| “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” says the Lord Yahweh, “and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?” | Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign Lord. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live. |
| The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people.” | But the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.” |
| Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith. | Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. |
| Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind. Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down. Yahweh loves the righteous. | The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down. The Lord loves the godly. |
| Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God. | Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. |
| Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. | This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! |
| Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day he will be raised up. | “Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, flogged with a whip, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” |
| While we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. | So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. |
| Therefore, as for you, let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son, and in the Father. | So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. |
| Open your mouth, judge righteously, and serve justice to the poor and needy. | Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice. |
| If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? | If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? |
| Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. | Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. |
| But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream. | Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. |
| Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself. | So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. |
| Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. | Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. |
| Who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting. | They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. |
| Arise, shine; for your light has come, and Yahweh’s glory has risen on you! | Arise, Jerusalem! Let your light shine for all to see. For the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you. |
| But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God. | But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. |
| When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. | After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see him. |
| Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your faith has made you well.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the way. | And Jesus said to him, “Go, for your faith has healed you.” Instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus down the road. |
| For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. | So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. |
| Peter opened his mouth and said, “Truly I perceive that God doesn’t show favoritism; but in every nation he who fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.” | Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.” |
| Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—” Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. | Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. |
| Then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. | So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. |
| Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose confidence is in Yahweh. For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit. | But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. |
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