Doubt in Scripture: When Faith Wavers

Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”

The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t really die,

for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?”

Abram said, “Behold, you have given no children to me: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir.”

He said, “Lord GOD, how will I know that I will inherit it?”

Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to him who is one hundred years old? Will Sarah, who is ninety years old, give birth?”

Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”

The LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Will I really bear a child when I am old?’

Then Sarah denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up! Get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city!” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.

Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife’s sake.’

I asked my master, ‘What if the woman will not follow me?’

Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?”

Then he asked the men of her place, saying, “Where is the prostitute, that was at Enaim by the road?” They said, “There has been no prostitute here.”

He returned to Judah, and said, “I haven’t found her; and also the men of the place said, ‘There has been no prostitute here.’”

They told him, saying, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” His heart fainted, for he didn’t believe them.

He said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was afraid, and said, “Surely this thing is known.”

Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

Moses answered, “But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

It will happen, if they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, that you shall take of the water of the river, and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land.”

Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since you have spoken to your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.”

Moses said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else.”

Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go? I don’t know the LORD, and moreover I will not let Israel go.”

Moses returned to the LORD, and said, “Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Why is it that you have sent me?

For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people. You have not rescued your people at all!”

Moses spoke so to the children of Israel, but they didn’t listen to Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.

Moses spoke before the LORD, saying, “Behold, the children of Israel haven’t listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, when I have uncircumcised lips?”

Moses said before the LORD, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh listen to me?”

The magicians of Egypt did the same thing with their enchantments. So Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he didn’t listen to them, as the LORD had spoken.

Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he didn’t even take this to heart.

They said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you treated us this way, to bring us out of Egypt?

Isn’t this the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

The people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”

The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness;

and the children of Israel said to them, “We wish that we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Therefore the people quarrelled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?”

The people were thirsty for water there; so the people murmured against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”

He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarrelled, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD amongst us, or not?”

When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”

For they said to me, ‘Make us gods, which shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’

If you said, “What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;”

but now we have lost our appetite. There is nothing at all except this manna to look at.”

Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why haven’t I found favour in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?

Moses said, “The people, amongst whom I am, are six hundred thousand men on foot; and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month.’

Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?”

They said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us?” And the LORD heard it.

But the men who went up with him said, “We aren’t able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.”

They brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out to the children of Israel, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature.

There we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that we had died in this wilderness!

Why does the LORD bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be captured or killed! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return into Egypt?”

They said to one another, “Let’s choose a leader, and let’s return into Egypt.”

The LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? How long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked amongst them?

‘Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.’

But on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the LORD’s people!”

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you didn’t believe in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

The people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, there is no water, and our soul loathes this disgusting food!”

Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD has given them?

Your fathers did so when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land.

For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them.

Yet you wouldn’t go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God.

You murmured in your tents, and said, “Because the LORD hated us, he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us.

Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our heart melt, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to the sky. Moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there!’”

Yet in this thing you didn’t believe the LORD your God,

If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?”

When the LORD sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, “Go up and possess the land which I have given you,” you rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and you didn’t believe him or listen to his voice.

You may say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?”

Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life.

Joshua said, “Alas, Lord GOD, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish? I wish that we had been content and lived beyond the Jordan!

Oh, Lord, what shall I say, after Israel has turned their backs before their enemies?

Why did you sit amongst the sheepfolds? To hear the whistling for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben, there were great searchings of heart.

Gideon said to him, “Oh, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, ‘Didn’t the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian.”

He said to him, “O Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.”

He said to him, “If now I have found favour in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me.

The princes of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?”

He went up there to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way; and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered.

When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Behold, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains.” Zebul said to him, “You see the shadows of the mountains as if they were men.”

When these went into Micah’s house, and took the engraved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

As they called to the children of Dan, they turned their faces, and said to Micah, “What ails you, that you come with such a company?”

Behold, if it goes up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us. It was a chance that happened to us.”

Saul answered, “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me like this?”

One from the same place answered, “Who is their father?” Therefore it became a proverb, “Is Saul also amongst the prophets?”

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, of the cattle, of the fat calves, of the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to utterly destroy them; but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.”

He also stripped off his clothes. He also prophesied before Samuel and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also amongst the prophets?”

