Luke 11-12

Luke 11

¹And it came about that he was in prayer in a certain place, and when he came to an end, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, will you give us teaching about prayer, as John did to his disciples?

²And he said to them, When you say your prayers, say, Father, may your name be kept holy and your kingdom come.

³Give us every day bread for our needs.

⁴May we have forgiveness for our sins, as we make free all those who are in debt to us. And let us not be put to the test.

⁵And he said to them, Which of you, having a friend, would go to him in the middle of the night and say to him, Friend, let me have three cakes of bread;

⁶Because a friend of mine has come to me on a journey, and I have nothing to put before him;

⁷And he, from inside the house, would say in answer, Do not be a trouble to me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; it is not possible for me to get up and give to you?

⁸I say to you, Though he will not get up and give to him, because he is his friend, still, if he keeps on making his request, he will get up and give him as much as he has need of.

⁹And I say to you, Make requests, and they will be answered; what you are searching for, you will get; when you give the sign, the door will be open to you.

¹⁰For to everyone who makes a request, it will be given; and he who is searching will get his desire; and to him who gives the sign, the door will be open.

¹¹And which of you, being a father, will give a stone to his son, who makes request for bread? or for a fish, will give him a snake?

¹²Or for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

¹³If, then, you who are evil are able to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who make request to him?

¹⁴And he was sending an evil spirit out of a man who was without the power of talking. And it came about that when the spirit had gone the man had the power of talking; and the people were full of wonder.

¹⁵But some of them said, He sends out evil spirits by Beelzebul, the ruler of evil spirits.

¹⁶And others, testing him, were looking for a sign from heaven from him.

¹⁷But he, having knowledge of their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom in which there is division is made waste; and a house in which there is division comes to destruction.

¹⁸If, then, Satan is at war with himself, how will he keep his kingdom? because you say that I send evil spirits out of men by the help of Beelzebul.

¹⁹And if I, by Beelzebul, send out evil spirits, by whose help do your sons send them out? so let them be your judges.

²⁰But if I, by the finger of God, send out evil spirits, then the kingdom of God has overtaken you.

²¹When the strong man armed keeps watch over his house, then his goods are safe:

²²But when one who is stronger makes an attack on him and overcomes him, he takes away his instruments of war, in which he had put his faith, and makes division of his goods.

²³He who is not with me is against me, and he who will not give me help in getting people together is driving them away.

²⁴The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of a man, goes through dry places, looking for rest; and when he does not get it, he says, I will go back to my house from which I came.

²⁵And when he comes, he sees that it has been made fair and clean.

²⁶Then he goes and gets seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they go in, and take their places there: and the last condition of that man is worse than the first.

²⁷And it came about that when he said these things, a certain woman among the people said in a loud voice, Happy is the body which gave you birth, and the breasts from which you took milk.

²⁸But he said, More happy are they who give hearing to the word of God and keep it.

²⁹And when a great number of people came together to him, he said, This generation is an evil generation: it is looking for a sign and no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah.

³⁰For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of man be to this generation.

³¹The queen of the South will come up on the day of judging and give her decision against the men of this generation: for she came from the ends of the earth to give ear to the wisdom of Solomon; and now something greater than Solomon is here.

³²The men of Nineveh will come up in the day of judging and give their decision against this generation: for they were turned away from their sins at the preaching of Jonah; but now something greater than Jonah is here.

³³No man, when the light has been lighted, puts it in a secret place, or under a vessel, but on its table, so that those who come in may see the light.

³⁴The light of the body is the eye: when your eye is true, all your body is full of light; but when it is evil, your body is dark.

³⁵So take care that the light which is in you is not dark.

³⁶If, then, all your body is light, with no part of it dark, it will be completely full of light, as when a flame with its bright shining gives you light.

³⁷Now, while he was talking, a Pharisee made a request that he would come to a meal with him; and he went in and took his seat at the meal.

³⁸And when the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised because he came to the meal without first washing himself.

