American Standard Version of 1901
Versliste
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judæa, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituræa and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
in the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
And he came into all the region round about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins;
as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, {Isaiah 40:3 ff.}The voice of one crying in the wilderness,Make ye ready the way of the Lord,Make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,And every mountain and hill shall be brought low;And the crooked shall become straight,And the rough ways smooth;
And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
He said therefore to the multitudes that went out to be baptized of him, Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bring forth therefore fruits worthy {Or, your repentance}of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
And even now the axe also lieth at the root of the trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
And the multitudes asked him, saying, What then must we do?
And he answered and said unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath food, let him do likewise.
And there came also {That is collectors or renters of Roman taxes.}publicans to be baptized, and they said unto him, Teacher, what must we do?
And he said unto them, Extort no more than that which is appointed you.
And {Greek: soldiers on service.}soldiers also asked him, saying, And we, what must we do? And he said unto them, Extort from no man by violence, neither accuse any one wrongfully; and be content with your wages.
And as the people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether haply he were the Christ;
John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but there cometh he that is mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not {Greek: sufficient.}worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you {Or, with}in the Holy Spirit and in fire:
whose fan is in his hand, thoroughly to cleanse his threshing-floor, and to gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.
With many other exhortations therefore preached he {Or, the gospel}good tidings unto the people;
but Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother's wife, and for all the evil things which Herod had done,
added this also to them all, that he shut up John in prison.
Now it came to pass, when all the people were baptized, that, Jesus also having been baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,
and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon him, and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son: in thee I am well pleased.
And Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,
the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph,
the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai,
the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda,
the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of {Greek: Salathiel.}Shealtiel, the son of Neri,
the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er,
the son of Jesus, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi,
the son of Symeon, the son of Judas, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,
the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,
the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of {Some ancient authorities write Sala.}Salmon, the son of Nahshon,
the son of Amminadab, {Many ancient authorities insert the son of Admin and one writes Admin for Amminadab.}the son of {Some ancient authorities write Aram.}Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah,
the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor,
the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah,
the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech,
the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan,
the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
And Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,
but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.
And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days.
Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob;And hearken unto Israel your father.
Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the {Or, first-fruits}beginning of my strength;The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.
Boiling over as water, {Or, have not thou}thou shalt not have the pre-eminence;Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed;Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.
Simeon and Levi are brethren;Weapons of violence are their {Or, compacts}swords.
O my soul, come not thou into their {Or, secret}council;Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united;For in their anger they slew {Or, men}a man,And in their self-will they hocked {Or, oxen}an ox.
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce;And their wrath, for it was cruel:I will divide them in Jacob,And scatter them in Israel.
Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise:Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies;Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee.
Judah is a lion's whelp;From the prey, my son, thou art gone up:He stooped down, he couched as a lion,And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,Nor {Or, a lawgiver}the ruler's staff from between his feet, {Or, Til he come to Shiloh, having the obedience of the peoples Or, according to Syriac, Til he come whose it is &c.}Until Shiloh come:And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.
Binding his foal unto the vine,And his ass's colt unto the choice vine;He hath washed his garments in wine,And his vesture in the blood of grapes:
His eyes shall be red with wine,And his teeth white with milk.
Zebulun shall dwell at the {Hebrew: beach.}haven of the sea;And he shall be for a {Hebrew: beach.}haven of ships;And his border shall be {Or, by}upon Sidon.
Issachar is a strong ass,Couching down between the sheepfolds:
And he saw {Or, rest}a resting-place that it was good,And the land that it was pleasant;And he bowed his shoulder to bear,And became a servant under taskwork.
Dan shall judge his people,As one of the tribes of Israel.
Dan shall be a serpent in the way,An {Or, horned snake}adder in the path,That biteth the horse's heels,So that his rider falleth backward.
I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah.
Gad, {Hebrew: gedud, a marauding band.}a troop {Hebrew: gad, to press.}shall press upon him;But he shall press upon their heel.
Out of Asher his bread shall be fat,And he shall yield royal dainties.
Naphtali is a hind let loose:He giveth goodly words.
Joseph is {Hebrew: the son of a fruitful tree.}a fruitful bough,A fruitful bough by a fountain;His {Hebrew: daughters.}branches run over the wall.
The archers have sorely grieved him,And shot at him, and persecuted him:
But his bow abode in strength,And the arms of his hands were made {Or, active}strong,By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob( {Or, From hence from the shepherd Or, as otherwise read, By the name of the shepherd}From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),
Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee,And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee,With blessings of heaven above,Blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath,Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.