Saul said to his servants who stood around him, “Hear now, you Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds?

David said in his heart, “I will now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So I will escape out of his hand.”

Achish said, “Against whom have you made a raid today?” David said, “Against the South of Judah, against the South of the Jerahmeelites, and against the South of the Kenites.”

Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people Israel utterly to abhor him. Therefore he will be my servant forever.”

Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek for me a woman who has a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and enquire of her.” His servants said to him, “Behold, there is a woman who has a familiar spirit at Endor.”

Saul disguised himself and put on other clothing, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. Then he said, “Please consult for me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whomever I shall name to you.”

David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?”

Then Joab came to the king and said, “What have you done? Behold, Abner came to you. Why is it that you have sent him away, and he is already gone?

You know Abner the son of Ner. He came to deceive you, and to know your going out and your coming in, and to know all that you do.”

David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, “How could the LORD’s ark come to me?”

But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think that David honours your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Hasn’t David sent his servants to you to search the city, to spy it out, and to overthrow it?”

Two hundred men went with Absalom out of Jerusalem, who were invited, and went in their simplicity; and they didn’t know anything.

He said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the LORD’s word, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” He lied to him.

He cried to the LORD and said, “LORD my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”

Elijah came near to all the people, and said, “How long will you waver between the two sides? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” The people didn’t say a word.

When midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the evening offering; but there was no voice, no answer, and nobody paid attention.

Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the LORD’s Spirit go from me to speak to you?”

They said to him, “See now, there are with your servants fifty strong men. Please let them go and seek your master. Perhaps the LORD’s Spirit has taken him up, and put him on some mountain or into some valley.” He said, “Don’t send them.”

He said, “At this season next year, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.”

Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me’?”

Gehazi went ahead of them, and laid the staff on the child’s face; but there was no voice and no hearing. Therefore he returned to meet him, and told him, “The child has not awakened.”

His servant said, “What, should I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people, that they may eat; for the LORD says, ‘They will eat, and will have some left over.’”

While he was still talking with them, behold, the messenger came down to him. Then he said, “Behold, this evil is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”

Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, “Behold, if the LORD made windows in heaven, could this thing be?” He said, “Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it.”

Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate. They said to one another, “Why do we sit here until we die?

The king arose in the night, and said to his servants, “I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry. Therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive, and get into the city.’”

and that captain answered the man of God, and said, “Now, behold, if the LORD made windows in heaven, might such a thing be?” and he said, “Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it.”

The king says, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of his hand.

Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

Who are they amongst all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, “Do you think that David honours your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Haven’t his servants come to you to search, to overthrow, and to spy out the land?”

Don’t you know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands in any way able to deliver their land out of my hand?

Who was there amongst all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed that could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand?

Now therefore don’t let Hezekiah deceive you nor persuade you in this way. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand?”

He also wrote letters insulting the LORD, the God of Israel, and speaking against him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of the lands, which have not delivered their people out of my hand, so shall the God of Hezekiah not deliver his people out of my hand.”

He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, since they are burnt?”

Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, “What they are building, if a fox climbed up it, he would break down their stone wall.”

Judah said, “The strength of the bearers of burdens is fading and there is much rubble, so that we are not able to build the wall.”

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.”

Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of bronze?

whose confidence will break apart, whose trust is a spider’s web.

If I had called, and he had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that he listened to my voice.

Though I am righteous, my own mouth will condemn me. Though I am blameless, it will prove me perverse.

I will be condemned. Why then do I labour in vain?

then I would speak, and not fear him, for I am not so in myself.

Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?

Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years,

that you enquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?

“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.

Yet you hid these things in your heart. I know that this is with you:

Who is he who will contend with me? For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit.

Why do you hide your face, and consider me your enemy?

But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

He doesn’t believe that he will return out of darkness. He is waited for by the sword.

“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’

You say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the thick darkness?

Thick clouds are a covering to him, so that he doesn’t see. He walks on the vault of the sky.’

who said to God, ‘Depart from us!’ and, ‘What can the Almighty do for us?’

“Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days?

If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”

Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?

Yes, I gave you my full attention, but there was no one who convinced Job, or who answered his words, amongst you.

“They are amazed. They answer no more. They don’t have a word to say.