³⁹And the Lord said to him, You Pharisees make the outside of the cup and the plate clean; but inside you are thieves and full of evil.

⁴⁰O you foolish ones! did not he who made the outside in the same way make the inside?

⁴¹But if you give to the poor such things as you are able, then all things are clean to you.

⁴²But a curse is on you, Pharisees! for you make men give a tenth of every sort of plant, and give no thought to right and the love of God; but it is right for you to do these things, and not let the others be undone.

⁴³A curse is on you, Pharisees! for your desires are for the most important seats in the Synagogues and for words of respect said to you in the market-place.

⁴⁴A curse is on you! for you are like the resting-places of dead men, which are not seen, and men go walking over them without knowledge of it.

⁴⁵And one of the teachers of the law, answering, said to him, Master, in saying this, you give a bad name to us as to them.

⁴⁶And he said, A curse is on you, teachers of the law! for while other men are crushed under the weight of the rules you make for them, you yourselves do not put so much as one finger to them.

⁴⁷A curse is on you! for you make resting-places for the bodies of the prophets, but your fathers put them to death.

⁴⁸So you are witnesses and give approval to the work of your fathers; for they put them to death and you make their last resting-places.

⁴⁹For this reason the wisdom of God has said, I will send them prophets and teachers, and to some of them they will give death and cruel pains;

⁵⁰So that punishment may come on this generation for the blood of all the prophets which was given from the earliest days;

⁵¹From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who was put to death between the altar and the Temple. Yes, I say to you, It will come on this generation.

⁵²A curse is on you, teachers of the law! for you have taken away the key of knowledge: you did not go in yourselves, and you got in the way of those who were going in.

⁵³And when he had come out of that place, the scribes and the Pharisees came round him angrily, questioning him about more things;

⁵⁴And watching him, for a chance to get something from his words which might be used against him.

Luke 12

¹At that time, when thousands of the people had come together, in such numbers that they were crushing one another, he said first to his disciples, Have nothing to do with the leaven of the Pharisees, which is deceit.

²But nothing is covered up, which will not come to light, or secret, which will not be made clear.

³So, whatever you have said in the dark, will come to men's hearing in the light, and what you have said secretly inside the house, will be made public from the house-tops.

⁴And I say to you, my friends, Have no fear of those who may put the body to death, and are able to do no more than that.

⁵But I will make clear to you of whom you are to be in fear: of him who after death has power to send you to hell; yes, truly I say, Have fear of him.

⁶Are not five sparrows given in exchange for two farthings? and God has every one of them in mind.

⁷But even the hairs of your head are numbered. Have no fear: you are of more value than a flock of sparrows.

⁸And I say to you that to everyone who gives witness to me before men, the Son of man will give witness before the angels of God.

⁹But if anyone says before men that he has no knowledge of me, I will say that I have no knowledge of him before the angels of God.

¹⁰And if anyone says a word against the Son of man, he will have forgiveness: but for him who says evil words against the Holy Spirit, there will be no forgiveness.

¹¹And when they take you before the Synagogues and the authorities and the rulers, take no thought about what answers you will give, or what you will say:

¹²For the Holy Spirit will make clear to you in that very hour what to say.

¹³And one of the people said to him, Master, give an order to my brother to make division of the heritage with me.

¹⁴But he said, Man, who made me a judge or a maker of decisions for you?

¹⁵And he said to them, Take care to keep yourselves free from the desire for property; for a man's life is not made up of the number of things which he has.

¹⁶And he said to them, in a story, The land of a certain man of great wealth was very fertile:

¹⁷And he said to himself, What is to be done? for I have no place in which to put all my fruit.

¹⁸And he said, This I will do: I will take down my store-houses and make greater ones, and there I will put all my grain and my goods.

¹⁹And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have a great amount of goods in store, enough for a number of years; be at rest, take food and wine and be happy.

²⁰But God said to him, You foolish one, tonight I will take your soul from you, and who then will be the owner of all the things which you have got together?

²¹So that is what comes to the man who gets wealth for himself, and has not wealth in the eyes of God.

