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2For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves,
‘Short and sorrowful is our life,
and there is no remedy when a life comes to its end,
and no one has been known to return from Hades.
¹² ‘Let us lie in wait for the righteous man,
because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;
he reproaches us for sins against the law,
and accuses us of sins against our training.
¹³ He professes to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a child^* of the Lord.
¹⁴ He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
¹⁵ the very sight of him is a burden to us,
because his manner of life is unlike that of others,
and his ways are strange.
¹⁶ We are considered by him as something base,
and he avoids our ways as unclean;
he calls the last end of the righteous happy,
and boasts that God is his father.
¹⁷ Let us see if his words are true,
and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;
¹⁸ for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him,
and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.
¹⁹ Let us test him with insult and torture,
so that we may find out how gentle he is,
and make trial of his forbearance.
²⁰ Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected.’

Error of the Wicked

²¹ Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray,
for their wickedness blinded them,
²² and they did not know the secret purposes of God,
nor hoped for the wages of holiness,
nor discerned the prize for blameless souls;

Psalm 34

Praise for Deliverance from Trouble

Of David, when he feigned madness before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.
¹ I will bless the Lord at all times;
   his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
¹⁷ When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears,
   and rescues them from all their troubles.
¹⁸ The Lord is near to the broken-hearted,
   and saves the crushed in spirit.

¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
   but the Lord rescues them from them all.
²⁰ He keeps all their bones;
   not one of them will be broken.
²¹ Evil brings death to the wicked,
   and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
²² The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
   none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

The Unbelief of Jesus’ Brothers

7After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish^* to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. ²Now the Jewish festival of Booths^* was near.

Jesus at the Festival of Booths

10 But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were^* in secret.

Is This the Christ?

25 Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? ²⁶And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah?^{* 27}Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiah^* comes, no one will know where he is from.’ ²⁸Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, ‘You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. ²⁹I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.’ ³⁰Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.