Shall I wait, because they don’t speak, because they stand still, and answer no more?

who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, and walks with wicked men?

For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.’

How much less when you say you don’t see him. The cause is before him, and you wait for him!

Teach us what we will tell him, for we can’t make our case by reason of darkness.

“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Many there are who say of my soul, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah.

Why do you stand far off, LORD? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.”

Why does the wicked person condemn God, and say in his heart, “God won’t call me into account”?

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

For he flatters himself in his own eyes, too much to detect and hate his sin.

My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

Who will bring me into the strong city? Who has led me to Edom?

Haven’t you, God, rejected us? You don’t go out with our armies, God.

But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped.

They say, “How does God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”

Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence,

When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me—

I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you.

“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favourable no more?

Has his loving kindness vanished forever? Does his promise fail for generations?

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?” Selah.

They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.

Yes, they spoke against God. They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide meat for his people?”

because they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation.

For all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.

Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Selah.

Is your loving kindness declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction?

Are your wonders made known in the dark? Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

LORD, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?

They say, “The LORD will not see, neither will Jacob’s God consider.”

Haven’t you rejected us, God? You don’t go out, God, with our armies.

Why should the nations say, “Where is their God, now?”

I said in my haste, “All people are liars.”

There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing after wind.

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure;” and behold, this also was vanity.

I said of laughter, “It is foolishness;” and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?”

I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.

Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labour in which I have laboured, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.

For what does a man have of all his labour and of the striving of his heart, in which he labours under the sun?

What profit has he who works in that in which he labours?

Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, whether it goes downward to the earth?”

All this I have proved in wisdom. I said, “I will be wise;” but it was far from me.

That which is, is far off and exceedingly deep. Who can find it out?

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!”

who say, “Let him make haste, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!”

But Ahaz said, “I won’t ask. I won’t tempt the LORD.”

The spirit of the Egyptians will fail within them. I will destroy their counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards.

They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.

They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgement.

Rabshakeh said to them, “Now tell Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust?

I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

The king says, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you.

Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city won’t be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”’

Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria?

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

Who are they amongst all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God”?

They don’t know, neither do they consider, for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see, and their hearts, that they can’t understand.

He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

“Stand now with your enchantments and with the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have laboured from your youth, as if you might profit, as if you might prevail.

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.”

Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD’s arm been revealed?

Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I don’t know how to speak; for I am a child.”

Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace;’ whereas the sword reaches to the heart.”

They have denied the LORD, and said, “It is not he. Evil won’t come on us. We won’t see sword or famine.

The prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.”

To whom should I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, the LORD’s word has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.

Every man has become brutish and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

You are righteous, LORD, when I contend with you; yet I would like to plead a case with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they all at ease who deal very treacherously?

Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!

Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?

The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?

Behold, they ask me, “Where is the LORD’s word? Let it be fulfilled now.”

How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart?

Because you have said, “The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon,”

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? If I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.”

and said to him, “Do you know that Baalis the king of the children of Ammon has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life?” But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam didn’t believe them.

then Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, “You speak falsely. The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You shall not go into Egypt to live there;’

but Baruch the son of Neriah has turned you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon.”

Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.

“How do you say, ‘We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war’?

Why do you boast in the valleys, your flowing valley, backsliding daughter? You trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come to me?’

I said, “My strength has perished, along with my expectation from the LORD.”

The kings of the earth didn’t believe, neither did all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery? For they say, ‘The LORD doesn’t see us. The LORD has forsaken the land.’”

who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This is the cauldron, and we are the meat.’

“Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, ‘The days are prolonged, and every vision fails’?

“Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, ‘The vision that he sees is for many days to come, and he prophesies of times that are far off.’

Then I said, “Ah Lord GOD! They say of me, ‘Isn’t he a speaker of parables?’”

The king answered, “I know of a certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see the thing has gone from me.

But I have heard of you, that you can give interpretations and dissolve doubts. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple, and have a chain of gold around your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.”

I heard, but I didn’t understand. Then I said, “My lord, what will be the outcome of these things?”

“Don’t prophesy!”—they prophesy— “Don’t prophesy about these things. Disgrace won’t overtake us.”

If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies, saying, “I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink,” he would be the prophet of this people.

