1 Esdras 2:8View Full Chapter

⁸ When King Cyrus of the Persians brought these out, he handed them over to Mithridates, his own treasurer, and through him they were given over to Governor Sheshbazzar of Judea.

1 Esdras 2:12View Full Chapter

Opposition to rebuilding Jerusalem

¹² Then during the time of King Artaxerxes of the Persians, Bishlam, Mithridates, Tabeel, Rehum, Beltethmus, Shimshai the scribe, and others associated with them living in Samaria and other places nearby wrote the king a letter, opposing those who were living in Judea and Jerusalem:

1 Esdras 2:14View Full Chapter

1 Esdras 2:17View Full Chapter

1 Esdras 4:45View Full Chapter

⁴⁵ You also solemnly swore to rebuild the temple, which was burned down by the Edomites when Judea was devastated by the Chaldeans.

1 Esdras 4:49View Full Chapter

⁴⁹ He wrote on behalf of all the Judeans who were going up from the kingdom to Judea, for the benefit of their freedom, that no administrator, district governor, or treasurer should break down their doors.

1 Esdras 4:50View Full Chapter

⁵⁰ He wrote that all the territory they forcibly took was for them to live in without taxation, and that the Idumeans should leave behind the villages of the Judeans that they had seized.

1 Esdras 5:7View Full Chapter

⁷ These are the ones from Judea who came up out of their captivity in exile, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had taken to Babylon

1 Esdras 5:8View Full Chapter

⁸ and who returned to Jerusalem and Judea, each to their own city. They came with their leaders Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Resaiah, Eneneus, Mordecai, Beelsarus, Aspharasus, Reelaiah, Rehum, and Baanah.

1 Esdras 5:55View Full Chapter

⁵⁵ They then laid the foundation of God’s temple on the new moon of the second month in the second year of their arrival in Judea and Jerusalem.

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