what I say, then I will bring a curse on you. I will put a curse on the things you receive for your support. In fact, I have already put a curse on them, because you do not take my command seriously.

3 I will punish your children and rub your faces in the dung of the animals you sacrifice—and you will be taken out to the dung heap.

4 Then you will know that I have given you this command, so that my covenant with the priests, the descendants of Levi, will not be broken.

5 “In my covenant I promised them life and well-being, and this is what I gave them, so that they might respect me. In those days they did respect and fear me.

6 They taught what was right, not what was wrong. They lived in harmony with me; they not only did what was right themselves, but they also helped many others to stop doing evil.

7 It is the duty of priests to teach the true knowledge of God. People should go to them to learn my will, because they are the messengers of theLordAlmighty.

8 “But now you priests have turned away from the right path. Your teaching has led many to do wrong. You have broken the covenant I made with you.

9 So I, in turn, will make the people of Israel despise you because you do not obey my will, and when you teach my people, you do not treat everyone alike.”

The People’s Unfaithfulness to God

10 Don’t we all have the same father? Didn’t the same God create us all? Then why do we break our promises to one another, and why do we despise the covenant that God made with our ancestors?

11 The people of Judah have broken their promise to God and done a horrible thing in Jerusalem and all over the country. They have defiled the Temple which theLordloves. Men have married women who worship foreign gods.

12 May theLordremove from the community of Israel those who did this, and never again let them participate in the offerings our nation brings to theLordAlmighty.

13 This is another thing you do. You drown theLord’s altar with tears, weeping and wailing because he no longer accepts the offerings you bring him.

14 You ask why he no longer accepts them. It is because he knows you have broken your promise to the wife you married when you were young. She was your partner, and you have broken your promise to her, although you promised before God that you would be faithful to her.

15 Didn’t God make you one body and spirit with her?What was his purpose in this? It was that you should have children who are truly God’s people. So make sure that none of you breaks his promise to his wife.

16 “I hate divorce,” says theLordGod of Israel. “I hate it when one of you does such a cruel thing to his wife. Make sure that you do not break your promise to be faithful to your wife.”

The Day of Judgment Is Near

17 You have tired theLordout with your talk. But you ask, “How have we tired him?” By saying, “TheLordAlmighty thinks all evildoers are good; in fact he likes them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God who is supposed to be just?”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/MAL/2-96544c832dab12a4c6b63b16572b1620.mp3?version_id=68—

Malachi

Malachi 3

To Cause Something To Peruse Book Eager Read Bible

1 TheLordAlmighty answers, “I will send my messenger to prepare the way for me. Then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger you long to see will come and proclaim my covenant.”

2 But who will be able to endure the day when he comes? Who will be able to survive when he appears? He will be like strong soap, like a fire that refines metal.

3 He will come to judge like one who refines and purifies silver. As a metalworker refines silver and gold, so theLord’s messenger will purify the priests, so that they will bring to theLordthe right kind of offerings.

4 Then the offerings which the people of Judah and Jerusalem bring to theLordwill be pleasing to him, as they used to be in the past.

5 TheLordAlmighty says, “I will appear among you to judge, and I will testify at once against those who practice magic, against adulterers, against those who give false testimony, those who cheat employees out of their wages, and those who take advantage of widows, orphans, and foreigners—against all who do not respect me.

The Payment of Tithes

6 “I am theLord, and I do not change. And so you, the descendants of Jacob, are not yet completely lost.

7 You, like your ancestors before you, have turned away from my laws and have not kept them. Turn back to me, and I will turn to you. But you ask, ‘What must we do to turn back to you?’

8 I ask you, is it right for a person to cheat God? Of course not, yet you are cheating me. ‘How?’ you ask. In the matter of tithes and offerings.

9 A curse is on all of you because the whole nation is cheating me.

10 Bring the full amount of your tithes to the Temple, so that there will be plenty of food there. Put me to the test and you will see that I will open the windows of heaven and pour out on you in abundance all kinds of good things.

11 I will not let insects destroy your crops, and your grapevines will be loaded with grapes.

12 Then the people of all nations will call you happy, because your land will be a good place to live.

God’s Promise of Mercy

13 “You have said terrible things about me,” says theLord. “But you ask, ‘What have we said about you?’

14 You have said, ‘It’s useless to serve God. What’s the use of doing what he says or of trying to show theLordAlmighty that we are sorry for what we have done?

15 As we see it, proud people are the ones who are happy. Evil people not only prosper, but they test God’s patience with their evil deeds and get away with it.’”

