Increasing Corruption on Earth

¹When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, ²the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. ³Then the Lord said, z“My Spirit shall not abide in1 man forever, afor he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” ⁴The Nephilim2 were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

⁵bThe Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every cintention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ⁶And dthe Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it egrieved him to his heart. ⁷So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” ⁸But Noah ffound favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Noah and the Flood

⁹These are the generations of Noah. gNoah was a righteous man, hblameless in his generation. Noah iwalked with God. ¹⁰And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹²And God jsaw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, kfor all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. ¹³And God said to Noah, l“I have determined to make an end of all flesh,3 for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.4 Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. ¹⁵This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits,5 its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. ¹⁶Make a roof6 for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. ¹⁷mFor behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. ¹⁸But nI will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. ¹⁹And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. ²⁰Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. ²¹Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” ²²oNoah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

Giving to the Needy

¹“Beware of rpracticing your righteousness before other people in order sto be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

²t“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may ube praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have vreceived their reward. ³But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your giving may be in secret. wAnd your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

The Lord's Prayer

⁵“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love xto stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. yTruly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ⁶But when you pray, zgo into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. aAnd your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

⁷“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as bthe Gentiles do, for cthey think that they will be heard dfor their many words. ⁸Do not be like them, efor your Father knows what you need before you ask him. ⁹fPray then like this:

g“Our Father in heaven,

hhallowed be iyour name.1

¹⁰jYour kingdom come,

kyour will be done,2

lon earth as it is in heaven.

¹¹mGive us nthis day our daily bread,3

¹²and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

¹³And olead us not into temptation,

but pdeliver us from qevil.4

¹⁴rFor if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, ¹⁵sbut if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Fasting

¹⁶“And twhen you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. uTruly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ¹⁷But when you fast, vanoint your head and wash your face, ¹⁸that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. wAnd your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

¹⁹x“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where ymoth and rust5 destroy and where thieves zbreak in and steal, ²⁰xbut lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²²a“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, ²³abut if byour eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

²⁴c“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and dmoney.6

Do Not Be Anxious

²⁵e“Therefore I tell you, fdo not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶gLook at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. hAre you not of more value than they? ²⁷And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his ispan of life?7 ²⁸And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, jeven Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, kO you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For lthe Gentiles seek after all these things, and myour heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³But nseek first othe kingdom of God and his righteousness, pand all these things will be added to you.

³⁴q“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

The Decree of Darius

¹Then Darius the king made a decree, and tsearch was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives where the documents were stored. ²And in Ecbatana, the citadel that is uin the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written: “A record. ³In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits1 and its breadth sixty cubits, ⁴vwith three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. ⁵And also wlet the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall put them in the house of God.”

⁶“Now therefore, xTattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, yand your2 associates the governors who are in the province Beyond the River, keep away. ⁷Let the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. ⁸Moreover, zI make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River. ⁹And whatever is needed—bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require—let that be given to them day by day without fail, ¹⁰that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven aand pray for the life of the king and his sons. ¹¹Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and bhis house shall be made a dunghill. ¹²May the God cwho has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.”

The Temple Finished and Dedicated

¹³Then, according to the word sent by Darius the king, xTattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates did with all diligence what Darius the king had ordered. ¹⁴dAnd the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and eby decree of Cyrus and fDarius and gArtaxerxes king of Persia; ¹⁵and this house was finished on the third day of the hmonth of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

¹⁶And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the idedication of this house of God with joy. ¹⁷They offered at the dedication of this house of God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel j12 male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁸And they set the priests kin their divisions and the Levites lin their divisions, for the service of God at Jerusalem, mas it is written in the Book of Moses.

Passover Celebrated

¹⁹nOn the fourteenth day of the first month, the returned exiles kept the Passover. ²⁰oFor the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. pSo they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves. ²¹It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and qalso by every one who had joined them and separated himself rfrom the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel. ²²And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread sseven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful tand had turned the heart of uthe king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

Seven Chosen to Serve

¹Now in these days kwhen the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists1 arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in lthe daily distribution. ²And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. ³mTherefore, brothers,2 pick out from among you seven men nof good repute, ofull of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. ⁴But pwe will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” ⁵And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, qa man full of faith and rof the Holy Spirit, and sPhilip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, ta proselyte of Antioch. ⁶These they set before the apostles, and uthey prayed and vlaid their hands on them.

⁷And wthe word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests xbecame obedient to ythe faith.

Stephen Is Seized

⁸And Stephen, full of grace and zpower, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. ⁹Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. ¹⁰But athey could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. ¹¹Then bthey secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” ¹²And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, ¹³and they cset up false dwitnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against ethis holy place and the law, ¹⁴for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth fwill destroy this place and will gchange hthe customs that Moses delivered to us.” ¹⁵And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face iwas like the face of an angel.