The blessings of thy fatherHave prevailed above the blessings of my progenitorsUnto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills:They shall be on the head of Joseph,And on the crown of the head of him {Or, that is prince among}that was separate from his brethren.
Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth:In the morning she shall devour the prey,And at even he shall divide the spoil.
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.
And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place.
There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah—
the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth.
And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.
but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
But he answered and said, I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And Jehovah said, Call his name {That is, Not my people.}Lo-ammi; for ye are not my people, and I will not be {Hebrew: for you.}your God.
Now it came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all {Greek: the inhabited earth.}the world should be enrolled.
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judæa, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituræa and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
Thou, O king, art king of kings, unto whom the God of heaven hath given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory;
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all the nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
And I will sow her unto me in the {Or, land}earth; and I will have mercy upon {Hebrew: Lo-ruhamah. See chapter 1:6.}her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to {Hebrew: Lo-ammi. See chapter 1:9, 10.}them that were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.
And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins.
And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife; and he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah.
And the word of Jehovah came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who dwelleth in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to take possession of it.
And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, Hast thou killed and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.
And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to do that which is evil in the sight of Jehovah.
Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will utterly sweep thee away and will cut off from Ahab every man-child, and him that is shut up and him that is left at large in Israel:
and I will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and hast made Israel to sin.
And of Jezebel also spake Jehovah, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel.
Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the birds of the heavens eat.
(But there was none like unto Ahab, who did sell himself to do that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.
And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Jehovah cast out before the children of Israel.)
thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me,
And Jehovah said unto Jehu, Because thou hast {Or, excuted well}done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, thy sons of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.
Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the birds of the heavens eat.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.
He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.
And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her, and went in unto her.
And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er.
And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan.
And she yet again bare a son, and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him.
And Judah took a wife for Er his first-born, and her name was Tamar.
And Er, Judah's first-born, was wicked in the sight of Jehovah; and Jehovah slew him.
And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
And Onan knew that the seed would not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest he should give seed to his brother.
And the thing which he did was evil in the sight of Jehovah: and he slew him also.
Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow in thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown up; for he said, Lest he also die, like his brethren. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.
And in process of time Shua's daughter, the wife of Judah, died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheep-shearers to Timnah, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnah to shear his sheep.
And she put off from her the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she was not given unto him to wife.
When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot; for she had covered her face.
And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Come, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee: for he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?
And he said, I will send thee a kid of the goats from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it?
And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet and thy cord, and thy staff that is in thy hand. And he gave them to her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.
And she arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.
And Judah sent the kid of the goats by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman's hand: but he found her not.
Then he asked the men of her place, saying, Where is the {Hebrew: kedeshah, that is, a woman dedicated to impure heathen worship. See Deuteronomy 23:17; Hosea 4:14.}prostitute, that was at Enaim by the wayside? And they said, There hath been no {Hebrew: kedeshah, that is, a woman dedicated to impure heathen worship. See Deuteronomy 23:17; Hosea 4:14.}prostitute here.
And he returned to Judah, and said, I have not found her; and also the men of the place said, There hath been no {Hebrew: kedeshah, that is, a woman dedicated to impure heathen worship. See Deuteronomy 23:17; Hosea 4:14.}prostitute here.
And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be put to shame: behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.
And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath played the harlot; and moreover, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.
When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and the cords, and the staff.
And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She is more righteous than I; forasmuch as I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.
And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb.
And it came to pass, when she travailed, that one put out a hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first.
And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, {Or, How hast thou made a breach! a breach be upon thee!}Wherefore hast thou made a breach for thyself? therefore his name was called {That is, A breach.}Perez.
And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zerah.
An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of Jehovah; even to the tenth generation shall none belonging to them enter into the assembly of Jehovah for ever:
Neither shall he regard the gods of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall magnify himself above all.
And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
And the first-born said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
And they made their father drink wine that night: and the first-born went in, and lay with her father; and he knew not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
And it came to pass on the morrow, that the first-born said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also. And go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
And they made their father drink wine that night also; and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he knew not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
And the first-born bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day.
And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Ben-ammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day.
And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also {Or, that which is to be born shall be called holy, the Son of God}the holy thing which is begotten {Some ancient authorities insert of thee.} shall be called the Son of God.
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through {Or, his eternal spirit}the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse {Many ancient authorities read our.}your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?