The Sign of Jonah

²⁹ As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a ^[a]sign, and yet no ^[b]sign will be given to it but the ^[c]sign of Jonah. ³⁰ For just as Jonah became a ^[d]sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. ³¹ The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. ³² The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

³³ “No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar nor under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴ The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is ^[e]clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is ^[f]bad, your body also is full of darkness. ³⁵ Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness. ³⁶ If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it will be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.”

Woes upon the Pharisees

³⁷ Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee *asked Him to have lunch with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. ³⁸ When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ^[g]ceremonially washed before the ^[h]meal. ³⁹ But the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but ^[i]inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. ⁴⁰ You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹ But give that which is within as charity, and ^[j]then all things are clean for you.

⁴² “But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. ⁴³ Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. ⁴⁴ Woe to you! For you are like ^[k]concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.”

⁴⁵ One of the ^[l]lawyers *said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too.” ⁴⁶ But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, ^[m]while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers. ⁴⁷ Woe to you! For you build the ^[n]tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them. ⁴⁸ So you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹ For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will ^[o]persecute, ⁵⁰ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be ^[p]charged against this generation, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be ^[q]charged against this generation.’ ⁵² Woe to you ^[r]lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.”

⁵³ When He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects, ⁵⁴ plotting against Him to catch ^[s]Him in something He might say.

Judgment of Egypt

29 In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth of the month, the word of the Lord came to me saying, ² “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. ³ Speak and say, ‘Thus says the Lord ^[a]God,

⁸ ‘Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will bring upon you a sword and I will cut off from you man and beast. ⁹ The land of Egypt will become a desolation and waste. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Because ^[l]you said, ‘The Nile is mine, and I have made it,’ ¹⁰ therefore, behold, I am against you and against your ^[m]rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene and even to the border of ^[n]Ethiopia. ¹¹ A man’s foot will not pass through it, and the foot of a beast will not pass through it, and it will not be inhabited for forty years. ¹² So I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated lands. And her cities, in the midst of cities that are laid waste, will be desolate forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the lands.”

¹³ ‘For thus says the Lord God, “At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples ^[o]among whom they were scattered. ¹⁴ I will turn the fortunes of Egypt and make them return to the land of Pathros, to the land of their origin, and there they will be a lowly kingdom. ¹⁵ It will be the lowest of the kingdoms, and it will never again lift itself up above the nations. And I will make them so small that they will not rule over the nations. ¹⁶ And it will never again be the confidence of the house of Israel, ^[p]bringing to mind the iniquity of their having turned ^[q]to Egypt. Then they will know that I am the Lord God.”’”

¹⁷ Now in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me saying, ¹⁸ “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor ^[r]hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare. But he and his army had no wages from Tyre for the labor that he had ^[s]performed against it.” ¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And he will carry off her ^[t]wealth and capture her spoil and seize her plunder; and it will be wages for his army. ²⁰ I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor which he ^[u]performed, because they acted for Me,” declares the Lord God.

²¹ “On that day I will make a horn sprout for the house of Israel, and I will ^[v]open your mouth in their midst. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”