Old Testament

Genesis 32-33

^32:1Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. ^32:2When he saw them, Jacob said, "This is God's host." He called the name of that place Mahanaim.

^32:3Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. ^32:4He commanded them, saying, "This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: 'This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed until now. ^32:5I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, men-servants, and maid-servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.'" ^32:6The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau. Not only that, but he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him." ^32:7Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed: and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies; ^32:8and he said, "If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape." ^32:9Jacob said, "God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, 'Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good.' ^32:10I am not worthy of the least of all the lovingkindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. ^32:11Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children. ^32:12You said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which can't be numbered because there are so many.'"

^32:13He lodged there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother: ^32:14two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, ^32:15thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty she-donkeys and ten foals. ^32:16He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd." ^32:17He commanded the foremost, saying, "When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, 'Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?' ^32:18Then you shall say, 'They are your servant, Jacob's. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.'" ^32:19He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, "This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him. ^32:20You shall say, 'Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.'" For, he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me."

^32:21So the present passed over before him: and he himself lodged that night in the camp.

^32:22He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two handmaids, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok. ^32:23He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. ^32:24Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. ^32:25When he saw that he didn't prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was strained, as he wrestled. ^32:26The man said, "Let me go, for the day breaks."

Jacob said, "I won't let you go, unless you bless me."

^32:27He said to him, "What is your name?"

He said, "Jacob." ^32:28He said, "Your name will no longer be called 'Jacob,' but, 'Israel,' for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed."

^32:29Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name."

He said, "Why is it that you ask what my name is?" He blessed him there.

^32:30Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for, he said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." ^32:31The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh. ^32:32Therefore the children of Israel don't eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip.

^33:1Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and to the two handmaids. ^33:2He put the handmaids and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear. ^33:3He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

^33:4Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept. ^33:5He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, "Who are these with you?"

He said, "The children whom God has graciously given your servant." ^33:6Then the handmaids came near with their children, and they bowed themselves. ^33:7Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

^33:8Esau said, "What do you mean by all this company which I met?"

Jacob said, "To find favor in the sight of my lord."

^33:9Esau said, "I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours."

^33:10Jacob said, "Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me. ^33:11Please take the gift that I brought to you; because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough." He urged him, and he took it.

^33:12Esau said, "Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before you."

^33:13Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die. ^33:14Please let my lord pass over before his servant: and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the cattle that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir."

^33:15Esau said, "Let me now leave with you some of the folk who are with me."

He said, "Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord."

^33:16So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. ^33:17Jacob journeyed to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his cattle. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

^33:18Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city. ^33:19He bought the parcel of ground, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for one hundred pieces of money. ^33:20He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.

New Testament

Matthew 21

^21:1When they drew near to Jerusalem, and came to Bethsphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ^21:2saying to them, "Go into the village that is opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them, and bring them to me. ^21:3If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them,' and immediately he will send them."

^21:4All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying,

 ^21:5"Tell the daughter of Zion,
      Behold, your King comes to you,
      Humble, and riding on a donkey,
      On a colt, the foal of a donkey."

^21:6The disciples went, and did just as Jesus commanded them, ^21:7and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their clothes on them; and he sat on them. ^21:8A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees, and spread them on the road. ^21:9The multitudes who went before him, and who followed kept shouting, "Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"

^21:10When he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?" ^21:11The multitudes said, "This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee."

^21:12Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money-changers' tables and the seats of those who sold the doves. ^21:13He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of robbers!"

^21:14The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. ^21:15But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the son of David!" they were indignant, ^21:16and said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?"

Jesus said to them, "Yes. Did you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing babies you have perfected praise?'"

^21:17He left them, and went out of the city to Bethany, and lodged there. ^21:18Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry. ^21:19Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, "Let there be no fruit from you forever!"

Immediately the fig tree withered away. ^21:20When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree immediately wither away?"

^21:21Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly I tell you, if you have faith, and don't doubt, you will not only do what is done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it would be done. ^21:22All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

^21:23When he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?"

^21:24Jesus answered them, "I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. ^21:25The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?"

They reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' ^21:26But if we say, 'From men,' we fear the multitude, for all hold John as a prophet." ^21:27They answered Jesus, and said, "We don't know."

He also said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. ^21:28But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, 'Son, go work today in my vineyard.' ^21:29He answered, 'I will not,' but afterward he changed his mind, and went. ^21:30He came to the second, and said the same thing. He answered, 'I go, sir,' but he didn't go. ^21:31Which of the two did the will of his father?"

They said to him, "The first."

Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into the Kingdom of God before you. ^21:32For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn't even repent afterward, that you might believe him.

^21:33"Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. ^21:34When the season for the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive his fruit. ^21:35The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ^21:36Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they treated them the same way. ^21:37But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, 'They will respect my son.' ^21:38But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and seize his inheritance.' ^21:39So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ^21:40When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?"

^21:41They told him, "He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruit in its season."

^21:42Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures,

 'The stone which the builders rejected,
      The same was made the head of the corner.

 This was from the Lord.
      It is marvelous in our eyes?'

^21:43"Therefore I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation bringing forth its fruits. ^21:44He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whoever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust."

^21:45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke about them. ^21:46When they sought to seize him, they feared the multitudes, because they considered him to be a prophet.