⁶ Seek the LORD while he may be found; 
   call on him while he is near. 
⁷ Let the wicked forsake their ways 
   and the unrighteous their thoughts. 
Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, 
   and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

 ⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
   neither are your ways my ways,” 
            declares the LORD. 
⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth, 
   so are my ways higher than your ways 
   and my thoughts than your thoughts. 
¹⁰ As the rain and the snow 
   come down from heaven, 
and do not return to it 
   without watering the earth 
and making it bud and flourish, 
   so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 
¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth: 
   It will not return to me empty, 
but will accomplish what I desire 
   and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 
¹² You will go out in joy 
   and be led forth in peace; 
the mountains and hills 
   will burst into song before you, 
and all the trees of the field 
   will clap their hands. 
¹³ Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, 
   and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. 
This will be for the LORD’s renown, 
   for an everlasting sign, 
   that will endure forever.”

    ¹⁹ For it is written:

   I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.

 ²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

    ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

    ²² Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom,

    ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

    ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

    ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

    ²⁶ Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

    ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

    ²⁸ He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things— and the things that are not— to nullify the things that are,

    ²⁹ so that no-one may boast before him.

    ³⁰ It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God— that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

    ³¹ Therefore, as it is written: Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.

    ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

    ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

    ⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

    ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

    ⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

    ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

    ⁸ This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

    ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

    ¹⁰ If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

    ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

    ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

    ¹³ Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

    ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command.

    ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

    ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit— fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

    ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

³ though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

 ⁴There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.

 ⁵ God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.

 ⁶ Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.   

 ⁷The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

 ⁸Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth.

    ⁹ He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.

    ¹⁰ Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

 ¹¹The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

    ¹³ They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

   Hosanna!

   Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

   Blessed is the King of Israel!

 ¹⁴Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,

 ¹⁵Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt.

 ¹⁶At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realise that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.

    ¹⁷ Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word.

    ¹⁸ Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him.

    ¹⁹ So the Pharisees said to one another, See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!

¹¹ but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb

    ¹² and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

    ¹³ They asked her, Woman, why are you crying? They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they have put him.

    ¹⁴ At this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus.

    ¹⁵ Woman, he said, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for? Thinking he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.

    ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni! (which means Teacher).

    ¹⁷ Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'

    ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: I have seen the Lord! And she told them that he had said these things to her.

    ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

    ²¹ Again Jesus said, Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

    ²² And with that he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

    ²³ If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.

    ²⁵ So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord! But he said to them, Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.

    ²⁶ A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you!

    ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.

    ²⁸ Thomas said to him, My Lord and my God!

    ²⁹ Then Jesus told him, Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

⁴³ Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.

    ⁴⁴ Some wanted to seize him, but no-one laid a hand on him.

    ⁴⁶ No-one ever spoke the way this man does, the guards declared.

    ⁴⁷ You mean he has deceived you also? the Pharisees retorted.

    ⁴⁸ Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?

    ⁴⁹ No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law— there is a curse on them.

    ⁵⁰ Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked,

    ⁵¹ Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he is doing?

    ⁵² They replied, Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.

    ⁵³ Then each went to his own home.

    ² At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered round him, and he sat down to teach them.

    ³ The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group

    ⁴ and said to Jesus, Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.

    ⁵ In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?

    ⁶ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.

    ⁷ When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.

    ⁸ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

    ⁹ At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.

    ¹⁰ Jesus straightened up and asked her, Woman, where are they? Has no-one condemned you?

    ¹¹ No-one, sir, she said. Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Go now and leave your life of sin.

    ⁴⁴ (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honour in his own country.)

    ⁴⁵ When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.

    ⁴⁶ Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum.

    ⁴⁷ When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

    ⁴⁸ Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, Jesus told him, you will never believe.

    ⁴⁹ The royal official said, Sir, come down before my child dies.

    ⁵⁰ Jesus replied, You may go. Your son will live. The man took Jesus at his word and departed.

    ⁵¹ While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living.

    ⁵² When he enquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.

    ⁵³ Then the father realised that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, Your son will live. So he and all his household believed.

    ⁵⁴ This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria.

    ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

    ⁶ Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

    ⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, Will you give me a drink?

    ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

    ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

    ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

    ¹¹ Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

    ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?

    ¹³ Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

    ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

    ¹⁵ The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.

    ¹⁶ He told her, Go, call your husband and come back.

    ¹⁷ I have no husband, she replied. Jesus said to her, You are right when you say you have no husband.

    ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.

    ¹⁹ Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet.

    ²⁰ Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.

    ²¹ Jesus declared, Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

    ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.

    ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.

    ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth.

    ²⁵ The woman said, I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.

    ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, I who speak to you am he.

    ² He came to Jesus at night and said, Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no-one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.

    ³ In reply Jesus declared, I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

    ⁴ How can a man be born when he is old? Nicodemus asked. Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!

    ⁵ Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

    ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

    ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'

    ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

    ⁹ How can this be? Nicodemus asked.

    ¹⁰ You are Israel's teacher, said Jesus, and do you not understand these things?

    ¹¹ I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.

    ¹² I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

    ¹³ No-one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven— the Son of Man.

    ¹⁴ Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

    ¹⁵ that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

    ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

    ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

    ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

    ¹⁹ This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

    ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

    ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

    ³⁶ When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, Look, the Lamb of God!

    ³⁷ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

    ³⁸ Turning round, Jesus saw them following and asked, What do you want? They said, Rabbi (which means Teacher), where are you staying?

    ³⁹ Come, he replied, and you will see. So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.

    ⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.

    ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found the Messiah (that is, the Christ).

    ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas (which, when translated, is Peter).

    ⁴⁴ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida.

    ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote— Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

    ⁴⁶ Nazareth! Can anything good come from there? Nathanael asked. Come and see, said Philip.

    ⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.

    ⁴⁸ How do you know me? Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, I saw you while you were still under the fig-tree before Philip called you.

    ⁴⁹ Then Nathanael declared, Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.

    ⁵⁰ Jesus said, You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig-tree. You shall see greater things than that.

    ⁵¹ He then added, I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

    ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

    ³ The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

    ...

 ⁸But about the Son he says,

   Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the sceptre of your kingdom.

    ⁹ You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.

 ¹⁰He also says,

   In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

    ¹¹ They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment.

    ²⁶ If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters— yes, even his own life— he cannot be my disciple.

    ²⁷ And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

    ²⁸ Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?

    ²⁹ For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him,

    ³⁰ saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'

    ³¹ Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

    ³² If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.

    ³³ In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

    ³⁴ Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

    ³⁵ It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.