LORD, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save?

“Look amongst the nations, watch, and wonder marvellously; for I am working a work in your days which you will not believe though it is told you.

You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,

You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the LORD’s sight, and he delights in them;’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’

Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.

“Your words have been harsh against me,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’

You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God,’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of Armies?

Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won’t he much more clothe you, you of little faith?

Behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man blasphemes.”

he said to them, “Make room, because the girl isn’t dead, but sleeping.” They were ridiculing him.

But the Pharisees said, “By the prince of the demons, he casts out demons.”

and said to him, “Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?”

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This man does not cast out demons except by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”

Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.

Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?

Aren’t all of his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all of these things?”

He didn’t do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptiser. He is risen from the dead. That is why these powers work in him.”

They told him, “We only have here five loaves and two fish.”

When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It’s a ghost!” and they cried out for fear.

But when he saw that the wind was strong, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

The disciples said to him, “Where could we get so many loaves in a deserted place as to satisfy so great a multitude?”

The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

Jesus, perceiving it, said, “Why do you reason amongst yourselves, you of little faith, because you have brought no bread?

So I brought him to your disciples, and they could not cure him.”

Then the disciples came to Jesus privately, and said, “Why weren’t we able to cast it out?”

He said to them, “Because of your unbelief. For most certainly I tell you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, if you have faith and don’t doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it would be done.

The 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?’

On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him,

For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will lead many astray.

Many false prophets will arise and will lead many astray.

But if that evil servant should say in his heart, ‘My lord is delaying his coming,’

“He also who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you didn’t sow, and gathering where you didn’t scatter.

“Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’

From that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

Judas, who betrayed him, answered, “It isn’t me, is it, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You said it.”

Jesus said to him, “Most certainly I tell you that tonight, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”

But he denied it before them all, saying, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Again he denied it with an oath, “I don’t know the man.”

Then he began to curse and to swear, “I don’t know the man!” Immediately the rooster crowed.

“He saved others, but he can’t save himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.

He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now, if he wants him; for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

Some of them who stood there, when they heard it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.”

The rest said, “Let him be. Let’s see whether Elijah comes to save him.”

saying, “Sir, we remember what that deceiver said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise again.’

Command therefore that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest perhaps his disciples come at night and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He is risen from the dead;’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.”

So they took the money and did as they were told. This saying was spread abroad amongst the Jews, and continues until today.

When they saw him, they bowed down to him; but some doubted.

But there were some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts,

“Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you reason these things in your hearts?

The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons he casts out the demons.”

He summoned them and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?

—because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble.

He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and asked him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”

He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”

His disciples said to him, “You see the multitude pressing against you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?’”

While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue ruler’s house, saying, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the Teacher any more?”

They ridiculed him. But he, having put them all out, took the father of the child, her mother, and those who were with him, and went in where the child was lying.

He could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

He marvelled because of their unbelief. He went around the villages teaching.

King Herod heard this, for his name had become known, and he said, “John the Baptiser has risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.”

But others said, “He is Elijah.” Others said, “He is a prophet, or like one of the prophets.”

for they hadn’t understood about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

His disciples answered him, “From where could one satisfy these people with bread here in a deserted place?”

The Pharisees came out and began to question him, seeking from him a sign from heaven and testing him.

He sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Most certainly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

They reasoned with one another, saying, “It’s because we have no bread.”

Jesus, perceiving it, said to them, “Why do you reason that it’s because you have no bread? Don’t you perceive yet or understand? Is your heart still hardened?

Having eyes, don’t you see? Having ears, don’t you hear? Don’t you remember?

He asked them, “Don’t you understand yet?”

For he didn’t know what to say, for they were very afraid.

They kept this saying to themselves, questioning what the “rising from the dead” meant.

They asked him, saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

He answered him, “Unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me.”

Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, “I believe. Help my unbelief!”

When he had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?”

But they didn’t understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

They were exceedingly astonished, saying to him, “Then who can be saved?”

For most certainly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and doesn’t doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening, he shall have whatever he says.

They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we should say, ‘From heaven;’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’

They answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Some Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection, came to him. They asked him, saying,

Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, there!’ don’t believe it.

