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1 Maccabees 11:34View Full Chapter
34 We have confirmed, as their possession, the territory of Judea and the three districts of Aphairema, Lydda, and Rathamin. The latter districts, with the entire region bordering them, were added to Judea from Samaria. To all those who offer sacrifice in Jerusalem, we have granted release from the royal taxes the king formerly received from them each year, from the crops of the land and the fruit of the trees.
1 Maccabees 12:35View Full Chapter
35 When Jonathan returned to Jerusalem, he assembled the elders of the people and planned with them how to build fortresses in Judea.
1 Maccabees 13:31View Full Chapter
Judea gains independence
31 Trypho dealt dishonestly with the young king Antiochus and killed him.
1 Maccabees 13:33View Full Chapter
33 But Simon built up the fortresses of Judea and put protection all around them with high towers, great walls, gates, and bolts. In addition, he stored food in the fortresses.
1 Maccabees 14:33View Full Chapter
33 He fortified the towns of Judea and Beth-zur on the borders of Judea, where enemy weapons had been stored in the past, and placed a group of Jewish soldiers there.
1 Maccabees 15:30View Full Chapter
30 Now hand over the cities that you have captured and the money you have received from the places you have conquered beyond Judea’s borders.
1 Maccabees 15:39View Full Chapter
39 He commanded him to camp against Judea, to secure Kedron and its gates, and to wage war against the people. Then the king went to hunt down Trypho.
1 Maccabees 15:40View Full Chapter
40 Cendebeus came to Jamnia and bothered the people. He invaded Judea and killed the prisoners of war.
1 Maccabees 15:41View Full Chapter
41 Following the king’s orders, he fortified Kedron. He stationed cavalry and troops there so that they could go out and raid along the roads of Judea.
1 Maccabees 16:10View Full Chapter
10 Some also fled into the towers that were in the fields of Azotus. John burned them down, killing about two thousand. Then he safely returned to Judea.
JudeView Full Chapter
Greeting
1 Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James.
To those who are called, loved by God the Father and kept safe by Jesus Christ.
2 May you have more and more mercy, peace, and love.
Certain judgment of the false teachers
3 Dear friends, I wanted very much to write to you concerning the salvation we share. Instead, I must write to urge you to fight for the faith delivered once and for all to God’s holy people. 4 Godless people have slipped in among you. They turn the grace of our God into unrestrained immorality and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Judgment was passed against them a long time ago.
5 I want to remind you of something you already know very well. The Lord, who once saved a people out of Egypt, later destroyed those who didn’t maintain their faith. 6 I remind you too of the angels who didn’t keep their position of authority but deserted their own home. The Lord has kept them in eternal chains in the underworld until the judgment of the great day. 7 In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah and neighboring towns practiced immoral sexual relations and pursued other sexual urges. By undergoing the punishment of eternal fire, they serve as a warning.
8 Yet, even knowing this, these dreamers in the same way pollute themselves, reject authority, and slander the angels. 9 The archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil about Moses’ body, did not dare charge him with slander. Instead, he said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these people slander whatever they don’t understand. They are destroyed by what they know instinctively, as though they were irrational animals.
Prophecies about the false teachers
11 They are damned, for they follow in the footsteps of Cain. For profit they give themselves over to Balaam’s error. They are destroyed in the uprising of Korah. 12 These people are like jagged rocks just below the surface of the water waiting to snag you when they join your love feasts. They feast with you without reverence. They care only for themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; fruitless autumn trees, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom the darkness of the underworld is reserved forever.
14 Enoch, who lived seven generations after Adam, prophesied about these people when he said, “See, the Lord comes with his countless holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on everyone and to convict everyone about every ungodly deed they have committed in their ungodliness as well as all the harsh things that sinful ungodly people have said against him.” 16 These are faultfinding grumblers, living according to their own desires. They speak arrogant words and they show partiality to people when they want a favor in return.
17 But you, dear friends, remember the words spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the end time scoffers will come living according to their own ungodly desires.” 19 These people create divisions. Since they don’t have the Spirit, they are worldly.
A strategy for the faithful
20 But you, dear friends: build each other up on the foundation of your most holy faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep each other in the love of God, wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will give you eternal life. 22 Have mercy on those who doubt. 23 Save some by snatching them from the fire. Fearing God, have mercy on some, hating even the clothing contaminated by their sinful urges.
Blessing
24 To the one who is able to protect you from falling,
and to present you blameless and rejoicing before his glorious presence,
25 to the only God our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
belong glory, majesty, power, and authority,
before all time, now and forever. Amen.