Study Desk

So I shepherded the flock for slaughter, truly the most miserable of the sheep; and I took two staffs for myself. I called the one No‘am [pleasantness], the other I called Hovalim [bound together], and I shepherded the flock.

I said to them, "If it seems good to you, give me my wages; if not, don't." So they weighed out my wages, thirty silver [shekels, that is, twelve ounces].

Concerning that "princely sum" at which they valued me, Adonai said, "Throw it into the treasury!" So I took the thirty silver [shekels] and threw them into the treasury in the house of Adonai .

Adonai will save the tents of Y'hudah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of those living in Yerushalayim will not appear greater than that of Y'hudah.

"When that day comes," says Adonai -Tzva'ot, "I will cut off the very names of the idols from the land, so that no one even remembers them any more. I will also expel the [false] prophets and the spirit of uncleanness from the land;

so that if anyone continues to prophesy, his own father and mother who brought him into the world will tell him, ‘You cannot continue to live, because you are speaking lies in the name of Adonai '; then his own father and mother who brought him into the world will stab him to death.

When that day comes, there will be among them great panic, sent by Adonai , so that everyone lays hands on his neighbor, who in turn attacks him.

so that there's nothing wrong with offering a blind animal as a sacrifice, nothing wrong with offering an animal that's lame or sick. Try offering such an animal to your governor, and see if he will be pleased with you! Would he even receive you?" asks Adonai -Tzva'ot.

So if you pray now that God will show us favor, what your actions have accomplished is that Adonai -Tzva'ot asks, "Will he receive any of you?

"But you profane it by saying that the table of Adonai is polluted, so that the fruit and food offered deserve contempt.

You also say, ‘It's all so tiresome!' and sniff scornfully at it," says Adonai -Tzva'ot. "Then you bring animals that were taken by violence, or they are lame or sick. This is the sort of offering you bring. Am I supposed to accept this from you?" asks Adonai .

He will sit, testing and purifying the silver; he will purify the sons of Levi, refining them like gold and silver, so that they can bring offerings to Adonai uprightly.

Bring the whole tenth into the storehouse, so that there will be food in my house, and put me to the test," says Adonai -Tzva'ot. "See if I won't open for you the floodgates of heaven and pour out for you a blessing far beyond your needs.

Her husband-to-be, Yosef, was a man who did what was right; so he made plans to break the engagement quietly, rather than put her to public shame.

When King Herod heard of this he became very agitated, and so did everyone else in Yerushalayim.

Then he sent them to Beit-Lechem with these instructions: "Search carefully for the child; and when you find him, let me know, so that I too may go and worship him."

But they had been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, so they took another route back to their own country.

So he got up, took the child and his mother, and left during the night for Egypt,

So he got up, took the child and his mother, and went back to Eretz-Yisra'el.

and settled in a town called Natzeret, so that what had been spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he will be called a Natzrati.