Jesus said to him, “Most certainly I tell you that you today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”

But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are saying.” He went out on the porch, and the rooster crowed.

But he again denied it. After a little while again those who stood by said to Peter, “You truly are one of them, for you are a Galilean, and your speech shows it.”

But he began to curse and to swear, “I don’t know this man of whom you speak!”

At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

When they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they disbelieved.

They went away and told it to the rest. They didn’t believe them, either.

Afterward he was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at the table; and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they didn’t believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

Zacharias said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”

Behold, you will be silent and not able to speak until the day that these things will happen, because you didn’t believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”

But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered what kind of salutation this might be.

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?”

They said to her, “There is no one amongst your relatives who is called by this name.”

The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

He said to them, “Doubtless you will tell me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in your hometown.’”

The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?”

John, calling to himself two of his disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, “Are you the one who is coming, or should we look for another?”

When the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptiser has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?’”

Those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

He said to them, “Where is your faith?” Being afraid, they marvelled, saying to one another, “Who is this then, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”

They were ridiculing him, knowing that she was dead.

Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him; and he was very perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead,

and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again.

Herod said, “I beheaded John, but who is this about whom I hear such things?” He sought to see him.

But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we should go and buy food for all these people.”

I begged your disciples to cast it out, and they couldn’t.”

Jesus answered, “Faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.”

But they didn’t understand this saying. It was concealed from them, that they should not perceive it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”

Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven.

When the multitudes were gathering together to him, he began to say, “This is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. No sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.

Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn’t darkness.

But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My lord delays his coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and to be drunken,

“He said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’

“He said to him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.’”

They understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they didn’t understand the things that were said.

for I feared you, because you are an exacting man. You take up that which you didn’t lay down, and reap that which you didn’t sow.’

They asked him, “Tell us: by what authority do you do these things? Or who is giving you this authority?”

They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’

They answered that they didn’t know where it was from.

Some of the Sadducees came to him, those who deny that there is a resurrection.

He said, “Watch out that you don’t get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is at hand.’ Therefore don’t follow them.

They began to question amongst themselves which of them it was who would do this thing.

He said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will by no means crow today until you deny that you know me three times.”

He denied Jesus, saying, “Woman, I don’t know him.”

After a little while someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them!” But Peter answered, “Man, I am not!”

But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about!” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.

“If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you won’t believe,

They entered in, and didn’t find the Lord Jesus’ body.

These words seemed to them to be nonsense, and they didn’t believe them.

Some of us went to the tomb and found it just like the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”

He said to them, “Foolish people, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

He said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts?

While they still didn’t believe for joy, and wondered, he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”

Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

The Jews therefore answered him, “What sign do you show us, seeing that you do these things?”

The Jews therefore said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple! Will you raise it up in three days?”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Nicodemus answered him, “How can these things be?”

Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and don’t understand these things?

Most certainly I tell you, we speak that which we know and testify of that which we have seen, and you don’t receive our witness.

If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Therefore a dispute arose on the part of John’s disciples with some Jews about purification.

The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his children and his livestock?”

Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”

But if you don’t believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may receive a little.”

“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these amongst so many?”

They said therefore to him, “What then do you do for a sign, that we may see and believe you? What work do you do?

But I told you that you have seen me, and yet you don’t believe.

The Jews therefore murmured concerning him, because he said, “I am the bread which came down out of heaven.”

They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”

The Jews therefore contended with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it?”

But Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble?

Then what if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

But there are some of you who don’t believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who didn’t believe, and who it was who would betray him.

At this, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.

Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You don’t also want to go away, do you?”

His brothers therefore said to him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do.

For no one does anything in secret while he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.”

For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.

The Jews therefore sought him at the feast, and said, “Where is he?”

There was much murmuring amongst the multitudes concerning him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others said, “Not so, but he leads the multitude astray.”

The Jews therefore said amongst themselves, “Where will this man go that we won’t find him? Will he go to the Dispersion amongst the Greeks and teach the Greeks?

What is this word that he said, ‘You will seek me, and won’t find me;’ and ‘Where I am, you can’t come’?”

Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “What, does the Christ come out of Galilee?

So a division arose in the multitude because of him.

The Pharisees therefore answered them, “You aren’t also led astray, are you?

