This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged in marriage to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.

All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place from which the streams come, there again they flow.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”

Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you. He feeds on grass like an ox. See the strength of his loins and the power in the muscles of his belly. His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are tubes of bronze; his limbs are rods of iron.

“Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he beg you for mercy or speak to you softly? Will he make a covenant with you to take him as a slave for life? Can you pet him like a bird or put him on a leash for your maidens? . . .

For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects the true man.

Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided, and his brother was named Joktan.

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him.

If the clouds are full, they will pour out rain upon the earth; whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.

Now if you make an altar of stones for Me, you must not build it with stones shaped by tools; for if you use a chisel on it, you will defile it.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to distinguish between the day and the night, and let them be signs to mark the seasons and days and years.

Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided, and his brother was named Joktan.

He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or purchased with his money—every male among the members of Abraham’s household—and he circumcised them, just as God had told him.

I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.

Ishmael’s descendants settled from Havilah to Shur, which is near the border of Egypt as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers.

This is the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Listen, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the LORD has spoken: “I have raised children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know; My people do not understand.” Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children of depravity! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him. Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted. . . .

He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing.

Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you. He feeds on grass like an ox.

Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Everyone who is native-born shall prepare these things in this way when he presents an offering made by fire as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning? I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest. Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In You our fathers trusted; they trusted and You delivered them. They cried out to You and were set free; they trusted in You and were not disappointed. . . .

You divided the sea by Your strength; You smashed the heads of the dragons of the sea;

You will tread on the lion and cobra; you will trample the young lion and serpent.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?” He did not refuse to confess, but openly declared, “I am not the Christ.” “Then who are you?” they inquired. “Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet: “I am a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” . . .

“Then who are you?” they inquired. “Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”

asked him, “Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.”

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day.