Matthew 28

The Resurrection

1 After the Sabbath, as Sunday morning was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

2 Suddenly there was a violent earthquake; an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled the stone away, and sat on it.

3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.

4 The guards were so afraid that they trembled and became like dead men.

5 The angel spoke to the women. “You must not be afraid,” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

6 He is not here; he has been raised, just as he said. Come here and see the place where he was lying.

7 Go quickly now, and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from death, and now he is going to Galilee ahead of you; there you will see him!’ Remember what I have told you.”

8 So they left the tomb in a hurry, afraid and yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

9 Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Peace be with you.” They came up to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.

10 “Do not be afraid,” Jesus said to them. “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

The Report of the Guard

11 While the women went on their way, some of the soldiers guarding the tomb went back to the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened.

12 The chief priests met with the elders and made their plan; they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers

13 and said, “You are to say that his disciples came during the night and stole his body while you were asleep.

14 And if the Governor should hear of this, we will convince him that you are innocent, and you will have nothing to worry about.”

15 The guards took the money and did what they were told to do. And so that is the report spread around by the Jews to this very day.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

16 The eleven disciples went to the hill in Galilee where Jesus had told them to go.

17 When they saw him, they worshiped him, even though some of them doubted.

18 Jesus drew near and said to them, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

19 Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

20 and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”

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Malachi 1

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

The Lord’s Love for Israel

2 The Lord says to his people, “I have always loved you.”

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

The Lord answers, “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 the Lord will reply, “Let them rebuild—I will tear them down again. People will call them ‘The evil country’ and ‘The nation with whom the Lord is angry forever.’”

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

The Lord Reprimands the Priests

6 The Lord Almighty 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 The Lord Almighty 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.”

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Malachi 2

1 The Lord Almighty 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 the Lord Almighty.

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 the Lord loves. Men have married women who worship foreign gods.

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

13 This is another thing you do. You drown the Lord’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 the Lord God 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 the Lord out with your talk. But you ask, “How have we tired him?” By saying, “The Lord Almighty thinks all evildoers are good; in fact he likes them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God who is supposed to be just?”

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Malachi 3

1 The Lord Almighty 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 the Lord’s messenger will purify the priests, so that they will bring to the Lord the right kind of offerings.

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

5 The Lord Almighty 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 the Lord, 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 the Lord. “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 the Lord Almighty 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 the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard what they said. In his presence, there was written down in a book a record of those who feared the Lord and respected him.

17 “They will be my people,” says the Lord Almighty. “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.”

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Malachi 4

The Day of the Lord Is Coming

1 The Lord Almighty 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 the Lord comes, 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.”

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Zechariah 1

The Lord Calls His People to Return to Him

1 In the eighth month of the second year that Darius was emperor of Persia, the Lord gave this message to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah and grandson of Iddo.

2 The Lord Almighty told Zechariah to say to the people, “I, the Lord, was very angry with your ancestors,

3 but now I say to you, ‘Return to me, and I will return to you.

4 Do not be like your ancestors. Long ago the prophets gave them my message, telling them not to live evil, sinful lives any longer. But they would not listen to me or obey me.

5 Your ancestors and those prophets are no longer alive.

6 Through my servants the prophets I gave your ancestors commands and warnings, but they disregarded them and suffered the consequences. Then they repented and acknowledged that I, the Lord Almighty, had punished them as they deserved and as I had determined to do.’”

The Prophet’s Vision of the Horses

7 In the second year that Darius was emperor, on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (the month of Shebat), the Lord gave me a message in a vision at night.

8 I saw someone riding a red horse. He had stopped among some myrtle trees in a valley, and behind him were other horses—red, dappled, and white.

9 I asked him, “Sir, what do these horses mean?”

He answered, “I will show you what they mean.

10 The Lord sent them to go and inspect the earth.”

11 They reported to the angel: “We have been all over the world and have found that the whole world lies helpless and subdued.”

12 Then the angel said, “Almighty Lord, you have been angry with Jerusalem and the cities of Judah for seventy years now. How much longer will it be before you show them mercy?”

13 The Lord answered the angel with comforting words,

14 and the angel told me to proclaim what the Lord Almighty had said: “I have a deep love and concern for Jerusalem, my holy city,

15 and I am very angry with the nations that enjoy quiet and peace. For while I was holding back my anger against my people, those nations made the sufferings of my people worse.

16 So I have come back to Jerusalem to show mercy to the city. My Temple will be restored, and the city will be rebuilt.”

17 The angel also told me to proclaim: “The Lord Almighty says that his cities will be prosperous again and that he will once again help Jerusalem and claim the city as his own.”

The Vision of the Horns

18 In another vision I saw four ox horns.

19 I asked the angel that had been speaking to me, “What do these horns mean?”

He answered, “They stand for the world powers that have scattered the people of Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

20 Then the Lord showed me four workers with hammers.

21 I asked, “What have they come to do?”

He answered, “They have come to terrify and overthrow the nations that completely crushed the land of Judah and scattered its people.”

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Zechariah 2

The Vision of the Measuring Line

1 In another vision I saw a man with a measuring line in his hand.

2 “Where are you going?” I asked.

“To measure Jerusalem,” he answered, “to see how long and how wide it is.”