Have any of the rulers or any of the Pharisees believed in him?

They answered him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and see that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”

The Pharisees therefore said to him, “You testify about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

The Jews therefore said, “Will he kill himself, because he says, ‘Where I am going, you can’t come’?”

They said therefore to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.

They didn’t understand that he spoke to them about the Father.

But because I tell the truth, you don’t believe me.

Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

Then the Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets; and you say, ‘If a man keeps my word, he will never taste of death.’

Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”

The Jews therefore said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old! Have you seen Abraham?”

His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Therefore the neighbours and those who saw that he was blind before said, “Isn’t this he who sat and begged?”

Others were saying, “It is he.” Still others were saying, “He looks like him.” He said, “I am he.”

Then they asked him, “Where is he?” He said, “I don’t know.”

Some therefore of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” So there was division amongst them.

The Jews therefore didn’t believe concerning him, that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight,

and asked them, “Is this your son, whom you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”

Those of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?”

Therefore a division arose again amongst the Jews because of these words.

Many of them said, “He has a demon and is insane! Why do you listen to him?”

The Jews therefore came around him and said to him, “How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, these testify about me.

But you don’t believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you.

Some of them said, “Couldn’t this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also kept this man from dying?”

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

Then they sought for Jesus and spoke with one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think—that he isn’t coming to the feast at all?”

Therefore the multitude who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”

The multitude answered him, “We have heard out of the law that the Christ remains forever. How do you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”

But though he had done so many signs before them, yet they didn’t believe in him,

that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

For this cause they couldn’t believe, for Isaiah said again:

Then he came to Simon Peter. He said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”

The disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom he spoke.

Now nobody at the table knew why he said this to him.

Jesus answered him, “Will you lay down your life for me? Most certainly I tell you, the rooster won’t crow until you have denied me three times.

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”

about sin, because they don’t believe in me;

Some of his disciples therefore said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me;’ and, ‘Because I go to the Father’?”

They said therefore, “What is this that he says, ‘A little while’? We don’t know what he is saying.”

Therefore Jesus perceived that they wanted to ask him, and he said to them, “Do you enquire amongst yourselves concerning this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you won’t see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’?

Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?

Then the maid who kept the door said to Peter, “Are you also one of this man’s disciples?” He said, “I am not.”

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said therefore to him, “You aren’t also one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.”

Peter therefore denied it again, and immediately the rooster crowed.

Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he didn’t enter in.

For as yet they didn’t know the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, and didn’t know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn’t with them when Jesus came.

The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.”

They were all amazed and were perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,

saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’

But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who used to practise sorcery in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, making himself out to be some great one,

to whom they all listened, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is that great power of God.”

They listened to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his sorceries.

When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join himself to the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.

Now while Peter was very perplexed in himself what the vision which he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made enquiry for Simon’s house, stood before the gate,

And he went out and followed him. He didn’t know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he saw a vision.

They said to her, “You are crazy!” But she insisted that it was so. They said, “It is his angel.”

‘Behold, you scoffers! Wonder and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which you will in no way believe, if one declares it to you.’”

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this.”

But some of the itinerant Jews, exorcists, took on themselves to invoke over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.”

They have been informed about you, that you teach all the Jews who are amongst the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children and not to walk after the customs.

For they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian, with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

Aren’t you then the Egyptian who before these days stirred up to sedition and led out into the wilderness the four thousand men of the Assassins?”

As he thus made his defence, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!”

Agrippa said to Paul, “With a little persuasion are you trying to make me a Christian?”

Some believed the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved.

Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,

You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?”

But they didn’t all listen to the glad news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”

But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because it isn’t of faith; and whatever is not of faith is sin.

Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some amongst you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised.

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?”

When I therefore planned this, did I show fickleness? Or the things that I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be the “Yes, yes” and the “No, no?”

Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain?

that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;

I desire therefore that the men in every place pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and doubting.

But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons,

through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron,

men who have erred concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past, and overthrowing the faith of some.

and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn away to fables.

For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,

where your fathers tested me and tried me, and saw my deeds for forty years.

Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there might be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;

We see that they weren’t able to enter in because of unbelief.

But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.

For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts

and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who doesn’t believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don’t confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist.