21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^p“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them ^qconcerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this command I gave them: ^r‘Obey my voice, and ^sI will be your God, and you shall be my people. ^tAnd walk in all the way that I command you, ^uthat it may be well with you.’ 24 ^vBut they did not obey or incline their ear, ^wbut walked in their own counsels and ^xthe stubbornness of their evil hearts, and ^ywent backward and not forward. 25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, ^zI have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 ^vYet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, ^abut stiffened their neck. ^bThey did worse than their fathers.

27 ^c“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. ^dYou shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; ^etruth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

The Valley of Slaughter

30 “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set ^htheir detestable things in the house ⁱthat is called by my name, to ^hdefile it. 31 And they have built the high places of ^jTopheth, which is in ^kthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^lto burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, ^mwhich I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. 32 ⁿTherefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called ^jTopheth, or ^kthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; ^ofor they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. 33 ^pAnd the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, ^qand none will frighten them away. 34 ^rAnd I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ^sfor the land shall become a waste.

The Promise Realized Through Faith

13 For ^ethe promise to Abraham and his offspring ^fthat he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 ^gFor if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For ^hthe law brings wrath, but ⁱwhere there is no law ^jthere is no transgression.

16 That is why it depends on faith, ^kin order that the promise may rest on grace and ^lbe guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, ^mwho is the father of us all, 17 as it is written, ⁿ“I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, ^owho gives life to the dead and calls into existence ^pthe things that do not exist. 18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, ^q“So shall your offspring be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was ^ras good as dead (^ssince he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered ^tthe barrenness¹ of Sarah’s womb. 20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that ^uGod was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But ^vthe words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us ^wwho believe in ^xhim who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 ^ywho was delivered up for our trespasses and raised ^zfor our justification.

Rivers of Living Water

37 ^yOn the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ^z“If anyone thirsts, let him ^acome to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, ^bas¹ the Scripture has said, ^c‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of ^dliving water.’” 39 Now ^ethis he said about the Spirit, ^fwhom those who believed in him were to receive, ^gfor as yet the Spirit had not been ^hgiven, ⁱbecause Jesus was not yet glorified.

Division Among the People

40 When they heard these words, ^jsome of the people said, “This really is ^kthe Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is ^lthe Christ.” But some said, ^m“Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes ⁿfrom the offspring of David, and comes ^ofrom Bethlehem, the village ^pwhere David was?” 43 So there was ^qa division among the people over him. 44 ^rSome of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45 ^sThe officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46 The officers answered, ^t“No one ever spoke like this man!” 47 The Pharisees answered them, ^u“Have you also been deceived? 48 ^vHave any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50 ^wNicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 ^x“Does our law judge a man without first ^ygiving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52 They replied, ^z“Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that ^ano prophet arises from Galilee.”