3 Then I saw the angel who had been speaking to me step forward, and another angel came to meet him.

4 The first one said to the other, “Run and tell that young man with the measuring line that there are going to be so many people and so much livestock in Jerusalem that it will be too big to have walls.

5 The Lord has promised that he himself will be a wall of fire around the city to protect it and that he will live there in all his glory.”

The Exiles Are Called to Come Home

6-7 The Lord said to his people, “I scattered you in all directions. But now, you exiles, escape from Babylonia and return to Jerusalem.

8 Anyone who strikes you strikes what is most precious to me.”

So the Lord Almightysent me with this message for the nations that had plundered his people:

9 “The Lord himself will fight against you, and you will be plundered by the people who were once your servants.”

When this happens, everyone will know that the Lord Almighty sent me.

10 The Lord said, “Sing for joy, people of Jerusalem! I am coming to live among you!”

11 At that time many nations will come to the Lord and become his people. He will live among you, and you will know that he has sent me to you.

12 Once again Judah will be the special possession of the Lord in his sacred land, and Jerusalem will be the city he loves most of all.

13 Be silent, everyone, in the presence of the Lord, for he is coming from his holy dwelling place.

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Zechariah 3

The Prophet’s Vision of the High Priest

1 In another vision the Lord showed me the High Priest Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord. And there beside Joshua stood Satan,ready to bring an accusation against him.

2 The angel of the Lordsaid to Satan, “May the Lord condemn you, Satan! May the Lord, who loves Jerusalem, condemn you. This man is like a stick snatched from the fire.”

3 Joshua was standing there, wearing filthy clothes.

4 The angel said to his heavenly attendants, “Take away the filthy clothes this man is wearing.” Then he said to Joshua, “I have taken away your sin and will give you new clothes to wear.”

5 He commanded the attendants to puta clean turban on Joshua’s head. They did so, and then they put the new clothes on him while the angel of the Lord stood there.

6 Then the angel told Joshua that

7 the Lord Almighty had said: “If you obey my laws and perform the duties I have assigned you, then you will continue to be in charge of my Temple and its courts, and I will hear your prayers, just as I hear the prayers of the angels who are in my presence.

8 Listen then, Joshua, you who are the High Priest; and listen, you fellow priests of his, you that are the sign of a good future: I will reveal my servant, who is called The Branch!

9 I am placing in front of Joshua a single stone with seven facets. I will engrave an inscription on it, and in a single day I will take away the sin of this land.

10 When that day comes, each of you will invite your neighbor to come and enjoy peace and security, surrounded by your vineyards and fig trees.”

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Zechariah 4

The Vision of the Lampstand

1 The angel who had been speaking to me came again and roused me as if I had been sleeping.

2 “What do you see?” he asked.

“A lampstand made of gold,” I answered. “At the top is a bowl for the oil. On the lampstand are seven lamps, each one with places for seven wicks.

3 There are two olive trees beside the lampstand, one on each side of it.”

4 Then I asked the angel, “What do these things stand for, sir?”

5 “Don’t you know?” he asked me.

“No, I don’t, sir,” I replied.

10b The angel said to me, “The seven lamps are the seven eyes of the Lord, which see all over the earth.”

11 Then I asked him, “What do the two olive trees on either side of the lampstand mean?

12 And what is the meaning of the two olive branches beside the two gold pipes from which the olive oil pours?”

13 He asked me, “Don’t you know?”

“No, I don’t, sir,” I answered.

14 Then he said, “These are the two men whom God has chosen and anointed to serve him, the Lord of the whole earth.”

God’s Promise to Zerubbabel

6 The angel told me to give Zerubbabel this message from the Lord: “You will succeed, not by military might or by your own strength, but by my spirit.

7 Obstacles as great as mountains will disappear before you. You will rebuild the Temple, and as you put the last stone in place, the people will shout, ‘Beautiful, beautiful!’”

8 Another message came to me from the Lord.

9 He said, “Zerubbabel has laid the foundation of the Temple, and he will finish the building. When this happens, my people will know that it is I who sent you to them.

10a They are disappointed because so little progress is being made. But they will see Zerubbabel continuing to build the Temple, and they will be glad.”

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Zechariah 5

The Vision of the Flying Scroll

1 I looked again, and this time I saw a scroll flying through the air.

2 The angel asked me what I saw. I answered, “A scroll flying through the air; it is thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.”

3 Then he said to me, “On it is written the curse that is to go out over the whole land. On one side of the scroll it says that every thief will be removed from the land; and on the other side it says that everyone who tells lies under oath will also be taken away.

4 The Lord Almighty says that he will send this curse out, and it will enter the house of every thief and the house of everyone who tells lies under oath. It will remain in their houses and leave them in ruins.”

The Vision of the Woman in the Basket

5 The angel appeared again and said, “Look! Something else is coming!”

6 “What is it?” I asked.

He replied, “It is a basket, and it stands for the sinof the whole land.”

7 The basket had a lid made of lead. As I watched, the lid was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman!

8 The angel said, “This represents wickedness.” Then he pushed her down into the basket and put the lid back down.

9 I looked up and saw two women flying toward me with powerful wings like those of a stork. They picked up the basket and flew off with it.

10 I asked the angel, “Where are they taking it?”

11 He answered, “To Babylonia, where they will build a temple for it. When the temple is finished, the basket will be placed there to be worshiped.”

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