The Widow’s Gift

21 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. ² And He saw a poor widow putting ^[a]in two ^[b]small copper coins. ³ And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; ⁴ for they all out of their ^[c]surplus put into the ^[d]offering; but she out of her poverty put in all ^[e]that she had to live on.”

⁵ And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts, He said, ⁶ “As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.”

⁷ They questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, when therefore will these things happen? And what will be the ^[f]sign when these things are about to take place?” ⁸ And He said, “See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not go after them. ⁹ When you hear of wars and disturbances, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end does not follow immediately.”

Things to Come

¹⁰ Then He continued by saying to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, ¹¹ and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrors and great ^[g]signs from heaven.

¹² “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, ^[h]bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake. ¹³ It will lead to ^[i]an opportunity for your testimony. ¹⁴ So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves; ¹⁵ for I will give you ^[j]utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute. ¹⁶ But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, ¹⁷ and you will be hated by all because of My name. ¹⁸ Yet not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ By your endurance you will gain your ^[k]lives.

²⁰ “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then ^[l]recognize that her desolation is near. ²¹ Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of ^[m]the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter ^[n]the city; ²² because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. ²³ Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the ^[o]land and wrath to this people; ²⁴ and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

The Return of Christ

²⁵ “There will be ^[p]signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, ²⁶ men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the ^[q]world; for the powers of ^[r]the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷ Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

²⁹ Then He told them a parable: “Behold the fig tree and all the trees; ³⁰ as soon as they put forth leaves, you see it and know for yourselves that summer is now near. ³¹ So you also, when you see these things happening, ^[s]recognize that the kingdom of God is near. ³² Truly I say to you, this ^[t]generation will not pass away until all things take place. ³³ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.

³⁴ “Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; ³⁵ for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. ³⁶ But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

³⁷ Now ^[u]during the day He was teaching in the temple, but ^[v]at evening He would go out and spend the night on ^[w]the mount that is called ^[x]Olivet. ³⁸ And all the people would get up early in the morning to come to Him in the temple to listen to Him.

Gate for the Prince

44 Then He brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces the east; and it was shut. ² The Lord said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut. ³ As for the prince, he shall sit in it as prince to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the porch of the gate and shall go out ^[a]by the same way.”

⁴ Then He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the house; and I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and I fell on my face. ⁵ The Lord said to me, “Son of man, ^[b]mark well, see with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the statutes of the house of the Lord and concerning all its laws; and ^[c]mark well the entrance of the house, with all exits of the sanctuary. ⁶ You shall say to the ^[d]rebellious ones, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord ^[e]God, “Enough of all your abominations, O house of Israel, ⁷ when you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to profane it, even My house, when you offered My food, the fat and the blood; for they made My covenant void—this in addition to all your abominations. ⁸ And you have not kept charge of My holy things yourselves, but you have set foreigners ^[f]to keep charge of My sanctuary.”

⁹ ‘Thus says the Lord God, “No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the sons of Israel, shall enter My sanctuary. ¹⁰ But the Levites who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray from Me after their idols, shall bear the punishment for their iniquity. ¹¹ Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the house and ministering in the house; they shall slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. ¹² Because they ministered to them before their idols and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have ^[g]sworn against them,” declares the Lord God, “that they shall bear the punishment for their iniquity. ¹³ And they shall not come near to Me to serve as a priest to Me, nor come near to any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy; but they will bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. ¹⁴ Yet I will ^[h]appoint them ^[i]to keep charge of the house, of all its service and of all that shall be done in it.

Ordinances for the Levites

¹⁵ “But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the sons of Israel went astray from Me, shall come near to Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer Me the fat and the blood,” declares the Lord God. ¹⁶ “They shall enter My sanctuary; they shall come near to My table to minister to Me and keep My charge. ¹⁷ It shall be that when they enter at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and wool shall not ^[j]be on them while they are ministering in the gates of the inner court and in the house. ¹⁸ Linen turbans shall be on their heads and linen undergarments shall be on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything which makes them sweat. ¹⁹ When they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments in which they have been ministering and lay them in the holy chambers; then they shall put on other garments so that they will not transmit holiness to the people with their garments. ²⁰ Also they shall not shave their heads, yet they shall not let their locks ^[k]grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads. ²¹ Nor shall any of the priests drink wine when they enter the inner court. ²² And they shall not ^[l]marry a widow or a divorced woman but shall take virgins from the offspring of the house of Israel, or a widow who is the widow of a priest. ²³ Moreover, they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. ²⁴ In a dispute they shall take their stand to judge; they shall judge it according to My ordinances. They shall also keep My laws and My statutes in all My appointed feasts and sanctify My sabbaths. ^25 [m]They shall not go to a dead person to defile themselves; however, for father, for mother, for son, for daughter, for brother, or for a sister who has not had a husband, they may defile themselves. ²⁶ After he is cleansed, seven days shall ^[n]elapse for him. ²⁷ On the day that he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner court to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering,” declares the Lord God.

²⁸ “And it shall be with regard to an inheritance for them, that I am their inheritance; and you shall give them no possession in Israel—I am their possession. ²⁹ They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering; and every ^[o]devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs. ³⁰ The first of all the first fruits of every kind and every ^[p]contribution of every kind, from all your ^[q]contributions, shall be for the priests; you shall also give to the priest the first of your ^[r]dough to cause a blessing to rest on your house. ³¹ The priests shall not eat any bird or beast that has died a natural death or has been torn to pieces.