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¹³ Hear, you who are far away, what I have done;
   and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are afraid;
   trembling has seized the godless:
‘Who among us can live with the devouring fire?
   Who among us can live with everlasting flames?’
¹⁵ Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly,
   who despise the gain of oppression,
who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it,
   who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed
   and shut their eyes from looking on evil,
¹⁶ they will live on the heights;
   their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks;
   their food will be supplied, their water assured.

The Land of the Majestic King

¹⁷ Your eyes will see the king in his beauty;
   they will behold a land that stretches far away.
¹⁸ Your mind will muse on the terror:
   ‘Where is the one who counted?
   Where is the one who weighed the tribute?
   Where is the one who counted the towers?’
¹⁹ No longer will you see the insolent people,
   the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,
   stammering in a language that you cannot understand.
²⁰ Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals!
   Your eyes will see Jerusalem,
   a quiet habitation, an immovable tent,
whose stakes will never be pulled up,
   and none of whose ropes will be broken.
²¹ But there the Lord in majesty will be for us
   a place of broad rivers and streams,
where no galley with oars can go,
   nor stately ship can pass.
²² For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our ruler,
   the Lord is our king; he will save us.

Jesus and John the Baptist

22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. ²³John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized— ²⁴John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.

25 Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew.^{* 26}They came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.’ ²⁷John answered, ‘No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, “I am not the Messiah,^* but I have been sent ahead of him.” ²⁹He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.’^*

The One Who Comes from Heaven

31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. ³²He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. ³³Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified^* this, that God is true. ³⁴He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. ³⁵The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. ³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.