²²And he said to his disciples, For this reason I say to you, Take no thought for your life, about what food you will take, or for your body, how it may be clothed.

²³Is not life more than food, and the body than its clothing?

²⁴Give thought to the ravens; they do not put seeds into the earth, or get together grain; they have no store-houses or buildings; and God gives them their food: of how much greater value are you than the birds!

²⁵And which of you by taking thought is able to make himself any taller?

²⁶If, then, you are not able to do even that which is least, why are you troubled about the rest?

²⁷Give thought to the flowers: they do no work, they make no thread; and still I say to you, Even Solomon, in all his glory, was not clothed like one of these.

²⁸But if God gives such clothing to the grass in the field, which today is living, and tomorrow will be burned in the oven, how much more will he give clothing to you, O men of little faith?

²⁹And do not give overmuch thought to your food and drink, and let not your mind be full of doubts.

³⁰For the nations of the world go in search of all these things: but your Father has knowledge that you have need of them.

³¹But let your chief care be for his kingdom, and these other things will be given to you in addition.

³²Have no fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

³³Give what property you have in exchange for money, and give the money to the poor; make for yourselves money-bags which will not get old, wealth stored up in heaven which will be yours for ever, where thieves will not come nor worms put it to destruction.

³⁴For where your wealth is, there will your heart be.

³⁵Be ready, dressed as for a journey, with your lights burning.

³⁶And be like men who are looking for their lord, when he comes back from the bride-feast; so that when he comes to the door, it will be open to him quickly.

³⁷Happy are those servants who are watching when the lord comes; truly I say to you, he will make himself their servant and, placing them at the table, he will come out and give them food.

³⁸And if he comes in the second division of the night or in the third, and they are watching for him, happy are those servants.

³⁹But be certain of this, that if the master of the house had had knowledge of the time when the thief was coming, he would have been watching, and would not have let his house be broken into.

⁴⁰So be ready: for the Son of man is coming at a time when you are not looking for him.

⁴¹And Peter said to him, Lord, are these words said to us only, or to all men?

⁴²And the Lord said, Who then is the wise and responsible servant whom his lord will put in control of his family, to give them their food at the right time?

⁴³Happy is that servant who, when his lord comes, is doing so.

⁴⁴Truly I say to you, he will put him in control of all his goods.

⁴⁵But if that servant says to himself, My lord is a long time coming; and goes about giving blows to the men-servants and the women-servants, feasting and taking overmuch wine;

⁴⁶The lord of that servant will come at a time when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not ready for him, and he will have him cut in two and will give him his part in the fate of those who have no faith;

⁴⁷And the servant who had knowledge of his lord's desires and was not ready for him and did not do as he was ordered, will be given a great number of blows;

⁴⁸But he who, without knowledge, did things for which punishment is given, will get only a small number of blows. The man to whom much is given, will have to give much; if much is given into his care, of him more will be requested.

⁴⁹I came to send a fire on the earth, and it may even now have been lighted.

⁵⁰But there is a baptism which I have to undergo; and how am I kept back till it is complete!

⁵¹Is it your opinion that I have come to give peace on earth? I say to you, No, but division:

⁵²For from this time, a family of five in one house will be on opposite sides, three against two and two against three.

⁵³They will be at war, the father against his son, and the son against his father; mother against daughter, and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.

⁵⁴Then he said to the people, When you see a cloud coming up in the west, straight away you say, There will be rain; and so it is.

⁵⁵And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, There will be heat; and so it is.

⁵⁶O false ones! the face of the earth and the heaven is clear to you; how is it that the signs of these times are not as clear to you?

⁵⁷And why are you, in your hearts, unable to be judges of what is right?

⁵⁸For if anyone has a cause at law against you, and you are going with him before the ruler, make an attempt, on the way, to come to an agreement with him, for if you do not, he may take you before the judge and the judge will give you up to the police, and they will put you in prison.

⁵⁹I say to you, You will not come out of it till you have made payment to the very last farthing.