16 Then the people who feared theLordspoke to one another, and theLordlistened and heard what they said. In his presence, there was written down in a book a record of those who feared theLordand respected him.

17 “They will be my people,” says theLordAlmighty. “On the day when I act, they will be my very own. I will be merciful to them as parents are merciful to the children who serve them.

18 Once again my people will see the difference between what happens to the righteous and to the wicked, to the person who serves me and the one who does not.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/MAL/3-0371d5c83c13ef13104313f62d8b52ac.mp3?version_id=68—

Malachi

Malachi 4

The Day of the Lord Is Coming

1 TheLordAlmighty says, “The day is coming when all proud and evil people will burn like straw. On that day they will burn up, and there will be nothing left of them.

2 But for you who obey me, my saving power will rise on you like the sun and bring healing like the sun’s rays. You will be as free and happy as calves let out of a stall.

3 On the day when I act, you will overcome the wicked, and they will be like dust under your feet.

4 “Remember the teachings of my servant Moses, the laws and commands which I gave him at Mount Sinai for all the people of Israel to obey.

5 “But before the great and terrible day of theLordcomes, I will send you the prophet Elijah.

6 He will bring fathers and children together again; otherwise I would have to come and destroy your country.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/MAL/4-cb501d35b154aaaef9f8b2dec89f6720.mp3?version_id=68—

Matthew

Matthew Introduction

Introduction

The Gospel according to Matthew

tells the good news that Jesus is the promised Savior, the one through whom God fulfilled the promises he made to his people in the Old Testament. This good news is not only for the Jewish people, among whom Jesus was born and lived, but for the whole world.

Matthew

is carefully arranged. It begins with the birth of Jesus, describes his baptism and temptation, and then takes up his ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing in Galilee. After this the Gospel records Jesus’ journey from Galilee to Jerusalem and the events of Jesus’ last week, culminating in his crucifixion and resurrection.

This Gospel presents Jesus as the great Teacher, who has the authority to interpret the Law of God, and who teaches about the Kingdom of God. Much of his teaching is gathered by subject matter into five collections: (1) the Sermon on the Mount, which concerns the character, duties, privileges, and destiny of the citizens of the Kingdom of heaven (chapters 5–7); (2) instructions to the twelve disciples for their mission (chapter 10); (3) parables about the Kingdom of heaven (chapter 13); (4) teaching on the meaning of discipleship (chapter 18); and (5) teaching about the end of the present age and the coming of the Kingdom of God (chapters 24–25).

Outline of Contents

Genealogy and birth of Jesus Christ (1.1—2.23)

The ministry of John the Baptist (3.1-12)

The baptism and temptation of Jesus (3.13—4.11)

Jesus’ public ministry in Galilee (4.12—18.35)

From Galilee to Jerusalem (19.1—20.34)

The last week in and near Jerusalem (21.1—27.66)

The resurrection and appearances of the Lord (28.1-20)

Matthew

Matthew 1

The Ancestors of Jesus Christ

1 This is the list of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, a descendant of David, who was a descendant of Abraham.

2-6a From Abraham to King David, the following ancestors are listed: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and his brothers; then Perez and Zerah (their mother was Tamar), Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz (his mother was Rahab), Obed (his mother was Ruth), Jesse, and King David.

6b-11 FromDavid to the time when the people of Israel were taken into exile in Babylon, the following ancestors are listed: David, Solomon (his mother was the woman who had been Uriah’s wife), Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, and Jehoiachin and his brothers.

12-16 From the time after the exile in Babylon to the birth of Jesus, the following ancestors are listed: Jehoiachin, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, and Joseph, who married Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was called the Messiah.

17 So then, there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, and fourteen from David to the exile in Babylon, and fourteen from then to the birth of the Messiah.

The Birth of Jesus Christ

18 This was how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. His mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they were married, she found out that she was going to have a baby by the Holy Spirit.

19 Joseph was a man who always did what was right, but he did not want to disgrace Mary publicly; so he made plans to break the engagement privately.

20 While he was thinking about this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. For it is by the Holy Spirit that she has conceived.

21 She will have a son, and you will name him Jesus—because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 Now all this happened in order to make come true what the Lord had said through the prophet,

23 “A virgin will become pregnant and have a son, and he will be called Immanuel” (which means, “God is with us”).

24 So when Joseph woke up, he married Mary, as the angel of the Lord had told him to.

25 But he had no sexual relations with her before she gave birth to her son. And Joseph named him Jesus.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/MAT/1-1ed21d3b623726a7ffedb4c0aebe5d7b.mp3?version_id=68—