The Defiling of Dinah

1 Now ^fDinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. 2 And when Shechem the son of ^gHamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. 3 And his soul was drawn to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 4 So Shechem ^hspoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl for my wife.”

5 Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah. But his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. 6 And Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7 The sons of Jacob had come in from the field as soon as they heard of it, and the men were indignant and ⁱvery angry, because he ^jhad done an outrageous thing in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter, ^kfor such a thing must not be done.

8 But Hamor spoke with them, saying, “The soul of my son Shechem longs for your¹ daughter. Please give her to him to be his wife. 9 Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 You shall dwell with us, and ^lthe land shall be open to you. Dwell and ^mtrade in it, and ⁿget property in it.” 11 Shechem also said to her father and to her brothers, ^o“Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you say to me I will give. 12 Ask me for as great a ^pbride-price² and gift as you will, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the young woman to be my wife.”

13 The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. 14 They said to them, “We cannot do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised, for ^qthat would be a disgrace to us. 15 Only on this condition will we agree with you—that you will become as we are by every male among you being circumcised. 16 Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to ourselves, and we will dwell with you and become one people. 17 But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter, and we will be gone.”

18 Their words pleased Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. 19 And the young man did not delay to do the thing, because he delighted in Jacob’s daughter. Now ^rhe was the most honored of all his father’s house. 20 So Hamor and his son Shechem ^scame to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city, saying, 21 “These men are at peace with us; let them dwell in the land and ^ttrade in it, for behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives, and let us give them our daughters. 22 Only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us to become one people—when every male among us is circumcised as they are circumcised. 23 Will not their livestock, their property and all their beasts be ours? Only let us agree with them, and they will dwell with us.” 24 And all who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male was circumcised, all who ^uwent out of the gate of his city.

25 On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, ^vSimeon and Levi, ^wDinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. 26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house and went away. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. 28 They took their flocks and their herds, their donkeys, and whatever was in the city and in the field. 29 All their wealth, all their little ones and their wives, all that was in the houses, they captured and plundered.

30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, ^x“You have brought trouble on me ^yby making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, ^zthe Canaanites and the Perizzites. ^aMy numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.” 31 But they said, “Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?”

God Blesses and Renames Jacob

1 God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to ^bBethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you ^cwhen you fled from your brother Esau.” 2 So Jacob said to his ^dhousehold and to all who were with him, “Put away ^ethe foreign gods that are among you and ^fpurify yourselves and change your garments. 3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God ^gwho answers me in the day of my distress and ^hhas been with me wherever I have gone.” 4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under ⁱthe terebinth tree that was near Shechem.

5 And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. 6 And Jacob came to ^jLuz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him, 7 and there he built an altar and called the place El-bethel,³ because ^kthere God had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother. 8 And ^lDeborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So he called its name Allon-bacuth.⁴

9 God appeared⁵ to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; ^mno longer shall your name be called Jacob, but ⁿIsrael shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel. 11 And God said to him, ^o“I am God Almighty:⁶ be ^pfruitful and multiply. ^qA nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.⁷ 12 ^rThe land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.” 13 Then God ^swent up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. 14 And Jacob ^tset up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. 15 So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him ^uBethel.

The Deaths of Rachel and Isaac

16 Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance⁸ from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor, and she had hard labor. 17 And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Do not fear, for ^vyou have another son.” 18 And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni;^{9 w}but his father called him Benjamin.¹⁰ 19 So ^xRachel died, and she was buried on the way to ^yEphrath (that is, Bethlehem), 20 and Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is ^zthe pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day. 21 Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder.

22 While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and ^alay with Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it.

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. 23 The sons of Leah: ^bReuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. 24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. 25 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant: Dan and Naphtali. 26 The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.

27 And Jacob came to his father Isaac at ^cMamre, or ^dKiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. 28 Now the days of Isaac were 180 years. 29 And Isaac breathed his last, and he died ^eand was gathered to his people, old and full of days. And ^fhis sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

1 And again Jesus ^ospoke to them in parables, saying, 2 ^p“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave ^qa wedding feast for his son, 3 and ^rsent his servants¹ to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 ^sAgain he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my ^tdinner, ^umy oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ 5 But ^vthey paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, ^wtreated them shamefully, and ^xkilled them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and ^ydestroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not ^zworthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and ^bgathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there ^ca man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ^d‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and ^ecast him into the outer darkness. In that place ^ethere will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are ^fcalled, but few are ^fchosen.”

Paying Taxes to Caesar

15 ^gThen the Pharisees went and plotted how ^hto entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent ⁱtheir disciples to him, along with ^jthe Herodians, saying, “Teacher, ^kwe know that you are true and teach ^lthe way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for ^myou are not swayed by appearances.² 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay ⁿtaxes to ^oCaesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why ^pput me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.³ 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, ^q“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they ^rleft him and went away.

Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

23 The same day ^sSadducees came to him, ^twho say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ^u‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”

29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, ^vbecause you know neither the Scriptures nor ^wthe power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither ^xmarry nor ^xare given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, ^yhave you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ^z‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 33 And when the crowd heard it, ^athey were astonished at his teaching.

The Great Commandment

34 ^bBut when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced ^cthe Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 ^dAnd one of them, ^ea lawyer, asked him a question ^fto test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, ^g“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And ^ha second is like it: ⁱYou shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 ^jOn these two commandments depend ^kall the Law and the Prophets.”

Whose Son Is the Christ?

41 ^lNow while the Pharisees ^mwere gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about ⁿthe Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, ⁿ“The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, ^oin the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

45 If then David calls him Lord, ^qhow is he his son?” 46 ^rAnd no one was able to answer him a word, ^snor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.